EtherREGEN: Installation, Usage, Difficulty, Questions thread

[zoltan]

Although I seem to have found the solution a long standing problem, I would be happy if anyone with expertise, like @Superdad could give me insights why this works.
A very long story made short: I bought an SMS-200 ultra in 2017 and was using it happily with a Mutec MC3+USB reclocker (also USB to AES/EBU converter) for several months with a simple Zyxel switch and either an Acoustic Revive or a Vovox Textura ethernet cable.

Then, I sent the streamer back to Korea for an upgrade while asking SOtM to modify a D-Link switch to accept the clock signal from the SMS-200 ultra. The D-Link DGS-108 switch I bought for this purpose and sent it together with the streamer to Korea. When these came back, I started experiencing network dropouts or total loss of the network on the streamer. This was very random, sometimes in a few minutes intervals, sometimes no problem for hours. Sometimes it was solved by restarting either the switch or the streamer or just reconnecting the ethernet cable, sometimes nothing helped. It was frustrating and despite SOtM's kind help from was unable to find a solution. I thought they somehow messed up the switch (but why would it work sometimes?) . I went back to the Zyxel and no problem for 4 years since. Then a few months ago I bought an ER which brought stellar improvement to my system but after a week or so (while rotating a few power supplies on both the ER and the SOtM) I started experiencing exactly the same random and unpredictable network drops. No way that two switches have the same problem, it must be the SOtM. Then why does it work with the Zyxel with the afore mentioned ethernet cables? Then I remembered that UTP, rather than STP ethernet is recommended in the manual (also by dCS and @Miska) at HQPlayer). Went back to the $5 UTP from these expensive audiophile ethernet cables. While there was (perhaps) a drop in sound quality but no loss of connection for over a week.

Alright, time to experiment. I opened the Telegartner connector on the Vovox and disconnected the shield at the streamer end. First drop-out in 2 mins and a few more in the next half an hour. UTP goes back, no problem for days again. In the meantime, I disconnected the screen on the other end of the Vovox. Put it back in the system and  no network issues for days.

Then with a multimeter I tested the ground connection on the switches. The DC ground on the D-Link is the same as the chassis ground, at least the metal perimeter of the ethernet input connectors while they are galvanically isolated on the Zyxel. On the ER, they are connected on side A but lifted on side B. So in theory, it should be OK to use a shielded cable to the streamer with the connectors attached to the screen but in practice, it didn't even work when only the streamer-end connection was lifted. To me, it makes no sense but I'm sharing my experience, in case someone has similar issues. I know from the SOtM thread that I'm not the only one who has experienced such a phenomenon but no one has seemed to find a solution so far.

[zoltan]

I apologize if this has been shared and discussed. There is a short paper on the the effectiveness (or the lack there of) of the JSSG 360 type cables on Audio Science Review. It seems to me that it only makes sense if the connecting cable is very short and doesn't run along the cable itself. In fact that makes sense as explained and measured. I don't argue for or against these measurements but found it interesting. I'm just trying to figure out how I should terminate my LAN cables, shield connected to RJ45 plugs, not connected or just connected one end. Or strip the shield braid and foil altogether. Or the non of these will make any difference if the cable and plugs are the same. Btw, I'm not a fan of ASR as they some of the measurements seem to be pointless. Maybe this one is also flawed??
 

 

[zoltan]

14 hours ago, Roasty said:

I've had the EtherRegen for quite some time now, and enjoy it a lot. recently, it has been giving me some issues. 

 

my chain is:

Sotm switch

fiber

ER (with AD clock) 

ethernet

sotm sMS-200Ultra

 

I've been running this chain for several months with no problems. however, over the course of the past couple of weeks, my dac no longer "sees" the Sotm and hqplayer also does not see the naa output for this chain.

 

ive troubleshooted a couple of times, and have found that if I just power cycle the ER, all is good again. power cycle as in just remove the dc plug, wait a short while and reinsert the dc plug. then everything goes back to normal. 

 

Any ideas? 

I have a very similar set-up (SMS-200 ultra, hqplayer, external clock) Have had similar issues. For me the solution was to use ethernet cables that don't create a galvanic connection between devices connected to the ER (or other similarly structured switches) AND connecting the server directly to side A of the ER and not using any extra switch in between. 

[zoltan]

Perhaps @Superdad can help me understand a galvanic isolation question. I run the ER from its own power supply where the signal ground and AC earth are connected. Then the ER is followed by SOtM SMS200 ultra on JS-2 (lifted ground) to Denafrips GAIA (signal and chassis ground separate) to Devialet Expert where the signal ground is connected to the chassis/earth. So with a continuity/multimeter, I get a "beep" when I connect the RCA or AES/EBU ground to the ER's ground on the DC input (or the ground screw). Of course, they are connected through the power strip ground. It would not matter if I used a different wall outlet as I have only one earth cable running in the house. 
So the question is, does it defeat the galvanic isolation of the ER? If it does, I might as well use the JS-2 to also power the ER... 

[zoltan]

My story with similar dropouts is so long that I won't even start telling the full story. It involved months of e-mail exchanges with SOtM (my streamer is the SMS-200 ultra), even taking the unit to the Munich High-End show where SOtM checked it and demod with it for 4 days without any issues. Trying all possible settings, both Roon and HQ Player, etc. Then I moved house, in fact, I moved to a different continent. The same problem appeared/disappeared on a regular basis. I spent at least a hundred hours of reading on forums and trying different things, including several switches. It seems to work with a Zyxel switch, no problem but often lost connection when I used a D-Link. So I settled on the Zyxel. About a year ago, I bought a ER and shortly after I installed it, problems started again. Experiments with different power supplies, grounding the ER, etc didn't solve the issue. Eventually, I thought why not try what Uptone recommends (among HQ Player developer Jussi and dSC engineers) and use exclusively ethernet cables where the connectors are galvanically isolated (either because the cable is not shielded or the shield is not connected to the metal connector). For about 4-5 months now, zero issues. From my router to my server, to the switch, etc, all cables have "lifted" connectors or not shielded in the first place.