UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[jandersonhill]

My early impressions are that the EtherRegen is very close to the black SotM. They are so close that comparing the two seems like splitting hairs, although I have a slight preference for the SotM. This is an incredible achievement as the SoTM somewhat more expensive.

 

FWIW (also my initial thoughts) I believe the combination of the two is currently unbeatable, which suggests that they might each be slightly better at doing different things. I plan to return to this topic with a more detailed opinion when they have more hours on them. This, however, may take a couple of weeks as I have more travel to the US ahead.

[jandersonhill]

55 minutes ago, Superdad said:

So versus the $1,700 SoTM switch--which he uses two of--I'd say our modest offering came out smelling great! 

 

 

I would agree. I haven't had a chance to fully comment, but the ER compares very well with two SotM's in series. I believe the SotM has a slight edge (more so with their external clock), but we're then comparing products in a completely different price bracket and doing this well at this price point is an absurdly great achievement.

[jandersonhill]

3 hours ago, Abyss Man said:

May I know where its says that 2 sotm switches were used against a single ER? Just curious that all, cause I couldn't see where that was mentioned. I mean no harm. Thank you sir.

No harm done, my previous comments comparing the two were my own findings comparing two SotM’s with an ER. By the way, I found the three combined to be even better, although that combo might appear borderline ridiculous!

[jandersonhill]

4 hours ago, auricgoldfinger said:

 

How were you connecting the two SOtM switches to each other and to the ER?  What power supplies?

 

They are connected to each other and the ER via SotM dCBL-CAT7 SE cables, being driven by the sPS-500 power supplies (although their clock is driven by the LPS-1.2). The ER is powered by the mains unit supplied with the unit (at least for the moment).

[jandersonhill]

On 12/7/2019 at 7:26 AM, Iving said:

 

Would that be SOtM > SOtM > ER strictly in that order (cf. HK report)? How much better is adding the ER over 2 SOtMs?

 

Is it greater or less than adding the extra SOtM at the front end. Is the SQ delta similar in quality?

 

To your ears how much is the (positive presumably) difference between 2 and 1 SOtMs (no ER)?

 

Actually, I preferred the ER at the beginning of the chain, however bear in mind this was before the units were run in. This process was complicated by the fact the SotM's were upgraded (to include the external clock, their high end capacitors, silver wiring, noise absorbing material etc) after the ER arrived, so the burn in was then some way in on the ER, but needed to start again on the SotM's.

 

My plan is to try this exercise again now they are all run in, but this will have to wait a bit as I'm heading off on business for a week.

 

Going back to my notes, I felt adding the ER delivered more substance to the performance, was better focused and had a more accurate height and width to the soundstage. I would say that the delta gets smaller and smaller each time you add a unit, but it was noticeable.

 

SoTM suggest themselves that an isolator at the beginning of the chain will improve sound quality and I would agree, but for many it might be overkill.

[jandersonhill]

8 hours ago, JohnSwenson said:

I don't know about the Emo, but I have looked and measured the Baaske extensively. The Baaske is just a transformer, that's it. This gives some extra common mode attenuation, and the bandwidth of the transformer is low, just enough to barely pass an Ethernet signal...

 

This is certainly what I found. I have an ethernet isolator from yet another manufacturer. Before putting in either of the SotM/ER switches, it made a positive difference. With either of these units in place, the isolator made things worse.

[jandersonhill]

It looks like the planned setup is:

 

Mac mini -> EtherRegen -> sms-200 -> Bryston DAC

 

In which case, a USB regenerator would likely further improve the sound, such as the UltraRendu

[jandersonhill]

Planned to edit this to say 'might further improve the sound as YMMV', but one of the children banged their head and I found I could no longer edit this when I got back!

 

A USB regenerator would fit between the sms-200 and the Bryston. AudioQuest, iFi, Uptone Audio, SOtM and Innuos sell them at various price points.

[jandersonhill]

I was just going to say that different optical modules make a difference. I forget which I tried first, but I had the same issue with the sound becoming overly-smoothed, which went away with a Cisco fibre. It's on my list of things to do to test further at some point...

[jandersonhill]

@Rsbrsvp In my (limited experience) the differences between modules range from negligible to quite noticeable, I suspect the outcome also depends on which switches you are using them in. The issue is that 'quite noticeable' can mean 'noticeably worse'!

 

Right now, with relatively few people posting about this topic, it feels a bit of lottery buying modules and hoping for the best... but it is a topic I want to look into further.

[jandersonhill]

51 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

 

This should be discussed in other threads. If you use the search function, you should find good posts about SFP+ modules, brand, what laser may be preferred and why, and single mode vs multi mode. 

 

Funnily enough, reading the threads using the search function is how I ended up trying out different modules in the first place. My conclusion is this still feels a bit of a lottery, however I agree that this could be split into another topic.