UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[brightonjel]

Just to pile-on and add another view ... ER plugged in for two days to warm up.  Only listened via headphones so far, but my take was similar to that proffered by other posters.  Plucked instruments (e.g. bass, guitar, etc.) had better defined leading edges and the overall separation of each musical component was more distinct.  In addition (or perhaps because of), the musical drive each track exhibited was more evident.  Will look forward to hearing again via speakers over the weekend but am happy so far with the upgrade, even at this early stage.

 

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System summary: Mac mini running HQP and Roon with single Ethernet cable to ER (A-side with one other port connected to rest of home network). B-side to uRendu with LPS 1.2 and then USB to DAC.  Headphones are Sennheiser 650s into Musical Fidelity X3 with separate PSU.  Before/after comparison done against el cheapo D-Link network switch.

[brightonjel]

Well that was interesting.  Several days in now and was thinking that, in addition to the benefits I listed before about improved leading edge definition, etc., that there was an added high-frequency lift relative to a standard D-Link switch.  However, with a bit more experimentation then it turned out that I can now hear a very clear difference between using HQP from a Mac Mini vs. using Roon Server + HQP on the same box.  Using Roon to feed HQP vs. HQP on its own flattened out the soundstage depth and lost some timbral accuracy.  It delivered a more energetic presentation, but ultimately one that I judged to be too forward relative to HQP on its own.  Bummer.  Roon is a much better front end that the HQP client provides, and is far more intuitive to use.  Plus, it of course gives access to Tidal, radio stations, etc.  Guess I'll have to switch back and forth depending upon priorities, but the real insight here is that adding ER into the mix means anything upstream of the device is now laid bare!