EtherREGEN: Installation, Usage, Difficulty, Questions thread

[Superdad]

10 minutes ago, Guidof said:

So it seems that the sudden power cut and equally sudden re-power (surge?) did something bad to the LPS-1.2. Strange, though, that it affects only DSD files. Everything else, including 24/192 stuff plays fine.

 

Well that is REALLY strange.  Contact me directly and let's get your UltraCap LPS-1.2 back here for testing and exchange.

Thanks.

[willyhot]

On 6/10/2020 at 10:58 PM, Superdad said:

 

Hi Willy:

The problem is most likely not with the EtherREGEN itself, but something else in your system. 

Can you post a diagram or list of your gear and network?

And have you fully powered off and on every component in your system—including networking gear upstream?

 

You certainly do not need to reflash the EtherREGEN’s firmware. 

 

Let us know what you discover. 

Goodnight,

—Alex C.

Thanks Alex and sorry for the email confusion.  My simple setup diagram as below.

 

To conclude the situation now: it works again!

 

1. after the electricity outage on Sunday, I switched off all the gear including ER

2. when the electricity is up again later the same day, switching on all gears as usual then streamer start dropping music when play (network setup as BLUE in diagram)

3. switching off streamer and ER, unplug all A and B port Ethernet cable, re-plug Ethernet and switching on streamer and ER again, music still drops 

4. Try #3 again on Monday, issue still exist.  Therefore start bypassing ER as shown in the diagram in "RED", music play perfectly. 

5. after seen your post, reconnect the Ethernet cables again as "BLUE", just like 3, music plays normal and perfect again.

 

Therefore, I doubted if there is any tricky SEQUENCE or WARM UP/COOL DOWN TIMING for this kind of reboot?  this is strange to me although it works again after all.

 

Thanks!

[Guidof]

19 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Well that is REALLY strange.  Contact me directly and let's get your UltraCap LPS-1.2 back here for testing and exchange.

Thanks.

 

Yes, so strange that it borders on the IMPOSSIBLE, or so I thought. So I got to work on this thought and at one point was able to reproduce the problem with the ultraRendu powered by the Uptone brick. Which leaves me to conclude that the issue lies not with any Uptone or Sonore equipment, but with the WiFi network. Why should this be a problematic link after working without a glitch for six years? At first I thought the power cut may have damaged the router or the WiFi bridge. So, I reconnected the Uptone LPS-1.2 to the ultraRendu and tried again. It played beautifully all files, including DSD (in DoP format). It has been playing just fine since 9:00 pm last evening uninterruptedly. Which could not happen, presumably, if anything was damaged by the power cut. Correlation is not causation! as I used to tell my graduate students.

 

So, for now I have to assume that something temporary happened to the WiFi. If the problem should happen again, I may have to consider running a long Ethernet cable from my upstairs office to the ground floor music room, which I'm reluctant to do given that we live in a 1906 house the walls of which are full of surprises.

 

But it was great to to talk to you, Alex. Thank you so much for all your prompt attention to this confusing issue. I'll keep you posted on any developments.

[Superdad]

17 minutes ago, Guidof said:

...the the walls of which are full of surprises.

 

My favorite quote of the day! 

 

Glad you seem to have it sorted--for now. 

Be well my friend,

--Alex C.

[Guidof]

16 hours ago, willyhot said:

Thanks Alex and sorry for the email confusion.  My simple setup diagram as below.

 

To conclude the situation now: it works again!

 

1. after the electricity outage on Sunday, I switched off all the gear including ER

2. when the electricity is up again later the same day, switching on all gears as usual then streamer start dropping music when play (network setup as BLUE in diagram)

3. switching off streamer and ER, unplug all A and B port Ethernet cable, re-plug Ethernet and switching on streamer and ER again, music still drops 

4. Try #3 again on Monday, issue still exist.  Therefore start bypassing ER as shown in the diagram in "RED", music play perfectly. 

5. after seen your post, reconnect the Ethernet cables again as "BLUE", just like 3, music plays normal and perfect again.

 

Therefore, I doubted if there is any tricky SEQUENCE or WARM UP/COOL DOWN TIMING for this kind of reboot?  this is strange to me although it works again after all.

 

Thanks!

 

Interesting that although our systems are different we seem to have had the same baffling problem and solution following a power cut (see my posts above). Keep fingers crossed . . .

[JohnSwenson]

3 hours ago, Guidof said:

 

 Correlation is not causation! as I used to tell my graduate students.

 

 

That is something I wind up saying a LOT! My favorite example is:

Racing cars tend to have expensive tires, but putting expensive tires on a Yugo does not make it a Formula-1 car!

 

John S.

[kali]

EtherRegen loses LAN connection
I have been using EtherRegen for a few months now, but for some time now EtherRegen has been losing its connection to the LAN again and again. This happens since a while also during streaming, very energizing.
I have already changed the A and B side, rebooted my main switch, changed the cables and also reinstalled the EtherRegen firmware, unfortunately without success.
When I exchange the EtherRegen for the Netgear GS105 the connection to the LAN is immediately restored and everything works as it should.
My setting is that from the LAN wall socket a cable leads to the EtherRegen and from the EtherRegen to the Linn Akurate System Hub, which has a fixed IP address.
If I have the LAN cable on the A side and Linn on the B side, Linn will lose the LAN connection, unlike the other devices on the A side. They still have Internet connection.
If I plug in the LAN cable on the B side, all devices on the A side lose their LAN connection.
Obviously there is a problem with the B side.
Is there anything else I can try?

Karl

[Frojo]

Hi Karl,

 

Which power supply are you using for the etheregen?

[kali]

11 hours ago, Frojo said:

Which power supply are you using for the etheregen?

 

Hi Frojo

Currently I am using an LPS, but the problem was with the original power supply before as well.

 

For explanation, if I'm away from the house for several days I switch off the whole system. This is easy to do because all devices are connected to a PS Audio Power Regenerator. When I turn it back on again, the LAN connection to Linn could often not be restored immediately. Then I took the EtherRegen off the power, changed the LAN plugs etc. until the connection was established.
But since yesterday the EtherRegen loses the connection to Linn during streaming, this is new.

 

Karl

[Frojo]

Hi Karl,

 

Do you mean an UpTone LPS ?

Or some other device.

frojo

[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

[kali]

Hi Horst,

thank you for your detailed report. You went to a lot of trouble to find the cause! I will reactivate the EtherRegen on the weekend and hope that I will get a good result with your instructions. If I still have questions to your findings I will send you a PN, then we could communicate in German. That would be much easier for me.

 

@ Frojo
No, my LPS is from ATL Audio. Whereby I believe that the power supply is not the problem, because there were also these connection problems with the original power supply.

 

Karl

[Frojo]

Hi Karl,

 

I was trying to establish whether your power supply was an 'ultra capacitor' supply or otherwise, and of sufficient current capability.

Either scenario could cause initial connection problems. A cursory search would indicate the the ATL lps can deliver upto 2A, so no problems there.

In general terms, switching everything on at once via the socket is probably not helping to establish the necessary network connections.

Good luck with your investigations.

 

frojo

 

[kali]

23 hours ago, Frojo said:

A cursory search would indicate the the ATL lps can deliver upto 2A, so no problems there.

In general terms, switching everything on at once via the socket is probably not helping to establish the necessary network connections.

 

Hi frojo

I'm glad the LPS is not an issue.
I hope it's really just the simultaneous power on via the PS Audio Power Regenerator. Anyway, thanks a lot.

Karl

[MartinT]

You can program the P10 (not sure about other models) to do phased switch-on to the different sockets.  You can therefore have the router come on first, then the source equipment and finally the power amp, with adjustable timings.

 

I do this, except I have the socket feeding the router set to permanently on to keep it running.  It still gets regenerated power when you turn on the P10.

[kali]

Hi MartinT,

Thanks for the hint. 
According to the manual this should also work with the P12.

Karl

 

[Ultrarunner]

Alex or John, could you clarify whether or not the EtherRegen has flow control enabled? I’m trying to figure out the cause of HQPlayer dropouts. Jussi said to make sure flow control was enabled on all ports. I’m assuming the opticalRendu has flow control enabled. Does the EtherRegen also have it, and is the ER compatible with HQPlayer?

[Superdad]

32 minutes ago, Ultrarunner said:

Alex or John, could you clarify whether or not the EtherRegen has flow control enabled?

Yes it does.

 

32 minutes ago, Ultrarunner said:

Does the EtherRegen also have it, and is the ER compatible with HQPlayer?

Yes to both.

 

What other switches do you have in your network and where is everything connected?  On what OS are you running HQP or HQPe?

[Ultrarunner]

57 minutes ago, Superdad said:

Yes it does.

 

Yes to both.

 

What other switches do you have in your network and where is everything connected?  On what OS are you running HQP or HQPe?

Thanks Alex. I have no other switches. Both my SonicTransporter I5 running HQP Embedded, and iMac Pro running HQP Desktop are connected to an AMPLIFI router. The ER is also connected to the router (B side), with the A side optical out to the OpticalRendu. The dropouts occur with both sources and different DACs.

[Superdad]

19 hours ago, Ultrarunner said:

Thanks Alex. I have no other switches. Both my SonicTransporter I5 running HQP Embedded, and iMac Pro running HQP Desktop are connected to an AMPLIFI router. The ER is also connected to the router (B side), with the A side optical out to the OpticalRendu. The dropouts occur with both sources and different DACs.

 

Hmm... As I recall, you have had the EtherREGEN in your system for a while with no issues, correct?  So what has changed?  

I am thinking this is either a s/w issue (are you running Roon into HQP?; Updated OrbiterOS lately) or you need to fully reboot your whole network and computers.

Do you have any other source of fiber (FMC or switch with fiber) that you can use to test with EtherREGEN removed from your system?

[Ultrarunner]

18 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Hmm... As I recall, you have had the EtherREGEN in your system for a while with no issues, correct?  So what has changed?  

I am thinking this is either a s/w issue (are you running Roon into HQP?; Updated OrbiterOS lately) or you need to fully reboot your whole network and computers.

Do you have any other source of fiber (FMC or switch with fiber) that you can use to test with EtherREGEN removed from your system?

Yes, I’ve had no issues with the EtherRegen. I’m very happy with it. The only thing I’ve changed in recent months has been an upgrade of the opticalRendu from 1.7 to 1.8 and a change from multimode to single mode SFP’s. I’ve been sending DSD128 from Roon to my opticalRendu with no problems before and after these changes, but only recently attempted HQPlayer. HQPlayer sounds great, but the occasional dropouts are too annoying for me to buy a license. 

[Discopants]

Hi just to report I have also been experiencing dropout on the Etherregen. 
 

Ive had the odd one before but it really got to a point where it was driving me mad recently as I would get a drop out , it would take 10 or 15 minutes to sort itself out and then work for half an hour then go again.

 

My network is router, through power line then etherregen A , B out to my power DAC , I also have a seperate link from etherregen to apple TV 4th gen on the A side.

 

I switched it round feeding the B side from my wall outlet and that made no difference. I also note that my uPNP app on my ipad MconnectHD was also queuing qobuz albums and doubling tracks so track 1 would play twice then track 2 etc.... that was also driving me nuts.

 

after visiting this thread I decided to try putting my old Cisco 2960 with inbuilt SM power supply in the chain. So router, through power to cisco, separate Lan from cisco to apple TV, Cisco to etherregen A , B out to power DAC.

 

Ive been running this 4 days with no issues and my uPNP app is also now queuing correctly and with the cisco in the system it actually also sounds better again !!

 

All my switches apple tv, amp and subwoofer go through an Isotek Sigmas gen 2 and I have the etherregen on a Paul hynes PR3 regulated LPS.

 

Im now also going to try fibre out of the Cisco.

 

 

[Discopants]

Just want to also add that most of my dropouts where when watching apple tv

[Superdad]

5 hours ago, Discopants said:

My network is router, through power line then etherregen A , B out to my power DAC , I also have a seperate link from etherregen to apple TV 4th gen on the A side.

It is not clear to me where your music is stored, what path it takes, what player s/w you are you using, and what is your DAC-attached endpoint.  All those things can make a difference.

 

5 hours ago, Discopants said:

after visiting this thread I decided to try putting my old Cisco 2960 with inbuilt SM power supply in the chain. So router, through power to cisco, separate Lan from cisco to apple TV, Cisco to etherregen A , B out to power DAC.

 

Ive been running this 4 days with no issues and my uPNP app is also now queuing correctly and with the cisco in the system it actually also sounds better again !!

Glad to know you got it sorted. Yes, sometimes we have seen the addition or subtraction of an upstream switch--or in particulate the connection point/path of the NAS, server, etc. changing--make a difference.

 

4 hours ago, Discopants said:

Just want to also add that most of my dropouts where when watching apple tv

Maybe your system is telling you to listen to more music and to watch less TV!  (Though I must say, I am looking forward to checking out that new Perry Mason series on HBO; I'm a big Mathew Rhys fan.)

[Discopants]

9 minutes ago, Superdad said:

It is not clear to me where your music is stored, what path it takes, what player s/w you are you using, and what is your DAC-attached endpoint.  All those things can make a difference.

 

My system is a lyngdorf TDAI 3400 super integrated. It's  a power DAC , with a built in streamer and spotify connect I run it as 2.1 system for my TV via apple TV. We have some movies bought on apple store, Netflix, Amazon prime and you tube (fantastic source for music videos , and live concerts even though it's low resolution if it's well produced the sound quality is great). About 30% of my music is played from you tube.

 

As well as Spotify , which I can stream from spotify app, I have a qobuz subscription for hi rez music which plays via the Mconnect HD app using uPNP.

 

That's it apart from the 2 network switches and power conditioners.

 

It's bare bones, minimalist but sounds excellent.