UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[Theobetley]

Ok got my ER today and it was cold as ice (here in Plymouth, Mi) and set it to internal clock and worked perfectly. After 15 minutes it was warm to hot and sounded magnificent. Bass, midrange were exemplary and highs on the flutes in Taj Mahal’s African Herbman knocked me on my a##. This after 15 minutes! The sense of real music playing in real space was palpable. Guess i’ll be up late tonight. Oh I also played a rock piece that is terribly poorly recorded and the effects of the ER was to make it more listenable. Indeed a smashing success for Superdad and John Swenson.

 

Uh oh  as I was typing this it started stuttering and would not play. I restarted HQP and the ER and it’s ok now. Cautiously happy 

[Theobetley]

26 minutes ago, Iving said:

Going back to listen after 24 hours cooking overnight, the first thing I noticed was a silkiness - then astonishing detail.

 

Something was not quite right - and I found that I had to re-"trial-and-error" my shunts to balance the sound again. What I am saying (in line with recent posts) is that the EtherREGEN seems to change the audiophile rulebook somewhat. I wouldn't have expected to have had to change shunts in my system accompanying inclusion of the ER.

 

Another unexpected finding: I think, but am not sure yet, that whereas, prior to ER, inclusion of a Cisco switch between my PC and RedNet D16 AES improved SQ, and I assumed that it would remain - as in PC > Cisco > ER > D16 AES > DAC, today I think I prefer SQ without the Cisco. The ER seems encumbered by it. It's as if the ER is unleashed when the Cisco is removed: PC > ER > D16 AES > DAC.

 

Confounded with trying out such permutations is cable use. I can't reconfigure my shielded AQs willy nilly. I am no longer convinced (as I assumed I would be) that these are better than "cheapos" and need to do more listening to be sure. Another rulebook question mark.

 

Another "anomaly" - I need less (pre-amp) volume to listen with satisfaction - but the system will sound correct at much higher (pre-amp) volumes than before.

 

I can imagine that "upstream factors matter less and downstream more" - and that our spending decisions will be affected accordingly. Another rulebook vagary. (omg did I find myself thinking about "hearing" my power amps)

 

I am listening to PC > ER > D16 AES > DAC now and the SQ is phenomenal. Deep, open, clean, detailed. I was impressed immediately as I posted yesterday. Today better. When I have finished trying things out, and the ER is more or less fully roasted, I'm sure I shall be very happy and just want to listen to music a great deal more.

 

This is one hell of an audiophile bang-for-buck. Am I the first to be brave enough to suggest that the EtherREGEN is significantly under-priced? (Easy for me to say being a first batch beneficiary 🙂)

What do you mean by your shunts? Btw nice review.

[Theobetley]

47 minutes ago, _JL_ said:

Received my ERs today and spent the day setting it up and did some evaluations. If you just want the conclusion then: don't walk, run to buy one for your system!

 

Okay, now all the details. First my setup (see my system for the audio/video config).

 

Network Setup:

(a) ISP Router (Huawei) > GBE > Netgear R7000 (router mode, DHCP server) > Long and lousy GBE cable > ER > Streacom Win10 PC w/ Roon > USB ...

(b) NUC ROCK also connects to Netgear R7000 via GBE

(c) UTP cables are mostly Bluejeans CAT-6 plus a few others

 

Power Setup:

(a) Netgear R7000 and NUC ROCK on Teradak LPS

(b) Roon PC on Teradak ATX LPS

(c) EtherRegen on UltraCap LPS1.2 on Teradak LPS, EtherRegen grounded to mains Earth ground via ext clock BNC shell.

 

First Impressions:

The ER replaced the common Cisco switch which the latter was modded to be powered by the UC LPS1.2.

First impressions are:

(a) Cleaner across the board with better sense of the ambiance cues. This results in deeper soundstage where instruments previously buried in the background can now be more easily heard. I kept hearing new things in familiar tracks.

(b) The ER gets rid of some slight digital artifacts which are most prominent in the treble range, such as female vocal and violin.

(c) The sound is much more organic and sounds very much like good vinyl - it's not just smooth sounding mind you, as too smooth could loose resolutions. Here with the ER resolution jumps upward a few notch and at the same time sounded natural and inviting. I kept raising the vol of the amplifier as I can now listen much louder without stress. The sound just blossoms and you keep wanting more of it.

 

Now this is clearly just first impressions as there was not run-in time at all but I am one happy camper already.

 

Cascaded EtherRegen:

Okay I bought two ERs as there were reports using other audiophile switches that cascading them further improves the sound. I tested that by installing the second ER upstream between the Netgear R7000 and the long and lousy GBE cable connecting to the downstream ER. I also moved the NUC ROCK to the upstream ER for obvious reasons.

 

Initially it didn't work - because the upstream ER's B side is 100Mbps only but in the downstream ER I connected the upstream link to a copper module plugged into the SFP port which is 1Gbps only. Switching the link to the downstream ER to another A port solved the problem.

 

Now what about the sound? Well, surprisingly it is not positive. In comparing to a single ER the cascaded setup sounded too smooth which rounded attacks and seemingly lowered resolution. I quickly reverted back to the single ER configure and more surprisingly it did not fully restore the sound - halfway maybe but definitely not as good as before.

 

Then I realized the ER's uplink was connecting to a normal A port so I swapped that back to the copper-module SFP port and voila the good sound is back! What this means is that the normal A ports sound different from the SFP port - the latter sounded better in fact! How this is possible is beyond me but that's what I heard. This also implies that the cascaded ER setup was perhaps handicapped by its inability to use the SFP port.

 

I originally installed a copper GBE module to the SFP port only because I needed the extra port. It is a pleasant surprise that using it as the uplink (to the ROCK/Qobuz) sounds even better. In case anyone wonder the module was from fs.com: Cisco GLC-T Compatible 1000BASE-T SFP Copper RJ-45 100m Transceiver Module #11773.

 

An Extra Surprise:

If you're still reading then I have another pleasant surprise for you. I have a home theater where I use the Apple TV 4K for Netflix. Naturally I connected the ATV-4K to the ER and when I fired up the projector I was stunned by the improvement in picture quality! The picture appeared to be more solid and the black is much deeper.

 

This really blew me away and frankly the ER is worth it for the improvement in picture quality alone. The sound was also improved, not as significant as in the 2-Ch setup but still clearly discernible. If you have a video streamer then the ER is a must try!

 

Future Work:

I now put the second ER in a branch network connecting PCs, NAS, etc., for run-in. I'll likely be getting a second copper GBE SFP for it and possibly give the cascaded ER setup another go. I also have a newclassd NS2 10Mhz clock to experiment with so plenty to try.

 

That's it for now. Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

Great review. I am curious about your use of the sfp port. I have TP link 100cm transceivers/cable. Will that cable fit the sfp port or do I need a device/adapter to convert to a compatible port?

[Theobetley]

On 11/18/2019 at 7:56 AM, emailists said:

When I popped the ER into my system, (hooked up directly to Mac’s second Ethernet port) I had a Baaske passive medical Ethernet isolator as the last thing plugged in before my ps audio DS/bridge2.  I didn’t want to change more than 1 item at a time, so I left the Baaske in.

 

I posted several very positive impressions.  

 

With the ER fully broken in I decided to remove the Baaske, and was shocked what I heard (and confirmed by putting it back in the system)

 

The Baaske was throwing a blanket over the sound.  Without it, much more alive.  When I first got it I originally felt it made the sound smoother.

 

The level of sound quality I am now achieving (especially with WAV and DSD) Is just insane.  

 

With the Baaske now banished, I will now have to pull the ER out of the system to once again get a handle on what it’s doing.  

 

There were some aspects over the years of owning my TAD speakers that could be annoying.  I now realize that it had nothing to do with any shortcomings with the speaker, and everything to do with the signal it is being fed.

 

I used to think the concentric design yielded a sound that could be more “stuck” to the speakers, than on other designs.  I used to think Beryllium could sound brittle at times. 

 

All of this is false.  Between the latest Wisdom OS of my Directstream DAC and the EtherRegen, (along with converting flac to WAV)  the level of reproduction I’m getting is just shocking.  In some ways I’m now thinking it can be better than the live event.  I hear live acoustic music often.  recorded sound’s  production elements and close micing might possibly be providing more than one could hear  in the room the music was being made (an example of which being added reverb) 

 

There is a new sweetness and freedom from the speaker box, height information, depth, bandwidth of instruments, acoustic envelope and impulse response being presented that surpasses any expectation I had about what home music systems could reproduce.  I’m also feeling like the intact phase information presented by a coincident driver now fully shines.  

While I have a completely different system I agree on your description of the sonics of the ER. Astonished is the operative word. Another operative word is air. There is air around everything. I received my device Friday and now have about 30 hours on it and it keeps getting better, what really pops out for me is the clarity of background percussive sounds in many albums. And yes it is astonishing.

[Theobetley]

All the positives that have been said about the ER sonics I absolutely agree with: air, soundspace, timbre, dynamics, etc etc. However what is not mentioned is ictus. Ictus often used by Axcell in Audio Critic is about the leading edge of beats or phrasing in the music. One can hear it plainly on percussion music. But it is experienced on all music especially on percussion, vocal consonants. Its one of the things that makes following the beat or understanding the words so easy. The ER unveils this phenomena brilliantly. Thanks again John and Superdad.