UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[alsterfan]

Yesterday I got my EtherRegen (thanks Martin!) and instantaneously put it in my chain, i.e. attached 2 Mac minis to ER´s A-side using 2 Blue Belden Cat 6a cables (1 Mm has an HDD hooked on with music stored on it, from the second Mm the music software is started). The B-side is connected with my La Rosita Pi Streamer.

From the very start (with the ER still being cold from the transport) more details could be heard mainly by emphasizing higher frequencies. This was ok but not too pleasant: Instruments lacked body, so the music sounded sort of "thin".

B u t  after 14 hours of burning-in things have extremely changed for the better.

In short:

- The higher frequencies are no longer over-represented.

- Instruments begin to develop their body.

- Different instruments can be separated from each other much more easily.

- The soundstage is easier to "grasp" (left-right, front-back).

- Dynamics are improving.

Last but not least:

Piano music, the presentation of which to me has always been a bit difficult, now is beginning to sound a lot more natural or live.

To sum up:

It has been a very good idea to give the ER a try. Even after such a short time of burning-in everything sounds so promising, that I am really curious what will happen in the days/weeks ahead (I know there are some users speaking about burn-in times of 200-300 hours).

 

Thanks a lot to Alex and John for their great creation!

 

Best wishes,

Uwe

 

P.S. As some have mentioned before, the ER quickly gets pretty hot, something I normally don´t fancy. However, Alex calmed me down writing he and John elaborately addressed this point with the result that we should not worry about the temperature, once we have provided sufficient room for the ER to dissipate heat.

[alsterfan]

4 hours ago, Jud said:

 

Yes, I think it's difficult to get piano just right, and I feel with the ER in my system it does sound right. (By which I mean it sounds like one would expect a piano to sound in the context of the recording. On very good recordings it can sound very close to "in the room." And I'm feeling that my recordings are generally sounding better, so I am experiencing this more often.)

That´s exactly what I wanted to say, Jud. I couldn´t have put it better than how you expressed it.

P.S. I forgot to mention that my ER gets its power from the 7.5V power supply that comes shipped with the ER.

[alsterfan]

6 hours ago, stevebythebay said:

@stevebythebay (more than burn-in actually thermally getting stable)

Did I get you right and is it common knowledge that apart from burn-in and its influence on SQ there is also an impact on thermal stability?

[alsterfan]

On 12/26/2019 at 3:07 PM, alsterfan said:

As burning-in of my ER has reached 130hrs, I will soon come back and tell what happened so far.

As a lot has already been said by users, who were quicker than me, about the merits of ER sonicwise I in short will concentrate on what has happened in my chain after 300 hrs of burning-in.

Apart from the music being tighter and more precise it is mainly the soundstage which is still developing with instruments more focused, presenting more details in a more natural way, which is highly enjoyable, as is the fact that I can follow more easily and much longer the tones fading away.

So far I have used a 5TB 3,5´´ Thunderbolt HDD as music storage which "sounded" better than a 2,5´´USB-attached HDD.

But with more "quietness between the notes" I had to put away the Thunderbolt HDD now being too noisy. I hope I can overcome the disadvantage (sonicwise) of the 2,5´´ HDD by using a USB Regen.

Though I have decided to no longer write down what changes my ears picked up, I am convinced the ER is still on its way to make for even more musicality.