Question Isotek Aquarius ??

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I'm thinking of going for one of these when a good used one comes along having seen it at the Bristol show yesterday. I know it's been about for a while but was impressed with sq improvements in the test (I've copied the description of it below from another post). Just wondered if anyone has tried one (or similar) and what the change was with your kit. The test yesterday was good but I only ask others as you only really know once you get it home on your kit where you are used to how much difference (or not) it makes, knowing own hi fi. (I realise I have to demo one first before I buy but am just trying to canvass opinions).


"In the test they were using Swedish Larsen 6.2 speakers with an exposure CD player and exposure intergrated. To give an idea of value for the test, I checked out the Larsen speakers afterwards which are £2k a pair and the exposure amp and CD player were no more than a few thousand each i think. He first started with an IKEA / b and q power block playing a female vocal track for a minute, then plugged in the basic isotek Polaris, £300 I think, and played the same track. It was immediately obvious there was more spaciousness to the sound and a bigger soundstage and this was the main change. Changing to the £1400 Aquarius it sounded like a better amp with more speed of attack and rhythm, more akin to adding a better power supply. Someone commented naim had recommended not using isotek with their amps (but just adding their naim power supplies, kaching...) until a group of naim people had got together and the consensus was some isotek kit does improve sq on top of perhaps adding naim power supplies. "
 
You had to be there to hear it made a big difference. I agree with you about inners and sent the same pic to a electrical engineer friend recently. But what I don't think people understand is that these firms have a small market, have to sell to relatively few and have to market these audiophile products which no doubt costs.

But I totally get it and agree with you when you see the insides, that it might appear on the face of it there is little inside.

I'd be interested to know what each thing does. The bit towards the front is an isolation switch like in your house fuse box.
 
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I know of two people that use them. Both of them were sent out a demo unit with no obligation to buy, which is really the only way to properly assess this sort of product.

A lot depends on how much noise is in your supply, and the quality of your system. I'd say if the system is in advance of 10k they are certainly worth a listen.

I was skeptical when I first tried the Orion a good while ago, not being aware of the issues I had in my supply or the potential improvements a well designed conditioner could offer.

There are many people who will say they make no difference or even worse suck dynamics from your amp. Only way to say for sure Simon is arrange a demo.
 
I know of two people that use them. Both of them were sent out a demo unit with no obligation to buy, which is really the only way to properly assess this sort of product.

A lot depends on how much noise is in your supply, and the quality of your system. I'd say if the system is in advance of 10k they are certainly worth a listen.

I was skeptical when I first tried the Orion a good while ago, not being aware of the issues I had in my supply or the potential improvements a well designed conditioner could offer.

There are many people who will say they make no difference or even worse suck dynamics from your amp. Only way to say for sure Simon is arrange a demo.


I suspect I have lots of noise as I live in a flat but I agree you've got to listen in home environment always. Was impressed from the demo and doubt the demo set up they had is as good as mine.
 
I've just ordered the Aquarius for my system. I was fairly sceptical at first but the demo was good and the more I read the more I was thinking it might be worth a shot. Also I live in a flat so potentially amongst the worse situation for picking up interference.

I'll report back in a few days once I've tested it and have an experience on how much difference it makes.
 
Out of interest what kit will you be using it with. Very interested to hear how it sounds when you get it. Thanks for your post.
 
Yeah sorry - haven't done the whole kit in signature thing yet.

Oppo BD-105D for discs and streaming.
Roksan K3 Integrated amp for stereo audio
SalkSound Supercharged Song Tower speakers
Marantz SR7010 AVR
B&W 685 S1 as rear surrounds with the corresponding B&W center - can't recall the model

I've been upgrading the music capabilities over the last year and just took delivery of the Salks (which I'm pretty chuffed with).

But that's what has me worried about poor mains meaning I'm not getting the most out of it - hence the Aquarius.

I'll try to report back over the weekend with first impressions.
 
I suppose if you haven't trialed the difference you can't make judgements as to how good it can be. A fairly obvious point. My question is really about if anyone has trialled it on their system, because differences are more marked (if the power conditioner is good) when comparisons are made with own kit and at home. My trial was at a show in a small hotel room with kit I dont know.

The kit in the Aquarius may be dirt cheap but you are speculating there. Someone has had to design a circuit board, the order of items on it, their tolerances and quality, what each will do in terms of interactions, sound test it with lots of kit, get a manufacturer to make a case, do marketing, go to shows, have a production facility to assemble it, pay staff, buy and maintain vehicles, pay premises rates. And to top this all off, sell to a relatively tiny market in audiophile circles. It's hardly surprising from a study of economics perspective, that the item is going to be expensive even for what it is. Make them in volumes like Sony do and probably max £200.

Your comments about fitting the item into existing units is also speculation and pre supposes a lot of things too, like space in units, possible affect on sound quality of these power conditioners with a amp circuit, also local quality of power supplies. Whatever some of those components are they wouldn't fit into my pre amp box - there is no space.

I know people who live in areas where the supply is bad and they have found much more benefit in using regenerators than conditioners. It wasn't surprising at Bristol that the isotek did a good job with hi fi manufacturers in each room drawing current from the hotels supply.
 
Yeah sorry - haven't done the whole kit in signature thing yet.

Oppo BD-105D for discs and streaming.
Roksan K3 Integrated amp for stereo audio
SalkSound Supercharged Song Tower speakers
Marantz SR7010 AVR
B&W 685 S1 as rear surrounds with the corresponding B&W center - can't recall the model

I've been upgrading the music capabilities over the last year and just took delivery of the Salks (which I'm pretty chuffed with).

But that's what has me worried about poor mains meaning I'm not getting the most out of it - hence the Aquarius.

I'll try to report back over the weekend with first impressions.


Very nice amp and speakers. I wonder what differences you'd get over upgrading the roksan instead of buying an Aquarius to more match your speakers quality /price, but it looks like your preference, rather than just for 2 channel, is for multi channel and 2 channel. So an Aquarius a good thing to go for!
 
Thanks!

Yeah it's my living room setup and it's hybrid 2 channel music, multi-channel surround for movies/tv.

I've put the emphasis recently on the music as I use that far more than the surround sound. But I'm hoping the aquarius improves both the music and the AV performance.

I live in a flat in central London and am fairly convinced I have a problem with poor mains. Hear the occassional audible hum come and go when the system is on but nothing is playing.

What remains to be seen is whether/how much the Aquarius helps.

Look for the review on HifiPig as that was the one that convinced me to give the Aquarius a go.
 
Thanks, will check out the article. Well it was certainly like a new amp upgrade in the show system as I said, so I think it would do a lot more on mine.

Sometimes these reviewers don't say what the effect is on kit because they test it on stuff they don't know and they don't say if any improvement is on a level of new speaker cable, amp upgrade, source upgrade etc etc. Hearing people's experiences is sometimes much better therefore as they can make these comparisons and it's more meaningful.
 
The supply in the U.K. is good comparatively but it doesn't mean benefits cannot be achieved from these devices.

Cyrus have actually commented that aftermarket conditioners and regenerators can make differences to sound quality and indeed they have used conditioners with their kit at shows too.

You don't accept what I heard and it's worth?
 
I cannot debate what you heard but again I wouldn't pay much for it. Surely you can find something far more advanced and worth your money.

The first thing that appears on the isotek website is a cable "break in" device. Thats enough to discredit them to me.


I balance this with saying if you don't know what it sounds like, you can't make value judgements. If you don't see any value in it, like yourself, you don't go there.
 
Kc5819w replied by saying he has experience.

My point is experience is based on actual knowledge and ears not theory or pessimism. A friend of mine is an electrical engineer and he had doubts too.
 

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I posted this thread because I wanted to learn of people's experiences on their kit at home, which is a different kettle of fish to a show test, and that clearly is likely to happen here. This could or could support my decision to buy too, as it could with others. So I posted this thread for the potential benefit of others too.

There should be no issues with critising and scrutineeering people's posts.

Offering strong opinions a product has no value based on not hearing that product, is doing a disservice to firms like isotek who are going out of there way to employ people and be enterprising, demo the kit in shows, many such similar firms are supporting forums etc. What effect does your response have on their business and the industry and if people believe your views if you haven't heard the product to make a real judgement. I'd be horrified people were doing that if I owned a hi fi business in a difficult market at present particularly with European situation.
 
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Offering strong opinions a product has no value based on not hearing that product, is doing a disservice to firms like isotek who are going out of there way to employ people and be enterprising, demo the kit in shows, many such similar firms are supporting forums etc. What effect does your response have on their business and the industry and if people believe your views if you haven't heard the product to make a real judgement. I'd be horrified people were doing that if I owned a hi fi business in a difficult market at present particularly with European situation.


The Hifi industry has always been beset by companies that make over-priced products based on dubious psuedo- scientific claims designed to feed on Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt which in turn feeds into peoples expectation bias; if it is expensive and I have spent my hard-earned on it, then it must sound better. Trying to convince people that their product fixes problems that don't actually exist in the real world all in the pursuit of profit. Example = 1 metre of our ridiculously expensive Unobtanium mains cable is going to fix all of the electrical noise issues that exist in hundreds of miles of electricity supply cables and make your HiFi sound 'sweeter'. :facepalm::facepalm:

Off to paint some CDs with a green pen and immerse my SATA cables in cryogenically treated porridge. :clap::clap:
 
No pseudo science and certainly no expectation bias. All of the people in the test at the Bristol show were saying they heard a very good improvement in sound quality with the Aquarius.

The products will be relatively expensive if sold to a relatively small market, as a study of economics will show.

Have you ever heard an Aquarius with decent kit Larkone. If not how can you comment.
 
Not an Aquarius but other similar devices such as Belkins PF30 which had similar internals, RA Mains Purifier (eye wateringly expensive rubbish for a few capacitors) with my kit, which I consider decent?, and I don't own any of them because they didn't fix any problem the manufacturers purported that I should have with my mains.

I found the internal PSUs from the (decent?) audio kit manufacturers I have bought more than adequate. Probably useful for those that don't buy 'decent?' kit as they probably have inferior PSUs.

Struggling with your definition of what 'decent' kit is as that is a new term of audio excellence on me that seems to lack any metrics.
 
But isn't that the problem belkin is one device and the Aquarius is another.

They are aimed at totally different markets with what they profess to do. Isotek is developed for high end av systems.

You've also probably do not know of the circuit diagram of the Aquarius versus another unit (you wouldn't for reasons of copyright protection etc), the order of items on the circuit, the quality of all the items, the time taken to see whether one design over another produced better results in sound, ie design. Don't you think isotek would be doing this? Do you really think a firm gets a good reputation by just bolting items onto a circuit board without doing all this due diligence? Do you really think people just buy for bias? Is that really credible?

Isn't what you are saying like saying, oh I tried this amplifier and it was awful so I never bought another amplifier.

Nobody can make a comparison with your belkin and an Aquarius because they are different and you haven't tried an Aquarius too. Also it would be dubious if you'd get benefit not knowing what hifi you own, so if someone owns an inexpensive hi fi clearly an Aquarius won't make sense. It's like putting better springs on a robin reliant and expecting it to corner better.
 
Also have you considered the environment that you heard the test in that made a difference? I dont live in a hotel with industrial kitchens, fridges, extraction systems, huge aircon systems, massive heating systems, water circulation systems, signage systems, probably a leisure centre with suana and heated swimming pool, room fridges and TVs etc. etc. and not forgetting all of those SMPS that guests plug in etc etc. Must have been manna from heaven for Isotek having what would be a very noisy electrical supply that bears absolutely no relationship to a domestic setting.
 
Do you really think a firm gets a good reputation by just bolting items onto a circuit board without doing all this due diligence? Do you really think people just buy for bias? Is that really credible?

Lots of people buy expensive hifi and related equipment because it is expensive, not because it sounds the best for them. Remember Lexicon, who had a good rep, but then literally put an Oppo inside a fancy case and charged thousands for it? Or Audioquest, who got caught faking tests on their cables? Isotek sell products to people that consider £10k for a CD player reasonable value for money.

For every person on a specialist AV site that calls BS on pseudo science products there's dozens more that believe the word of a dealer or website who sells those products. The trouble with the Bristol demo is you don't know what the "baseline" power strip was like - was it deliberately made poorly to prove a point? I'm not saying it was, but you have to be skeptical i think.

At the end of the day, it's your money, you can spend it how you like. If you think it sounds good and it worth the money, that's all that matters. When qualified engineers call BS on products I tend to listen to them.
 
The trouble with the Bristol demo is you don't know what the "baseline" power strip was like - was it deliberately made poorly to prove a point? I'm not saying it was, but you have to be skeptical i think.

Did that baseline power strip have someones known to be noisy phone charger plugged in for example. A single 3w LED bulb in my house had a rogue power supply that was bad enough to cause my internet connection to drop sync everytime it powered on.
 
Also have you considered the environment that you heard the test in that made a difference? I dont live in a hotel with industrial kitchens, fridges, extraction systems, huge aircon systems, massive heating systems, water circulation systems, signage systems, probably a leisure centre with suana and heated swimming pool, room fridges and TVs etc. etc. and not forgetting all of those SMPS that guests plug in etc etc. Must have been manna from heaven for Isotek having what would be a very noisy electrical supply that bears absolutely no relationship to a domestic setting.


Yes I had considered that as I said in my above post "It wasn't surprising at Bristol that the isotek did a good job with hi fi manufacturers in each room drawing current from the hotels supply."

Camelot1971 your suggestion people buy hi fi because it's expensive for the sake of it, is just not real world and lacks any credibility. Are you saying someone who owns a £5k hi fi is doing it for expense as opposed to buying a £1k one. Or the same for £10k versus £5k etc. Clearly you can't make that argument. If i took your system and I said why did you spend all that money, my system is a fraction of the cost . You just don't win the argument.

Your point in another way is I think, expensive hifi isn't very good, or possibly hi fi more expensive then mine isn't better per see. I think this is what this comes down to. The baseline power stip is an IKEA bar. It's the same as you'd buy in b and q. You are making a circular conspiracy argument there. You are doubting the system so you are stating the bar is being rigged, then you say you have to have doubts, but based on what?. I don't believe the word of a dealer. Never have. I 100% make my own evaluations.

You are putting down hi fi for the sake of it. Anyone with that pessimist viewpoint regardless of their profession, be it scientists etc, can do it and they do. Something someone should just accept because they are in the 'know' but don't listen to products, have no experience of it. It's quite ridiculous really. Do you think a magazine test can happen without anyone listening to a product.

You also won't say what you own to be worthwhile, so others can't make their mind up if your view is balanced or not. People's jobs and the industry rely on properly formed views and not all this conjecture, pessimism. If anything the pseudo science Is imagining its of poor quality, with no knowledge or experience of it.

Another thing you might ask, if you won the lottery tonight and saw value in a expensive hi fi, a lot more expensive than yours. I suspect you might, being on this forum. Would you see value in the £1400 isotek. I suspect you'd all be running to the dealer to test one with better amps etc. Have you considered too that the people who make these products are engineers.
 
I don't have the Aquarius as yet but have had the same experience as you in regards to your demo at the bristol show, my local dealer had an open day last year with isotek and i took advantage of this by spending a couple of hours with the isotek reps and listening in depth to what there products had to offer.
I was sceptical at first as i listened to the first sound test which involved a set of proac D30R's and some musical fidelity equipment, to me it sounded great but then again i didn't really know what i was listening to, then the rep integrated the power leads and i heard a cleaner image, the vocals were better and the bass seemed tighter with deeper punchier low notes, then with the integration of the IsoTek EVO3 Aquarius Mains Conditioner things became more real, i could no longer hear any background noise which i was accustomed too, the bass was tighter and the mids had better separation, i am no reviewer, nor am i affiliated with any store, i just have 2 ears and an open mind.

What i heard in those 2 hours changed the way i regarded hi-fi and the components that make up a good system.

I cannot comment on how the sound would be reproduced in your home system but would recommend you ask your dealer to lend you an Aquarius and give it a week in your system and see how it fairs, i would be interested in your comments if you do purchase/borrow the conditioner.

all the best.
 

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