UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[lpost]

7 hours ago, Johnnydev said:

February is still long, sympathize with you, but definitely worth the wait It is a big evolution in the switch world.

 

Thankfully, I'm not suffering currently   I'll enjoy the anticipation

 

Thanks

[lpost]

11 hours ago, Superdad said:

Okay, thread is unlocked now. @plissken(jinjuku over at ASR)

 

Not to get off topic but for the life of me I don't understand why he/they/anyone cares what others do as long as it doesn't impact someone else.  Live and let live and avoid wasted energy.

[Sonic77]

If ASR thinks their so called "review" is going to stop people from buying eR, they are wrong, too many people singing the praises of this device.

The real reviews of the eR are in this thread, this many positive reviews can't be wrong.

[Johnnydev]

54 minutes ago, lpost said:

 

Gelukkig lijd   ik momenteel niet, ik zal van de verwachting genieten

 

Bedankt

Your waiting will be rewarded, goosebumps on your arms. 😎🥰

[FileMakerDev]

4 hours ago, Jud said:

One of my favorites for listening tests, because it's short, simple, emphasizes vocals, and this time it's something pretty much everyone has heard: The Beatles' "I'll Follow the Sun."

 

Aside: if you love the Beatles, or even if you don't, what Chet Atkins does with this song on his PICKS ON THE BEATLES album is amazing. The entire album is a neglected gem, IMO.

[FileMakerDev]

15 hours ago, Superdad said:

He can not measure what we all can hear. (The fact that he heard nothing speaks more broadly to how and what he listens with--as evidenced in his other reviews--but that is a personal matter for him.)

 

Not to single Amir out, but as a general comment: I've found in my 40+ year obsession w/ audio that the better your system gets, the more clearly you are able to hear the difference when you make a change or addition to that system... be it a major component like an amplifier, a mini-component such as the ISO-REGEN or the ER, or a minor one like a tube, an interconnect, speaker wire, or a power cord. Or dare I say a USB cable or an Ethernet cable.

[Vule]

Can somebody tell me (after "cooking") what is a normal established service temperature of eR ???

[lpost]

Operating temperature — 48~52C (118~126F)

From Uptone website

 

My take: This is warm enough that I plan to move a bit of air across it to dissipate as much as practical.  I realize the component values are more than twice this temp according to Alex but the lower the ambient temp the longer they will last and likely perform.

 

I'm fortunate that all of my gear (save my preamp, amps and speakers) are located in an adjacent room where a slow moving fan cannot be heard or seen.

[Puma Cat]

18 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Excellent, thanks! 

Funny how he makes this presumptive statement right at the top:

"The power supply is private branded but I am assuming that is just a sticker and UpTone has not really applied for FCC and regulator certification itself. This always puzzles me as companies like UpTone make a lot out of noise in audio yet they don't get their products (as required by law) certified for emissions per FCC or CE. For all you know the EtherRegen may be creating a ton of more high frequency noise ("EMI") than a cheap but certified Ethernet switch."

 

I have copies from our OEM SMPS supplier for all the certifications listed on the power supply, and the emissions from the EtherREGEN are as low or lower than most off the shelf switches.

 

Of course his entire review as well as the much more derisive 29 page thread @jtwrace started back in October is just more evidence of Amir and company's lack of intellectual curiosity about the principles behind the design of the EtherREGEN as well as the complete rejection of the reality that leakage, ground-plane noise, and clocking in packet data interfaces (USB and Ethernet) have effects on the I2S signals and clocking in connected DACs.

 

While I am sorry that Amir is unable to measure it with his beloved Audio Precision system, that does not change the fact that thousands of people readily hear these effects, both with UpTone products and others. They want you to not believe your ears and that you are delusional.

 

Really I am glad that someone loaned him a unit. The bright line has been drawn. He can not measure what we all can hear. (The fact that he heard nothing speaks more broadly to how and what he listens with--as evidenced in his other reviews--but that is a personal matter for him.)

Perhaps John will have luck showing some effects with his Wavecrest analyzer, but regardless of what we put forth, I expect only more scorn and ridicule from the ASR camp.

 

In the meantime, I just received a long report from a group of very dedicated European audiophiles who conducted some blind trials of a variety of switches.  No surprise that it was followed by a flood of new EtherREGEN orders and some e-mails begging to get them into the now sold-out January production batch. 

 

Amir is the worst type of "scientist" in that the underlying "principles" (if you could call them that) utlized at ASR are not real science (like the kind of science I did in my career & published multiple times as a first author in journals like Science, The Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, Journal of Human Genetics, et. al.) but rather a specious manifestion of "pseudo-science" along the lines of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck). 

[Ralf11]

I thought this thread was for listening impressions???

[RickyV]

10 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

I thought this thread was for listening impressions???

Well a lot of people are waiting for the second batch of etherregen to be sent off. X amount of days later the second wave of listening impressions will flood in again.

Stay tuned.

[Superdad]

43 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

I thought this thread was for listening impressions???

It is. So @Puma Cat, while I appreciate your support, let's please not take us down that road again. @plissken has an active thread going in the Networking sub-forum. Whoever wants can tilt at windmills over there.

 

23 minutes ago, RickyV said:

Well a lot of people are waiting for the second batch of etherregen to be sent off. X amount of days later the second wave of listening impressions will flood in again.

Stay tuned.

 

Actually, we just finished packing up 90 units for overseas dealers and 32 domestic units.  About to load up the van to drop them off. This is a full week ahead of the promised December 12th date. Over the weekend I will do the labels and commercial export invoices for the remaining 50 second-batch international units. Those will all ship out--mostly via very fast FedEx on Monday the 9th.  And then another 60 units to the dealers later in the week.  That cleans us out for December!

 

Happily, another 256 boards arrive about the 16th and we already have cases. So we will start all over again for the January-promised units. The dealers are getting less than 50 total of those because there are about 205 units direct-sales orders promised for January. The date we have settled on to ship those by is January 16th. Might be a little sooner as typical for us, but I am closing our offices from December 21, reopening on January 2nd.

 

I know this information belongs elsewhere. But I'm in a hurry. Will cross-post it later.

[RickyV]

28 minutes ago, Superdad said:

Actually, we just finished packing up 90 units for overseas dealers and 32 domestic units.  About to load up the van to drop them off. This is a full week ahead of the promised December 12th date. Over the weekend I will do the labels and commercial export invoices for the remaining 50 second-batch international units. Those will all ship out--mostly via very fast FedEx on Monday the 9th.  And then another 60 units to the dealers later in the week.  That cleans us out for December!

 

Happily, another 256 boards arrive about the 16th and we already have cases. So we will start all over again for the January-promised units. The dealers are getting less than 50 total of those because there are about 205 units direct-sales orders promised for January. The date we have settled on to ship those by is January 16th. Might be a little sooner as typical for us, but I am closing our offices from December 21, reopening on January 2nd.

 

I know this information belongs elsewhere. But I'm in a hurry. Will cross-post it later.

WHoooaaa!!! can’t wait to get the Etherregen. Excellent work. 

[MisterRogers]

Just got my shipping notice - thanks for the effort to consistently exceed your commitments sir! It's greatly appreciated!

[Bones13]

11 hours ago, Bones13 said:

Looking forward to a shipping notification this week, and a new, well reviewed, toy for Christmas!

Shipped today, TYVM!

[Chris_B]

"Your Uptone Audio order has been shipped!"  What a great email to receive today at 5pm. My listening impression will be forthcoming in the very near future.

[Jud]

The trouble with posting listening impressions is that everything is sounding so damn good! 😀

[Lobbster]

Cool, just got my shipping notice. Are the current batch shipping with new firmware flashed?

 

For a before/after test, check out Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa.

[Superdad]

8 minutes ago, Lobbster said:

Are the current batch shipping with new firmware flashed?

Yes. 

[emailists]

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.  

[emailists]

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

[McNulty]

Comparison of ER with full option SoTM switches here: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/sotm-snh-10g-network-switches-x2-the-new-king-of-usb-network-gadget-setup.27758/page-12

[FileMakerDev]

I apologize for cross posting, but this belongs here as much as in the ET^2 topic.

 

My housemate, who has been subjected to my ever-evolving stereo system over the last four years, and whose response is typically a terse "sounds good", volunteered yesterday (after hearing the EtherRegen and ET^2 for the first time the other night), "Your system sounds the best it's ever sounded -- you shouldn't change a thing ever again."

[Superdad]

3 hours ago, McNulty said:

Comparison of ER with full option SoTM switches here: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/sotm-snh-10g-network-switches-x2-the-new-king-of-usb-network-gadget-setup.27758/page-12

 

Thanks for pointing that out. And the nice first point that he made, in comparisons in about a $250,000 system, is:

 

"1. ER is an over-achiever for sure. And it is better than all audiophile switches below or at around its price."

 

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

 

We have also received e-mails from others (in Europe) putting us on top. And there will be some lengthier formal comparative reviews coming in the next month or so.

[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.