UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Listening Impressions

[louawalters]

@Superdad is there any guidance for when the Feb shipment will go out?   I am in Canada and anxiously awaiting the ER 😉

Thanks

[Superdad]

7 minutes ago, louawalters said:

@Superdad is there any guidance for when the Feb shipment will go out?   I am in Canada and anxiously awaiting the ER 😉

 

Thanks for your patience. I generally post updates regarding expected ship dates in this official thread:

And the web page for the products are always updated.  We have been quoting February 26th for a while now.  The boards are all here, programmed, tested, and with heat sinks attached.

The aluminum cases may arrive a few days late, so it will be a big push to get all units built and shipped by the 26th. With luck we will get all February-promised units out by Friday the 28th. Our clients know that I pull out all the stops to meet expectations. Most always we ship earlier than promised, but once in a while there are factors beyond our control. 

[One and a half]

On 2/10/2020 at 8:27 PM, flkin said:

Tried switching to a generic Ghent USB cable but as expected the soundstage collapses, details are lost, imaging is blur and more. But the stronger treble balance remains. Looks like I still have to continue tracking the source of the treble balance...

 

Thanks for the work in changing to a different cable. Proves that different USB cables do make a difference. I also found the loss of sound stage and smearing using Curious cable had the same effect in my system (twice).

 

OK, so the treble masking noise is being transmitted from the PinkFaun streamer to the DAC. Let's try and lure the noise back to the source rather than propagate down the chain.

 

The Pink Faun server being of metal construction should have screw that attaches to the frame, or possibly a separate earth screw connection? I suspect that the earth potential of the EtherRegen is different to the Pink Faun, and this is normal. With a meter set to DC measure the frame of the Pink faun and the earth screw on the EtherRegen. Even if there are mV or a weird unstable reading, please find a braid type wire, say 10-20mm, thickness can be 3mm or less and connect a broad area (10mm x 10mm) of the Pink Faun's frame (needs to be bare metal though) to the EtherRegen's earth (ground). As far as frequencies above 20kHz are concerned, the braid is great place, low impedance path.

The braid can also be a stripped coaxial cable screen, squashed flat for example. It's important that no other metal touches the two points.

 

The two devices will be at the same ground potential, with a little luck, the treble masking noise will go back to another place, away from the DAC.

[Nikko1960]

Dear 1½ - I don’t know about your setup because I haven’t been keeping up. But I found that oversampling in HQ Player had a dramatic effect on my system, taming the digital artefacts that manifested themselves as pre/post ringing and treble harshness. I have a DAC that accepts DSD128 so that it what I am upsampling to. Hope this helps, Nikko

[RickyV]

On 2/13/2020 at 12:23 AM, Crimmind said:

Take a look at Hans Beekhuyzens video this friday. He will review ER and I have heard it will be good 🎶

 

Here it is.

 

[lmitche]

1 hour ago, RickyV said:

 

Here it is.

 

 

RickyV, thanks for sharing!
 

@Superdad congratulations for another "Best of the Best" review!

[Vule]

After 3 weeks of burning in I can easily conclude that ER works like a KEY which unlocks hidden potential of my digital front end.

[ambre]

Nice review by Hans van Beekhuizen on YouTube 😀😀

 

 

[Puma Cat]

Alex and John at Uptone Audio are to be congratulated for their groundbreaking EtherREGEN and the excellent review at Hans Beekhuzen's YouTube channel. 

 

Hans says it like it is, and has considerable credibility in the audiophile community. 

 

Well done, guys! 

[Nenon]

Congratulations from me too! Nice review. 

[ogs]

I'll get my EtherREGEN beginning of March. My own listening will tell me all I need to know

[vhs]

Hi all,

 

Addition of Uptone eR to the signal chain of my CAS system is one of the major improvement of SQ so far.

 

 

Signal Chain:

 

Roon Server -> (13m Supra Cat8) -> eR (Port A) -> eR (Port B) -> (1.5m Pachanko Ethernet "Aphelion") -> dCS Vivaldi Upsampler

 

Uptone eR:

 

1. External Clock: Mutec REF10 SE-120

2. Clock Cable: Acoustic Revive COX-1.0TripleC-FM-BNC (1m)

3. Power Supply: Uptone JS-2 (12v)

4. DC Cable: Pachanko Server LPSU (1m)

5. Ground box: Tripoint Troy Signature BLK

6. Ground Cable: Tripoint Signature Silver (2m)

 

Thank you for your innovation, Alex Crespi ! 😃

[skatbelt]

7 hours ago, vhs said:

Hi all,

 

Addition of Uptone eR to the signal chain of my CAS system is one of the major improvement of SQ so far.

 

 

Signal Chain:

 

Roon Server -> (13m Supra Cat8) -> eR (Port A) -> eR (Port B) -> (1.5m Pachanko Ethernet "Aphelion") -> dCS Vivaldi Upsampler

 

Uptone eR:

 

1. External Clock: Mutec REF10 SE-120

2. Clock Cable: Acoustic Revive COX-1.0TripleC-FM-BNC (1m)

3. Power Supply: Uptone JS-2 (12v)

4. DC Cable: Pachanko Server LPSU (1m)

5. Ground box: Tripoint Troy Signature BLK

6. Ground Cable: Tripoint Signature Silver (2m)

 

Thank you for your innovation, Alex Crespi ! 😃

 

How would you describe with/without REF10?

[vhs]

20 minutes ago, skatbelt said:

 

How would you describe with/without REF10?

eR with Ref10 SE-120 : more natural, better clarity and musicality, and darker background.

[Flashman]

Below is a link to the first pro review (Stereo Times) that I’ve come across.  It’s just a summary but it’s quite powerful.  You’ll have to cursor down to see the review.

http://v2.stereotimes.com/post/most-wanted-components-of-the-decade-digital

[PYP]

7 minutes ago, Flashman said:

Below is a link to the first pro review (Stereo Times) that I’ve come across.  

 

 

He gets it right.  And they are right about the Tambaqui too (the review just above).  

Congratulations Alex and John. 

[David A]

28 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

Hi David:

Nice to see you around these parts! How are things down under? Guess it is going to take a LONG time for your country to recover from this fire season. Living in California we have had some rough years recently, but nothing on the scale that you folks got.

Hope you are still enjoying your EtherREGEN.

Best,

--Alex C.

 

Hi Alex,

 

I'm still enjoying the EtherREGEN, probably more so as time goes on and that's saying something. I think what's proving the biggest thing for me is the way it's changed how I listen to music. I've always liked being able to follow individual performers in the music so I guess in some ways you could say that I tended to pay more attention to the trees and not so much to the forest. I'm finding myself being captured by the way the sound of the performers works together and the sense of ensemble in the performance so I'm finding myself paying more attention to the forest than I used to. I can still follow individual performers as easily as before but the performance as a whole just seems to sound more cohesive to me. The changes in different aspects of the overall sound quality have become less obvious to me as I've become used to the sound but that sense of increased musical coherence seems to keep drawing itself to my attention and that's a very nice thing. John and you have done a great job.

 

As for Australia, well the good news is that the rains came and that seems to have extinguished most of the fires. The bad news is that the rains came and a lot of areas got flooding problems as a result. I'm lucky because neither the fires nor the flooding have been an issue here in Brisbane where I am though we did get some bad smoke haze from fires close to here very early in the season before the worst fires which were all much further south. It's going to take a very long time to recover, especially in farming areas with tree based crops where replanting is required and it will take years for new trees to start to bear fruit. Rebuilding houses and in some cases towns will also take a long time because there's so much work that there's going to be large backlogs of jobs awaiting for the builders who are going to do that work.

[Sfine0]

I received my EtherRegen switch in January and thought I would give a few observations about it. First, the device is everything that it’s manufacturers claims it to be. It is The product of first rate engineering. It is well designed and implemented. It’s has significantly improved the sound quality of my digital front end (Ultrarendu, LPS 1.2 , Bryston BDA3 connected with Audioquest Dimond USB AND Ethernet cables).

Over the last year or so, I have been experimenting (playing) with various power cables, power supplies, network switches, USB and Network cables. Adding an EtherRegen to the mix has enabled all of the other components in the digital chain to shine. With the EtherRegen there is a clarity, an ease and a sense of place in the music presentation that was lacking in my previous switches (netgear,Cisco). It has made Streaming music (Tidal music service) via both fiber optic and Cat8 cabling a viable alternative to only playing music stored on local hard drives.

And finally, I have a DSD64 version of Herbert Von Karajan’s 1963 recording of Beethoven’s ninth symphony that up until now I have been unable to play. With the EtherRegen switch I can finally listen to the recording in its native dsd mode. What more could one ask for ?

[ray-dude]

1 minute ago, Sfine0 said:

And finally, I have a DSD64 version of Herbert Von Karajan’s 1963 recording of Beethoven’s ninth symphony that up until now I have been unable to play. With the EtherRegen switch I can finally listen to the recording in its native dsd mode. What more could one ask for ?

 

This +1000000

 

These are the moments I live for, when all the tweaking and upgrades open a window to these moments of perfect beauty.  When it all comes together, the time machine kicks in and I'm in the studio with Coltrane.  What a precious precious gift to be able to experience things like this.

[BCRich]

Would love to give my “Listening Impression”.....except I don’t have mine yet ☹️.....

Hi Alex, how we looking regarding this months shipment, the cases arrive yet?

I’m getting antsy......

Can’t wait....

Mike

[Superdad]

13 minutes ago, BCRich said:

Hi Alex, how we looking regarding this months shipment, the cases arrive yet?

 

Yep, we are on track. All units are assemble/tested. We are kitting them into their retail boxes this weekend and will begin on-time shipments early this week. 

 

Now if only we could keep up with demand for JS-2s. It is a labor-intensive product and while we have always managed a consistent 20-25 each month, the "halo effect" from EtherREGEN's success is outstripping what we are able to keep up with for that special supply. I am having to adjust to the pace for parts ordering and finding time for that has been tough. So I beg for patience from some who have sent e-mails lately. 

[Ponkbutler]

Talking about the JS-2 does anyone have any recommendations from their own listening experience of JS-2 or LPS1.2 to power the EtherRegen in preference to the rather good SMPS supplied?

[skatbelt]

On 2/23/2020 at 10:42 AM, Ponkbutler said:

Talking about the JS-2 does anyone have any recommendations from their own listening experience of JS-2 or LPS1.2 to power the EtherRegen in preference to the rather good SMPS supplied?

 

Yes! JS-2 in my case.

 

I advise you to read back in this and/or other ER threads, a lot has already been written about it.

[bailyhill]

Perhaps its appropriate to break this topic of Power Supplies for the Er into its own thread.  If someone could go thru and pull all those

posts together, that would be great.  I realize that this takes time away from the forward going effort to procure, organize, and fabricate the parts for new ER's.  Perhaps someone with the necessary skills would want to volunteer to do that.  I don;t have the skills myself, but I would be a candidate for purchasing an external ps for my ER.  One problem is that Uptone/Alex/John has done a very good job of designing the SMPS that comes with the ER.  

[skatbelt]

44 minutes ago, bailyhill said:

Perhaps its appropriate to break this topic of Power Supplies for the Er into its own thread.  If someone could go thru and pull all those

posts together, that would be great.  I realize that this takes time away from the forward going effort to procure, organize, and fabricate the parts for new ER's.  Perhaps someone with the necessary skills would want to volunteer to do that.  I don;t have the skills myself, but I would be a candidate for purchasing an external ps for my ER.  One problem is that Uptone/Alex/John has done a very good job of designing the SMPS that comes with the ER.  

 

The stock SMPS is not an Uptone design.