EtherREGEN: The long development thread. [Some Gen2 dev. pics and update starting on page 92.]

[Mihaylov]

18 hours ago, Superdad said:

FedEx does not deliver to private parties in Russia, so those few units are going via Express Mail/EMS.

Thank you Alex for remembering this! 🙂

[Mihaylov]

On 5/2/2022 at 11:19 PM, JohnSwenson said:

What I found was very high correlation of 10Hz offset numbers to sound quality and almost no correlation of 1Hz offset.

Do you have any information about the correlation of Allan Deviation with sound quality?

[Mihaylov]

13 hours ago, JohnSwenson said:

So we wind up in a situation that the best phase noise winds up existing in devices that have been optimized for long term stability, thus cost significantly more than they should, but unless the manufacturers believe there is a significant market for this it won't happen.

Perhaps that is why, in order to minimize the price of the clock, it is worth focusing not on ready-made OCXO, but to order from the manufacturer OCXO with the necessary parameters - the minimum values of 10 Hz offset phase noise and the initial values of other parameters. I did just that by ordering from the manufacturer Morion MV197 with top values of phase noise which cost about $ 250 (a single product!).

 

[Mihaylov]

3 hours ago, R1200CL said:

Is it possible to mass produce a reasonable priced OCXO that fit our purposes ?

I believe that Morion is ready to do this and provide audiophiles around the world with such products. 

I will also pay attention to the fact that After Dark sells its top-end external clock for 3800 USD - this is essentially an OCXO and a chassis, with the same phase noise as my MV197.

[Mihaylov]

8 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Just based on email inquiries and forum interest, we do indeed expect that initial demand for EtherREGEN Gen2 will be "off the hook" as you say.  We certainly hope so since not only has John been working hard on it for nearly a year (with several major "horse changes" due to chip availability and capability), but I've already invested more than $90K in production parts purchases, and income during this past year--without much to sell beyond the venerable JS-2--was down 70% last year.

 

Even before we were forced to halt production of the first version EtherREGEN--due to major parts becoming unavailable--there was still consistent volume demand for the piece.  Throughout its 28 month, 3,200 unit run I do not think there was ever a time when we were flush with units. A few times production got slightly ahead of demand and we could keep stock and ship upon receipt of user orders, but that was the exception. That is also why I still have an e-mail box of about 30 unanswered overseas dealer inquiries to carry EtherREGEN. We simply were never able to handle the demand. 

 

As for the launch:

We never accept any orders or payments for products (new or back-ordered) until the circuit boards are in-process and we can quote clients an exact week for shipment. For new model launches we inform in advance (on public forum and to all on our e-mail list) of the upcoming “launch morning”--which is always a Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time—when the AddToCart button will appear on the product’s web page (a few weeks before that I’ll create a new page on our site for EtherREGEN Gen2). People around the world set their alarms for that day/time as historically we have had a stampede the moment we go live accepting orders.  The original EtherREGEN sold 250 units in the first 15 minutes, then another 175 over the course of that first day. Crazy!

 

The first production run for EtherREGEN Gen2 will be just 250 units since of the $90K in parts I have already procured, there are some items we have only enough for the first 250 at the moment (you can bet we are already pre-ordering more parts but the stakes of this give me a stomach ache and we can only extend so far until we are sure about progress). If we can line up parts for a larger run right at launch we will do so (for a handful of the most critical parts we already have enough for 500~1,200 units, but there are bunch of others where have just enough for 250). I will start looking again to check lead times.

 

In addition, prior to the above launch procedure we are going to give our few top dealers the opportunity to reserve some number of units from the first production run. I will limit the number that they can reserve, but that quantity is going to reduce the number of direct-to-user units for the launch.

So yes, a LOT of people are not going to be able to obtain an EtherREGEN Gen2 right at launch.  Perhaps as we get close (you'll know because we'll post photos and discuss a lot), some of you will make reservations with our dealers as a way to grab a first-batch unit. We don't mind and I am sure they would be pleased. 

 

Sure, if we had a staff of sales/marketing people we could set up some elaborate system to offer and accept non-binding reservations well in advance. I'm sure those would run into the hundreds of units.  But we stay small to keep prices low, and I'd rather focus on ramping up production quickly and also on the other new products we are working on.

 

EtherREGEN (original and Gen2) continues to be technically unlike ANY other "audiophile" Ethernet switch. To paraphrase the immortal words of President John F. Kennedy: "We choose to go to the Moon—and build EtherREGEN Gen2—in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." 

Thanks again for the patience and understanding.

Hi Alex! Could you predict the approximate cost of ER2 now?