EtherREGEN: Installation, Usage, Difficulty, Questions thread

[Horse Tea]

Hi Alex,

 

I received here in Germany the ER 2.5 days ! after placing my order in the US. I claim this to be record!

 

Unfortunately, I have a strange connection problem. I placed the ER after my Cisco 2960 to which I had, so far, connected a Samsung TV, to receive the Digital Concert Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic, and a Linn ADS2 to listen to my library from a Synology NAS and Quobuz. When I connect the ER to the Cisco (side A) either the TV or the Linn connected to side B work perfectly well. The same is true, when I connect the Cisco and the TV to side A and the Linn to side B. Obviously the ideal scenario is to connect the Cisco to side B and TV and Linn to side A. I, however, failed at two attempts so far. Initially, I hooked all three devices to the correct ethernet ports on the ER before switching on the power, i.e. Cisco to side B and TV and Linn to side A. Nothing worked which means that neither the TV nor the Linn got connected.

 

Today I took a stepwise approach. I powered the set-up with the ER disconnected to the Cisco. Then I connected just the cable between Cisco and ER side B. After a couple of minutes I just connected the Linn to side A which worked perfectly. After again a couple of minutes I connected the TV additionally to side A and checked for the access to the Digital Concert Hall. It worked. I left everything like it was and went into the kitchen to do some work. I returned after about 30 min. Nothing was in between actively changed by myself. When I tried to start a concert on TV the picture got frozen. At the same time the Linn also lost connection to the network. The tablet did not find the library any more. All three LEDs at the RJ45 ethernet ports were flashing green indicating network activity. The TV showed the message 'automatic IP mapping not possible'. Disconnecting/reconnecting of the ER nor switching power off and on again of either Cisco, ER, TV and Linn helped.

 

When I wrote this post I left the ER disconnected except for power. I.e, after about 30 min break, I tried gain and both, TV and Linn on side A (side B to Cisco) worked simultaneously.

 

Do you have an idea for a stable connection in my case? Thank you for your time and for paying attention.

Kind regards 

Horst

 

[Horse Tea]

Hi John,

 

my Cisco is a C2960-8TC-L. That the switch is booting VERY slowly, is correct. In my second attempt to run the system as desired I was exactly doing what you propose namely wait for minutes after switching each component on. Also, failure occurred after all was working correctly for some time. However, both switches are powered by the same power line as the rest of the audio equipment. It is very convenient to turn the whole system on at once. Maybe I should separate the switches which might be a little inconvenient. Do you recommend to leave the ER powered all the time? I am hesitant to do this because the ER gets rather hot.

 

Horst

 

 

[Horse Tea]

Hi Jud,

 

I was so far under the impression from this forum that most users preferred the ER after the Cisco. Therefore, your experience to obtain even better sound without a second switch was very interesting to me. I followed your thought and am now very pleased and content with SQ as well as stability of the set-up. Both sources are running in parallel since about 1.5h without any drop-out. Thank you very much for your support.

Horst

 

[Horse Tea]

Hi Karl,

 

I have exactly the same problem with a Linn Akurate streamer. It was even worse before with a Cisco 2960 switch turned off and on again. This switch is booting very slowly whereas the EtherRegen boots very fast. However, my solution is the same. Do not leave the Linn in stand-by and (hard) switch it on a reasonable time later than all the other devices which is about 1 min for the EtherRegen (much longer for the Cisco). Unfortunately, I have no perfect solution for the loss of connection during operation but this does not happen to offen at my home, maybe any other day once. Sometimes it helps to switch off the power of the EtherRegen by pulling the DC-cable, sometimes I have to do this at the router and sometimes I have to withdraw power from the whole audio equipment.

 

I am completely convinced that the electronics of the Linn(s) is very sensitive against interferences from outside and the problem is not due to the EtherRegen. It took me months to find out the reason and the remedy for drop-outs <1 sec during streaming. Finally, it was one particular mains switch and the refrigerator in the basement. Neither WLAN nor a new LAN-cable was the solution which I found, purely by chance, when I replaced some of my power cables (not of the Linn!) by more expensive ones (Shunyata Cobra). I talked to experts and our current hypothesis is that HF entering the audio data stream probably via air (or the fuse box) since my audio is on a complete separate electric circuit compared to the rest of the house electricity.

 

I hope this helps finding a good solution for your problem.

 

Kind regards 

Horst

[Horse Tea]

44 minutes ago, Ponkbutler said:

 

I haven't tried the Ghent cable, but I have compared the standard stranded copper Belden CatSnake Cat6a that Ghent use against the Blue Jeans cables (Belden solid copper Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6a) and Supra Cat8 and much prefer it: it has greater bass extension and overall instrumental texture and detail with a broad and deep but natural soundstage.

Do I understand correctly: you prefer the Ghent Belden CAT 6a over the rest?

[Horse Tea]

I have the same problem as Urs with a different power supply (Zerozone). I suspect the EtherRegen as (only) part of the problem since it was much more severe with an (old, grey) Cisco 2960, which boots extremely slowly. Even if I switch on the EtherRegen last before switching on my Linn ADS2 it happens quite often 😬. When it happens, removing the DC cable from the EtherRegen is helpful but not always. The Linn is extremely sensitive to its ethernet connection probably bringt the root cause.  I solved the problem over time to only about 80% with various tricks. Thus, I am curious to get help for further improvement.

[Horse Tea]

I am interested in a comment to. I am even more interested in recommendations from uptone on how to improve these measurements. I know that Eric is waiting for this response for weeks now. I fully understand that your priorities are different. The time required to do this does not seem to be extraordinary high. Please correct if I am wrong.