UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[FrankMA]

My Digital chain is below:

 

BEFORE: Netgear GS-308>Ghent JSSG360>Cisco WS-C2960>AQ Niagara 5000>Wireworld Starlight CAT8 >Innuos MKII SE>SOtM tX-USBultra>Uptone LPS 1.2>PSA DS Sr DAC

 

AFTER: Netgear GS-308>Ghent JSSG360>Uptone ER>AQ Niagara 5000>Ghent JSSG360>Innuos MKII SE>SOtM tX-USBultra>Uptone LPS 1.2>PSA DS Sr DAC

 

Had a slight issue where I was losing the Roon Core on the MKII.  Which caused me to swap out the Wireworld as I was chasing this down. I was seeing the Core it if I moved the ethernet to the A side which was odd. Just took a shutdown of the ER for 10 minutes to esolve. Alex was there with outstanding support. 

 

Did happen one other time and followed the same protocol to fix.

 

Cold out of the box I would say the improvement was in the lowered noise floor.  Instruments come out of a much blacker background. Excellent separation of instruments. Possibly a bit brighter but it’s early.

 

About 72 hours in towards burn in although the 1st few days were local files on the MKII so I’m not sure if that is actually burning in the ER at all. Started streaming Tidal and will continue that.

 

Unfortunately I have a few changes in my system (Wireworld to Ghent & PS Audio DAC Software upgrade to Windom) in addition to the ER making it a bit difficult to isolate the source of the changes but overall my system has never sounded better.

 

My plan is to listen more to get familiar with the overall sound and drop the Cisco back in at some point to see what I lose. Should make the changes clear.

[FrankMA]

Burn in at 48 hours via Tidal. Some listening impressions from this morning. Playlist:

 

1. Tom Petty - Damn The Torpedoes/Refugee [HD Tracks 24/96]
2. Radiohead - Amnesiac/Pyramid Song
3. Todd Rundgren - The Very Best Of Todd Rundgren/Hello It's Me

I listened to my local file and a Tidal stream back to back for each song. I was very surprised to find I now like the stream equally (in some cases the soundstage/separation of instruments was better). This had not been the case previously where I always preferred the local file to Tidal/Qobuz. Impressive

 

Listening to Massive Attack - Mezzanine/Dissolved Girl (local file) which has a very challenging bass/kick attack. This song can sound muddy/out of control in the bass registers but with the ER it sounded excellent. It now had a very tight grip on the bass. Powerful & clean.

 

Overall I'm very happy with what the ER is bringing to my system 😀

 

Note: I did experience 2 more lost Roon Core moments. Frustrating.  A quick disconnect/power off/on did not find it. Needed the ER down for 5 minutes before it came back.

 

I'm sure Alex/John will get to the bottom of this

 

Back to my Tidal burn in.....

[FrankMA]

Played music for about 40 minutes last night. Time is at a premium lately. Overall my system sounded great. However I did get to a few songs I know very well and they seemed to have attenuated highs. Presentation could be described as crisp/hot.

 

With all the lost connections I probably only have 72 hours of burn-in so far via Qobuz/Tidal. I'm kind of adverse to overly bright so hopefully this settles down

 

I'm really happy Alex/John have found the cause of the connectivity issues.

[FrankMA]

7 hours ago, kennyb123 said:

Have any of you done similar comparisons since receiving your EtherRegens?

 

Same here.  Previously I strongly preferred local files to Qobuz/Tidal.  Dead heat now

[FrankMA]

1 hour ago, jamesg11 said:

So this would be with the ‘same’ files on a local hd direct or thru say a rendu from such local hd ... cf to streaming sites? 

 

Correct - same file/version stored locally and from streaming services all via my streamer (Innuos MKII SE) 

[FrankMA]

Listened for about 3 hours last night (pre EEE fix). Had to reboot my entire network (from the cable modem) to get it working first.

 

Wa shocked at how good the below sounded streaming from Qobuz:

 

Rolling Stones   Midnight Rambler  Let It Bleed (50th Aniv Edition)

The Stooges      The Stooges          No Fun (50th Aniv Edition)

 

Phenomenal soundstage. Power. Detail. Felt like I was there live. Maybe these 2019 Remasters are special but these songs have never sounded this good on my system

 

 

[FrankMA]

38 minutes ago, Bernstein said:

It sounds more clear, refined and relaxed/stable. More live without being nervous.

 

This really echoes what I am hearing in my system. More live and relaxed at the same time

 

If you are on the fence about the ER I'd run to the Uptone website......

[FrankMA]

Was looking to try moving my music server (Innuos MKII SE) to the A side of the ER since it is of course a noisy computer at heart (although one very well executed) and wanted to move it pre moat. This did force me from USB to Ethernet. Ran this experiment last weekend:

 

Before: Network>Ghent JSSG360 Cat6a>ER (A Side)>Ghent JSSG360 Cat6a (ER B Side)>Innuos MKII SE>Lush II>tX-USBultra/Uptone LPS 1.2>Lush I>PS Audio DS Sr

 

After: Network>Ghent JSSG360 Cat6a>ER (A Side)>Ghent JSSG360 Cat6a (ER A Side)>Innuos MKII SE>Wireworld Starlight Cat8 (ER B Side)>PS Audio DS Sr (I did have to move the ER off it's normal isolation setup (Herbie's/weight) to do this)

 

Initial impressions were:

After: A little more polite, slightly better separation/soundstage. Softer

Before: Music had more weight, seemed more musical. Fuller

 

I need to run this experiment again with a new Ghent I have on order in place of the Wireworld so I don't have to move the ER and can go back & forth more easily.

 

I also have a Matrix X-SPDIF 2 via I2S I need to try at some point

 

Curious to hear feedback from anyone with a similar USB setup who has moved their server to the A side and changed to ethernet

 

 

[FrankMA]

Hi Kenny - there was a wide variety of opinions where to put the Lush II.  Some said best before txUSB. Where I landed but certainly one of 1000 variables

[FrankMA]

Congratulations on the Ridgeline Alex. Have a 2020 myself. Nice vehicle