UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[Ehsu]

Hey guys, has anyone experimented or noticed the effects of upstream equipments such as NAS with EtherRegen in the audio chain. The reason I ask is because my NAS has been at repair in last 3 weeks. I have only just got it back yesterday with the main board replaced. Now my music sounds crap without good dynamics compared to streaming from Tidal only in last 3 weeks. In fact, I was quite amazed by Tidal SQ when I could only stream. This finding was a total surprise to me! This NAS sits far far away from my audio rack on totally different power circuits and very upstream connected to home router before my audio LAN switch. Local files are mostly WAV or High def flac. 

anyway, I am hoping EtherRegen can fix this ( on the way ). Has anyone got any answers to why I experienced this phenomenon against general belief? Or can someone point me to the right thread to dig a bit deeper on this?

[Ehsu]

Hi Superdad and John, FedEX turned up at my door this morning with a flash new ER. They are very very reliable. I am impressed! 

Now, my EtherRegen has been cooking since arrival. Literally " cooking "!! It is boiling hot to the touch! I read other people commenting on hot running of this baby BUT.... I did not expect it to be THIS HOT! 

 

Is this normal? Does it run hotter because I used all A side ports? I am a little concerned about fire hazard now as it feels like a Class A amp!

 

I can not comment on the sound improvements yet as I only let it play continuously in the background since morning before committing to any critical listening. 

[Ehsu]

Right, my ER has been cooking for over 24hrs now so I had a few hours of listening in different setups. My ER connections are: B side to my main music system streamer/dac. A sides are connected to: SonicTransporter i5 as Roon Core, Netgear Switch for LAN, bedroom system and Internet, Apple TV 4K. Ground screw was used and connected to my home theatre power amp for now. Copper Ethernet only. Keces P3 LPSU supplies power to both Netgear switch and ER. NAS and asus router are far away in another room on a different power circuit. All my local music files are stored in QNAP NAS in WAV, FLAC or DSD. ER was simply added to my LAN chain before my main endpoints. I did not change any cables and I’m not going to compare different cables or psu yet because this the way of my existing system. All existing cables and psu are there so I don’t see any reason to experiment and adding variables to the mix. 
 

Now my systems are~

main music system: Naim Nac 252 Pre, Naim Nap 300 power amp, Naim ND555 streamer dac, Naim Superlumino speaker cables and DIN interconnect, Naim Powerline power cords, Chord Super Sarum Ethernet to B side of EtherRegen, Neat Ultimatum XL6 floorstanders. All Naim kits are on Naim Fraim rack. This system has its own dedicated power spur from the 3 phase power main. Roon server connected to A side of ER using Wireworld Starlight Ethernet cable. 

Listening Impression using UpTone ER:

wow! Amazing! The difference is night and day! I could not stop listening and my foot was tapping unintentionally. The sound is not only different, it definitely lift the performance level. PRaT are all there and more. Music almost picked up another gear! I suspect ER has lower the background noise so much that I can use all the HiFi terms to describe the improvements. Darker background, larger soundstage, more open sound, more details top to bottom, solid bass, faster transients etc... they are all there. 
Please do not ask me to do quick A/B comparison. I just don’t do that. I never see the point doing that because I know my system and music very well. I listen to my system at least 2hrs a day. Plus, people will get confused and lose the focus on music. I prefer to switch tested equipments after a few days to get fully familiar with the sound first. The best judge on any Hi-Fi gear is if I enjoy my music more than before. Which I must say, I am in love with my latest acquisition 🙂

Bravo! 
Bedroom system: BelCanto int amp dac, Squeezebox Touch feeding Dac amp by Chord Sarum Coax, Neat Motive 2 loudspeakers, Naim Naca5 speaker cables. Squeezebox connected to A side of ER using Chord C-Stream Ethernet cable.
in this much lesser system, lower volume and a more relaxed mindset, SQ also picked up but only by a little margin. Maybe 10-15%? I’ll need to spend a bit more time to be conclusive. 
 

Cinema system: Krell processor, ATI multi channel poweramp, oppo 203, Sony 4K projector, Neat and monitor audio loudspeakers, Velodyne DD+ 12 subwoofer, Apple TV 4K and Steward Film 100” Studiotek 130. ER A side is connected to Apple TV using AQ cinnamon Ethernet. This system has 2 dedicated power spurs for poweramp and 1 for lower powered gears. 
I have no time to watch familiar movie clips yet but watched the final 2019 MotoGP race on Apple TV. This was a revelation! Amazing picture. MotoGP is streamed in 1080p only but the image looks almost 4K 🙂. Colours are solid and picture is very stable. Crystal clear image. 
admittedly this finding is not conclusive until I watch some familiar clips. Or maybe motogp has upgraded their cameras? I’ll need to report back.

 

some reservations after 24hrs though. The case is even hotter today than yesterday! And my ER has lost connection to my ASUS router! I could not see all those gears connected to ER until I run a power cycle. Alex, any bug fix coming? Looks like ER has stopped broadcasting IP addresses for a while? Does it need a breather after running so hot for over 24hrs?

 

sorry for such a long write up. There is just so much to say about it. Magic! I’ll tell all my friends to replace their Cisco switch now 🙂 

[Ehsu]

1 hour ago, andresz said:

What I also notice is the step up in the home theatre - the picture is more cinema like and rendered - more involving. Surround Dolby has moved to a new level. It is very ambient, large and small details not noticed before emerge and dissapear. This is a very interesting observation as it effects video as well - predictably I guess.

Exactly what I found too. The improvements were bigger than I expected. Picture has that 3D effect now due to punchier color and higher contrast. Deeper black gave me more depth to the image. More details to the sound as well. This thing is so good!