UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[FrankMA]

38 minutes ago, Bernstein said:

It sounds more clear, refined and relaxed/stable. More live without being nervous.

 

This really echoes what I am hearing in my system. More live and relaxed at the same time

 

If you are on the fence about the ER I'd run to the Uptone website......

[Jukka]

Sounds pretty amazing with this new firmware, much improved over the original one 😃

[Johnnydev]

This morning i recieved my ER   And after coming to room temperature i did the (easy) firmware upgrade.

Then i exchanged it with the cisco 2960 wich already gave an improvement and the reason was that i ordered the ER.
 

Maybe i’m one of the few or the first to use the ER in backwards mode. The B side is the input from my router and the A side is to my devialet phantoms golds L+R (All in one speakers) + devialet dialog. (see schedule)

 

I wil remove the devialet dialog after a devialet DOS2 software upgrade that i will do at a later time (when the ER is played in and DOS2 update is oke)

my first impressions:

After changing the cisco 2960 for the ER and nothing els changed ( wich i want to keep so until after 200 hours of playing) i had my doubts for the first 10 minutes.

After a few hours, no more doubts, the best and cheapest upgrade i ever had!  So that promised something for playing after 200 hours 😍

I will not repeat or quote what has been written here, but my first impressions after a few hours of playing: More music, more musical, more high-end (what ever that may be) and more emotion. Thanks to Alex and John!

John and Alex;

Would you please look at my connection diagram, at what i could do differently or better?

Perhaps there is also a market for the better all in one speaker for the ER

Removing and sell the Sboosters to the cable modem and netgear R7000 router, i want to try out (and perhaps sell) only after the 200 hours playing.

Sorry for my english but it’s not better. 

[jcn3]

2 hours ago, Johnnydev said:

This morning i recieved my ER   And after coming to room temperature i did the (easy) firmware upgrade.

Then i exchanged it with the cisco 2960 wich already gave an improvement and the reason was that i ordered the ER.
 

Maybe i’m one of the few or the first to use the ER in backwards mode. The B side is the input from my router and the A side is to my devialet phantoms golds L+R (All in one speakers) + devialet dialog. (see schedule)

 

I wil remove the devialet dialog after a devialet DOS2 software upgrade that i will do at a later time (when the ER is played in and DOS2 update is oke)

my first impressions:

After changing the cisco 2960 for the ER and nothing els changed ( wich i want to keep so until after 200 hours of playing) i had my doubts for the first 10 minutes.

After a few hours, no more doubts, the best and cheapest upgrade i ever had!  So that promised something for playing after 200 hours 😍

I will not repeat or quote what has been written here, but my first impressions after a few hours of playing: More music, more musical, more high-end (what ever that may be) and more emotion. Thanks to Alex and John!

John and Alex;

Would you please look at my connection diagram, at what i could do differently or better?

Perhaps there is also a market for the better all in one speaker for the ER

Removing and sell the Sboosters to the cable modem and netgear R7000 router, i want to try out (and perhaps sell) only after the 200 hours playing.

 

Sorry for my english but it’s not better. but it’s not better

 

 

I think for your situation, that's a very appropriate layout -- it isolates your "endpoints" from the rest of the network.

 

is there anyway to daisy chain the speakers?  if so, then i would think it might be best to daisy chain the phantoms on the B side and put the dialog on the A side.

[Johnnydev]

22 minutes ago, jcn3 said:

 

I think for your situation, that's a very appropriate layout -- it isolates your "endpoints" from the rest of the network.

 

is there anyway to daisy chain the speakers?  if so, then i would think it might be best to daisy chain the phantoms on the B side and put the dialog on the A side.

No, daisy chain is not possible and the devialet dialog will expire shortly after the DOS2 software update, wich in itself would give an improvement in SQ.

 

If i understood correctly is the ER 100% Backward usable, hence my choice to do it this way.

[jcn3]

Just now, Johnnydev said:

If i understood correctly is the ER 100% Backward usable, hence my choice to do it this way.

 

Yes, it is completely usable going from A to B or B to A.  Look forward to your review!

[k-man]

@Johnnydev Once you ditch the Dialog, I reckon another ER will serve you better. B side for each of the Phantoms. Otherwise, your orginal setup is a good compromise.

[Indydan]

I read the whole thread about the ER over at ASR. Wow, what a circle jerk of cranky people! Amir really has a high opinion of himself... A legend in his own mind. 

[andresz]

I think many of these people on ASR are best ignored. No point arguing with idiots who have a one sided perspective re science. I bet they would try and measure the porsche driving experience by the cylinders and horsepower.  We can't measure a lot of things as we dont have the tools to do so. They would probably try and measure the "emotion" of a song by the notes played. They have the wrong paradigm - which is that the measurements that can be made mechanically are a direct causality of the impact sound has on the ear/brain connection.  Many of them have tonka toy rigs.  They ignore evidence which is outside of their geek theories. If you cannot prove the connection between measurement of variables and the emotional impact of what the sound waves are doing then the whole premise is flawed. No matter how pseudoscientific their appeal to authority fallacies are.

 

For those true lovers of music - they know when the music connects with them and that does have variables such as removal of noise, isolation, metallurgy which does have traits - but the axiom of "there cant be more than we can measure" is a fallacy.  I find a lot of their tech assessments to be worthless - I have a high end rig and experiment constantly with a lot of gear and there are enormous differences. You can recognize very easily differences - not by measuring stuff but by your reaction to the music you are hearing. The balance in the ques which enable your brain to react a certain way is easily recognised. When people have very similar reactions, be that power cables, metallurgy, isolation, visceral etc.... that tells us something. Of course, there is a lot of science that these flat earth ASR guys dismiss as it does not fit their world view.

 

Anyway, back on track to say the Etherregen is the most impactful change I have had in my system since my Metrum Adagio DAC. The extra bonus is that the impact on picture quality on my large Home Theatre is worth it just for that. And the dolby immersion is up a significant level. Excellent equipment that is worth many times its price IMO. 

 

 

[austinpop]

ASR can blather to their hearts content, because what ultimately matters is this first sentence in Alex’s blog post:

 

Over 750 units ordered since mid-October.

[Superdad]

50 minutes ago, austinpop said:

ASR can blather to their hearts content, because what ultimately matters is this first sentence in Alex’s blog post:

Over 750 units ordered since mid-October.

 

I know what you mean, yet in fact what really means the most to John and I are all the insightful and appreciative posts here in this very thread. We worked hard on this product—based on John’s theories about how to block things which we clearly hear but have as yet only indirectly measured.

That the results have exceeded expectations—of ours and of the first recipients of the device—is quite gratifying.

 

As for the silly fast sales ramp:

That’s nice, but the truth is it creates stress for my small operation. I’d be just as happy with slower steady growth and to not have clients waiting over two months for their order to be filled.  I know we will get caught up at some point, but such high demand periods also make it hard to move forward much on the other exciting projects we have going (though my logistics logjam certainly does not slow down John on the engineering side of things).

I recognize that these are problems I should be glad to have.  I am indeed thankful. And grateful to all of you with such keen ears! 

[so-no-mah]

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that one should “cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously."”

 

Those of us in the Uptone Audio "family" are thankful for all the great products your intrepid venture has produced and shared.

 

And yes, the firmware update is for the better--more transparent, detailed and live-sounding still....

[FileMakerDev]

2 hours ago, so-no-mah said:

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that one should “cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously."”

 

Those of us in the Uptone Audio "family" are thankful for all the great products your intrepid venture has produced and shared.

 

And yes, the firmware update is for the better--more transparent, detailed and live-sounding still....

 

I agree whole-heartedly with all three of these statements.

[pl_svn]

9 hours ago, andresz said:

If you cannot prove the connection between measurement of variables and the emotional impact of what the sound waves are doing then the whole premise is flawed

 

👏 👏 👏

[BigAlMc]

Perhaps this is OT and I should start an ER Watching Impressions thread 😉 but what's the consensus on whether the ER is improving video streaming picture quality?

 

I tried it myself, halfheartedly, and swapped the LAN cable that goes into my Apple TV box into the B side of the ER. I thought I saw an improvement but the girlfriend and I were watching Amazon Prime and I didn't want to try her patience with lots of A-B-ing and whaddya-think-ing.

 

Might try to A B it this weekend.

 

Read a few positive comments but what's the consensus?

 

Cheers,

Alan

[m3lraaHnevetS]

Etherregen with 100+ hours on it, updated yesterday and now warm and stable again...I already was impressed by the ER from the first second I heard it but now there is no doubt anymore: this is by far the most effective 640 USD I ever spend on audio gear! I can now hear stuff that I did not know was in the recording like wall reflections from an instrument in the studio and all sorts of extra layers and echos in electronic music. very very impressive! Thanks Alex and John!

[FileMakerDev]

51 minutes ago, m3lraaHnevetS said:

I can now hear stuff that I did not know was in the recording like wall reflections from an instrument in the studio and all sorts of extra layers and echos in electronic music

 

Yes, that's been my experience as well (with many kinds of music). And even more so since the firmware upgrade. The high end, which was already gloriously open, has expanded, and I'm hearing all sorts of micro-details, most of which are pleasing, but also more "artifacts", e.g., tape hiss on analog-source recordings, mouth noises (and not just from singers -- last night I could hear a pianist breathing), ambient studio sounds, etc.

 

An example of something I never noticed (in 46 years of listening) until installing the ER... on the original Elton John "Candle In The Wind" at 0:21, a strange noise occurs in the pause immediately before "They crawled out of the woodwork..." -- I'm guessing it's a slightly-botched tape edit.

 

But of course, most of the additional details I'm hearing are musical and highly enjoyable. Put simply, my system is more revealing since I installed the ER. Music is more dynamic, alive, open and palpable.

[bos]

probably a silly question but here goes.

I have an Aqvox SE. Is the ETHERregen a replacement for this or can I use both ?

[nonesup]

My ER will arrive in mid-December.

I have a normal Aqvox (when I was going to upgrade to SE, Alex announced the ER project and stopped the Aqvox upgrade).

I plan to test both replacing Aqvox with ER, and leaving Aqvox between Router and ER.

I will comment on my impressions.

[Discopants]

Been lurking in the development thread and this one. The reviews are very positive, looking forward to try it but I have a technical question.

 

My system is very simple.

 

Bog standard router, through the wall power network to an industrial  cat5e surge protection transformer.  Then cisco 2960 8 port switch with built in smps. Switch connects to apple TV and lyngdorf TDAI3400. All cables chord C stream. My apple TV also HDMI connects through my amp and passes picture through to 15 year old Sony bravia TV.

 

Will I get benefit from Etherregen on both my sources? Spotify I think so but apple TV is passing audio by HDMI I think. Could this undo the benefits ?

 

Interested in opinions.

Congrats to all the happy Etherregen owners out there and to Alex and John Swenson.

 

 

[jos]

23 hours ago, bos said:

probably a silly question but here goes.

I have an Aqvox SE. Is the ETHERregen a replacement for this or can I use both ?

You can, but probably a waste of money. I would sell the ASE before the ER is well known.

[nonesup]

With what you are taking for granted, without doing a test, that ER is better than Aqvox SE.  I would never sell Aqvox SE, without trying first.
There are many good experiences here with ER, but others not so good.

[BigAlMc]

4 hours ago, nonesup said:

With what you are taking for granted, without doing a test, that ER is better than Aqvox SE.  I would never sell Aqvox SE, without trying first.
There are many good experiences here with ER, but others not so good.

 

I own both the Aqvox SE and the ER and there's no doubt the ER kicks the Aqvox butt in my mind. I heard a slight improvement with the Aqvox, I hear a big improvement with the ER. Its unmistakably a bigger impact.

 

What I don't know is whether its additive.

 

Prior to the EEE/firmware discovery the ER plugged into my Aqvox didn't work period. I haven't tried again post the EEE fix. Perhaps I should.

 

But common sense indicates if the ER is doing its job then the Aqvox is not needed. I anticipate selling my Aqvox. Even if I'm not exactly marketing it on this thread.

 

[BigAlMc]

On 11/29/2019 at 2:50 AM, RickyV said:

I do not know if it's been said before but are you powering both nuc's form the same SJ power supply, thus defeating the ER isolation?

 

Hi Ricky,

My response is 50/50:

Half, thanks for pointing that out as hadn't occurred to me even tho I'd read this previously.

Half, goddammit dude, do you have any idea what that's gonna do to my peace of mind! 🤨

Worst case scenario I have an LPS1.2 from some PSU manufacturer in California. Nice bunch. Can't recall their name 😉

But I spent a fair bit on the dual rail DC3 and only using half of it is also not an ideal scenario at all.

Guess I have some experimenting and listening to do this weekend.

Thanks,

(I think),

Alan

[stevebythebay]

One thing that I'm a bit uncertain about generally is the use of the term "burn in".  For the eR in particular I'm more inclined, due to the nature of the design, both in complexity and level/number of components on the board, to think that even after playing for an extended period (say a few hundred hours) that it's also about "settling in" thermally. 

 

Maybe Alex and John can comment on this and the likely changes that may or may not occur as we plug in the eR and get it "up to speed". 

 

It may well be that some of the units come to an optimal level of performance more quickly than others.  The variability of components can coalesce in different ways and differing degrees I'm guessing.  So, for some of us, it may simply take longer to hear our eR return to an optimal sonic state than others.

 

I just lent my eR to my local audio dealer for an evaluation on Wednesday.  Told them to plug it in and connect it and start running music through it, but not listening critically for at least 24 hours, and better 48.  I'll be curious to get their feedback when I return on Sunday to pick it up.