UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[audiojerry]

As my moniker shows, I do no post very often (feeling a little guilty about that - I've mined so much useful information from this community). A couple of years ago I did post very positive results after installing Uptone's ISO REGEN and LPS-1 Power Supply in front of my PS Audio DirectStream Jr. DAC. 

 

I have since moved on to the PS Audio DirectStream Sr DAC, and found superior sound quality from the ethernet connection into the Bridge II over USB with the Ether Regen and LPS-1.  Other than some inconsistent connection issues with JRiver, I have been completely content with the SQ via ethernet.

 

But after reading reviews of the EtherREGEN here, I thought I might as well give it a try. What the heck, I had nothing to lose with Uptone's generous return policy. but I was sceptical that the Ether Regen could make much of an audible difference..

 

I WAS SO VERY WRONG!

 

I won't go into much detail about what the ER provided, but after breaking it in with music for 48 hours, everything got better, and it was instantly easy to notice. All the prior positive reviews describe quite nicely everythiing I was hearing. One of the things that amazed me was the way subtle details surfaced and were illuminated to my ears, and I would think, "Oh my, that is so sweet and organic". 

 

The ER is for real!

 

        

[audiojerry]

I've read several posts where a quite a few pieces of hardware are connected to the system between the music source and the DAC. Some are connected before the Ether Regen and some after the ER?  

 

It seems to me that the sonic benefits from the Ether Regen are derived from reducing the noise floor of incoming noise carried on the ethernet cable.  (I'm ignorant about what the clock does) Could adding more hardware with its accompanying electrical power supplies between the ER and the DAC introduce another source of contamination, thus defeating the benefits of the ER?.   

 

BTW, I should note that in addition to the amazing increase in SQ from the ER, I also heard an improvement from the ER when I replaced a generic ethernet cable on the 'B' side of the ER with a better quality ethernet cable (1 meter of Cable Matters SFTP Cat8 Ethernet Cable). Thanks to the Uptone community for that Amazon recommendation.

[audiojerry]

3 hours ago, nounours18200 said:

I live in France and cannot buy this cable from Amazon, not directly from Cablematters website.

Do you know another source that would ship to France ??

I've seen it on Ebay. Have you tried looking there?

[audiojerry]

2 hours ago, nounours18200 said:

I did look on eBay but, when it relates to cablematters,  I have only seen USB cables, not RJ45 cables.

Can you give me the eBay URL where you have seen it ??

try this - it's the URL for its ebay store. It has 6 pages of products: https://www.ebay.com/str/CableMatters?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

[audiojerry]

On 5/23/2021 at 9:47 PM, rsctyslkr said:

This could be the shortest review ever ... The EtherRegen improved every aspect of my digital playback system. I was willing to pay $2,500 for this improvement and the only "tweak" that rivals it is when I added a PS Audio P15 Powerplant that cost me $6,000.

 

For those who need more. I read the reviews, mostly extremely positive and adjusted my expectations down because, after all, I had already paid so much attention on my system. Well, I wish I had a photo from when I played the first song, strike that, the first note of the first song, a guitar strum with enhanced clarity, depth, texture and less glaze. One note was all it took. Since then, two weeks in, I have enjoyed becoming more intimately acquainted with my collection. It has improved micro and macro dynamics, sense of air, instrumental separation, soundstage width and depth. My first thought was ... hmmm cleaner sound, but also more texture. You cannot lose. 

Ditto for me. I've owned one for over a year. I too, added a PS Audio PowerPlant to my system. It resulted in a surprising and significant improvement, but no more so than the EtherRegen.

 

On a sidebar, I just dropped in on the Uptone forum to check on what's been going on (I don't participate very often), and I noticed lots of talk about adding an inexpensive clock to the ER for improved SQ. It seems like dedicated followers are doing everything possible to squeeze the last ounce of performance out ot the ER.  It made me aware that Superdad could take advantage of this obsessiveness by announcing a new extreme upgraded "super version" of the ER that would be little more than smoke and mirrors, but I haven't noticed anything like that from Superdad. So is this guy a "super version" of an ethical merchant?       

[audiojerry]

2 minutes ago, MartinT said:

I don't know why you say that, there are plenty of members who have added an external clock to the ER and heard the improvement, which is neither subtle nor unethical.

I don't think I impled either of those things.  I was just stating that the interest in finding improvements for the ER is extremely strong. I'm considering adding a clock as well, but I'm happy with the ER as-is, and I've been too lazy to put in the effort to do the research on this subject.  

[audiojerry]

7 hours ago, JohnSwenson said:

Most of the LT3045/LT3042s have 0.8 volts across them. The core voltages (1.1V) have 0.9V. This is a very careful engineering tradeoff, this was as high as I could go and live within the thermal constraints. I have to prevent the chips from getting too close to their upper die temperature (you never run right at it, you need a significant buffer there) AND I needed to cut down on the total power drawn, we had some hard limits as to total feed power to the sections of the board. The values chosen just meet the thermal constraints while giving quite good performance, I would not call what we achieved "bad", maybe not quite the best possible, but any real design is never about getting one parameter the best it is theoretically possible to get and letting others fall by the wayside. It is always a complex set of tradeoffs optimizing the best overall device within the constraints.

 

We could run the regulators with 3V across each one, but then it would be a much larger board and cost at least 3 times as much and draw 2.5 times the power. Because the board is bigger chips are further apart from each other which could actually wind up with worse electrical performance. I made the decision that this was NOT a good tradeoff.

 

John S.

"but then it would be a much larger board and cost at least 3 times as much"

Does this statement suggest that it might be possible to build a better ER on a larger board? I'd be interested in paying more for an upgraded ER 2.0. 

[audiojerry]

14 hours ago, watts said:

Okay, got about 200 hours on the etherregen now. Like many have claimed, a layer of grain has been removed.  I wouldn't characterize it as "huge", as far as upgrades and sound quality improvements go, as I have done quite a few lately, but the improvement is definitely there. (Perhaps my ethernet is not as dirty as others?)

 

A quick listen and I could see someone thinking it is like detail has been lost, but that was the glare and haze that was riding on top of the detail. But I didn't think there was any grain or glare in my system! Low level details are more easily identified, as the background seems a little blacker, and perhaps dynamics seem slightly increased as a result? Definitely smoother and more analog sounding. 

I Ditto your impressions. That's exactly what I neard, and I would characterize the improvement as significant and well worth the purchase. If you are looking to get the most from the music you love, I don't see how you can not get an ER, even if you already have done other things to improve SQ. 

 

I have come to realize power cleansing is a key issue, and it affects the performance of every component in a system. My recent addition of a PS Audio Stellar P3 has had a comparable effect on sound quality, but at a much higher price.