UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

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I have the ER up and running in my system.  First I must say that this this thing gets hot, so clearly it’s doing a great job cleaning my data that has mixed with the creepy guy next door downloading clown porn and instructions for home made mustard gas.  Whew!

 

I switched back and forth several times from the 30 foot cable that runs directly from the second Ethernet port of my Mac Pro trashcan to the short cable connected to the ER, and putting the 30 foot cable on the ER.  There was also a passive medical isolator in the system right before the Bridge card in my Directstream dac, which I will remove in the next round of tests.  

 

I liken the changes I heard from the newly plugged in ER to having the music flow through a much bigger pipe.  Instead of the musical signal being slightly homogenized , it now really has room to expand, flow, reach new crests and ebb to new lows. 

 

I never compared ethernet plugged in directly to my Mac, vs into a router, so I don’t know if my setup benefits from not having a router in the music’s signal path.  

 

Meaning the ER may have a bigger impact in your system than mine.

 

I also feel the improvement is one of those (sometime watershed moments) that your ear/brain must become familiar with to fully appreciate the benefits.  

 

I’ll post back tomorrow after the unit has has a day of warm up and steaming, though I can’t imagine it sounding better.  

 

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I’ve had the ER in the system for about 14 hours, but unfortunately Jriver crashed while I was gone so I’m not sure how much break in I accomplished.

 

Doing a very late night session where I couldn’t turn it up, a few of the things I noticed Were that bass seemed very distinct, as if one could hear each undulation in the deep notes of organs.  

Sense of depth and acoustic space each instrument occupies increased.

 

An orchestral track that previously sounded a bit harsh now sounded smoother while having more detail. 

 

Sense of intimacy of voice on Springsteen’s western stars also seems bettered as well as some instruments like guitars just seemed fuller, more fleshed out and just more real. 

 

I think the ER also reveals more of the recording and so Posibly any hardness baked into the recording may end up more apparent but I don’t have enough  experience listening to say for sure . 

 

I have a slight ground him issue in 1 preamp channel that I don’t typically notice much, and with the ER I feel like I notice it more , so perhaps the ER really is making the system quieter.

 

I told a pro audio guy about the ER and he mentioned he works with Dante networks.  If the bandwidth is adequate This could be a huge benefit for recording studios, live sound and even tv productions that utilize  Ethernet audio.  

 

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After having the ER in the system for a full day I had a chance to play one of my reference tracks, the Rachmaninov symphonic dances Turnabout/Apollo DVD ripped 96/24 wav.  

 

I found myself turning up the system louder than usual.  I normally tend to manage volume of playback of this track due to hardness or any  amusicality .   The horn blasts with ER in the system took on a whole different character.  Instead of hearing a steely brat of sonic chunk, what I was left with was the metallic bite of the horns.  They had a similar spectral footprint but without what I can best describe as a haze. 

 

Its as if the signal has gotten scrambled in transmission and the ER is suddenly decoding it correctly and the previous “hardness” now rendered with the composition and resonances of the actual instrument.  In a video world I’d liken it to viewing graphics on an HD lcd screen vs. the same graphics on a 4K tv.  It’s the same source material yet one monitor’s curves have ragged edges and the other one displays a much nicer smoother rending.  

 

The voilins on the track now sounded the most natural and here in the room as I've ever experienced. 

 

On Jen Chapin’s Stevie wonder cover,  Revisions, the fingering on the bass hitting the body and playing like a drum, revealed the whole of the instrument’s cavity  resonating.  Jen’s voice was just so natural on this well recorded cut that she’s just simply there. 

 

As I posted in another forum, “avoid this product at your own peril.”

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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.  

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While not the same, in my system, removing the passive isolator I was using in conjunction with the ER proved positive.

 

I think the next test would be to remove other isolators and optical conversions and just try the ER.  Get a feel for it’s particular benefit, then compare to Gigafoil, etc  on their own.

 

Then ultimately would be try both units together (which you’ve done)  And then switching their order.

 

In my case I drive the Ethernet with the second port on my Mac, so it’s not going through a switch.  

 

 

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Here’s an actual listening impression (not sure why people are posting shipping notices and FW questions here as opposed to other threads).

 

I finally moved my ER from my computer room (with a 30’ cable) to right next to my DS dac with a 3’ cable, which reversed the long and short cable positions.

 

Man am I glad I tried this!  Just as others have posted it’s a big leap in quality.

 

Incidentally, before I tried this, I wanted to hear the Dac connected directly to my mac’s second Ethernet port vs going through a standard router (Ethernet/WiFi).   Direct from the Mac sounded better, though I didn’t try to see if the ER made that preference go away.   So I would encourage anyone with the ability to bypass a switch altogether (other than the ER) to give it a try.

 

I’ll Now have to do some tests with and without the ER In position right near the DAC, but I imagine it will be a bigger improvement than being further away.

 

I also chose to run a long extension cable so the ER is not on the same AC line as the stereo/Niagara power conditioner, but I suppose that’s another test I’ll have to do.

 

Now I Can’t wait to try a premium Ethernet cable vs the the cat 6 coming out of the ER.  I can’t afford a high end 30’ cable.  

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Andres I will have to look into that cable, but unfortunately all my money is tied up in a comedy feature film I hoping to shoot this Spring.  I made an exception to purchase the ER because I sensed the modest additional cost  would allow the rest of my substantial investment to shine.  

 

 In case anyone is interested in the system I have the EtherRegen installed in, I just posted pics and a system description over at PS Audio's forum.

 

https://forum.psaudio.com/t/system-photos/8910/2381?u=emailists

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Quang I had the Baske filter in my system.  The ER is totally in another realm as far as Sonics.

 

When I first got the ER I left the passive isolator in the system for a few days.  Once i removed it there was a noticeable improvement (with ER staying in the system).

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On 10/2/2020 at 4:32 PM, Discopants said:

 

Update on this one. Today I was advised to stream qobuz from my Samsung smartphone via bubbleupnp app 

 

 

Have you tried Running Bubble on a real computer?  I found it sounds better on my Mac than Mconnect from my phone.  I also set Bubbleupnp to decode to WAV which sounds better than sending my Hegel flac.  

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I recently tried the EtherRegen in a second system that is much less elaborate than my main rig, which is TAD CR1/Atmosphere tube pre/BHK300/PS audio DS.  
 

The modest system I set up while away from home is a Hegel H190 and LSA 10 Statement speakers, plugged into an old Furman reference 15.  
 

I’m streaming Qobuz using Bubbleupnp on a MacBook Pro and setting Bubble to convert to WAV, which sounds better than flac.  
 

In my home system I found plugging the etherRegen into my Niagara 7000 power conditioner improved the sound, so i used the smaller system’s Furman to power the ER without doing any testing. 
 

Even in the much simpler system, the ER performs miracles.  I found the system to be a bit fatiguing to listen to, but with the ER what I’m hearing is a more natural reproduction of instruments, and what I like to call a “creamy” analog type sound.  
 

Two vastly different systems in two different states (one city and one suburban) show the same results; the EtherRegen is an essential part of a satisfying ethernet playback.  Looks like I’ll be bringing the unit back and forth, unless I end up trying 2 in series.