EtherREGEN: All posts about firmware moved here

[jos]

2 hours ago, Ehsu said:

Exactly the same words popped into my head in last hour of listening while I was looking for answers why the new version doesnt resonate with me. It seem to lose a bit of transient speed which makes music a bit less " live ". 

 

Too much of a good thing?? Can be; I guess it depends on your system. I love it in my already smooth system!

[jos]

So, everything comes down to someone’s personal taste in combination with the gear they own. I have a Chord Qutest DAC with 4 kinds of flavours (filters). Very clever from Chord Electronics, so you can combine it with your own gear to your own taste. I use this DAC with the white incisive filter, others with the orange (warm) filter, and so on. I think I like the white filter most, because I have a warm amplifier. The warm filter is just to warm for my taste. So, I can completely understand those people who like the V1 firmware (much) more, and are now disappointed with the V2 results. I think they own the right to go back to firmware V1, if possible without the bug. On the other hand: Uptone Audio should go further with selling only V2, avoiding all kinds of problems. This is just my opinion.

[jos]

8 hours ago, incus said:

There are many things to take away from this episode in the ER's brief but already illustrious history. Yet there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned within this context very much which may help explain some of what is going on, and that is burn-in. It's a very real thing for this device. 

 

Prior to any awareness of the bugs and the connectivity issues that the new firmware was created to address, I would say I possessed at least 3 and possibly even 4 different sonic iterations of the EtherREGEN. By this I mean that after about half an hour, the sound of my unit changed from being a bit lifeless and straightforward and not offering any special acoustic advantage over my old SOtM switch to quite suddenly blooming into life with a full-throated and detail-saturated tone that reminded me very much of when I first owned a Mutec REF10 and went through the process of burning it in. A "big pipe" someone called it and that was very accurate for me at the time in terms of where I found myself in the EtherREGEN burn-in process. I enjoyed the up-front presentation and increased depth of the sound-stage but I also harbored some quiet reservations about whether I could ultimately live with this addition to my playback chain long term. I ended up selling the REF10, after all, for much the same reasons; everything I listened to through the REF10 shared the sonic signature of that device, regardless of genre or quality of source, I could hear it. And this bothered me in the end, because I knew I was hearing the component and not the music. 

 

Then after about 70-80 hours, the etherREGEN changed again. It was similar to going from a copper power cable to a silver one. Or from vinyl to tape.  The bombast receded. The frequencies aligned better.  The pipe was still big but it was smoother along the inside edges, like it had been polished.  The details sparkled a little more. The soundstage stabilized. More ambient cues emerged. A kind of calm settled over the music. I wondered if this was source dependent but then noticed that this wasn't about the quality of the recording - that information was there no matter what; bad recordings were bad and good were good - but I felt a touch closer to whatever was there in that source, like there was less  between me and the recording now.

 

Another interesting thing happened about this time, as well.  I had another big revelation for my playback chain. I felt like things had become a little too smooth, what some might call "hifi" and I started to examine each component in my desktop system to see if the etherREGEN might be to blame. After much experimentation, I decided to try my Chord Hugo TT2 *without* the M-Scaler practically for the first time since I bought the pair together.  And I was quite impacted by what happened. I realized that the M-Scaler, as great as it was, was very much imparting its own sound on the music. Very much in the  manner as the REF10, although nearly the opposite in terms of effect. The M-Scaler had a way of dulling the inner edges of things, flattening and smoothing tones that at times was very agreeable but resulted in a slight homogenization of the signal. Put another way, without the M-Scaler, there was simply more difference between sources. I would hear the quality of the source better. I could discern the various components and cables in my playback chain better.

 

Finally, after about 120 hrs - right as I became aware of the connectivity issues with the etherREGEN and the subsequent fix - my etherREGEN entered a final stage of 'becoming' what it was ultimately to become. A final level of ease, openness, purity, calm, silence, accuracy of tone, and overall balance come out - to such an extent that the etherREGEN essentially erased itself. This is a very important point to stress. At that stage in the break-in process, listening to the same material again and again, I began to doubt my ability to "hear" the etherREGEN anymore. It was right around then that I made the switch to V2. And the process of burn-in was more or less complete. This is not to say that when I remove the etherREGEN I can't immediately tell it's not there. I can. But when it's in and I settle into listening for a while, each recording comes to me with so little adulteration, each musician, each producer, each venue 'speak' to me in such a clear way, that I could conceivably argue in that moment that the etherREGEN is doing "nothing." I could certainly say the etherREGEN is NOT doing what it did before.

 

So my point is - this process has made it VERY hard to pin down the "sound" of the etherREGEN. It has evolved - and evolved to the point where I have trouble describing what exactly it does - except allow me to hear better into the music. AND it's perhaps possible that this is at least in part what has brought some listeners to the conclusion that something changed with their units with the V2 upgrade. I would very curious, in other words, to know where people were in the the break-in process when they made the switch. The results of my personal experience also imply that the etherREGEN may, in some circumstances, force its owner to reassess even highly-resolving and highly-acclaimed components. In other words, the etherREGEN may reveal things about one's playback chain that are actually NOT what one thought they were and NOT actually to one's liking.

 

Anyway, the major take-aways are this:

1) Burn is very real with this device and took me through many stages before it more or less settled where it is now. During this process the sound of the etherREGEN changed many times and pinning down its 'sonic signature' is now very difficult for me to do.

2) The EtherRegen allowed to me get rid of my Hugo M-Scaler because it allowed to hear how that device was influencing the sound I was hearing.

 

I will follow up later with some other interesting observations about:

1) Using a Farad 7V PSU in place of an LPS 1.2 on the etherREGEN and how this further "erased" the etherREGEN from the music.

2) Testing of different servers and software to learn that the effect of upstream 'devices' through the etherREGEN still matters quite a bit, although decidedly less than downstream devices, which corroborates what I have said above because essentially ALL components are revealed more by the etherREGEN - whether upstream or downstream...

 

Indeed a great review, thanks a lot! Some time ago I was thinking about buying an Hugo M-scaler, glad I didn’t. I think Superdad should place this in the listening 👂 tread. It belongs there! Hopefully austinpop will give us his thoughts soon too.

[jos]

29 minutes ago, soares said:

I tried an sbooster ( the old model) and I didn’t experience any difference. This is in line to what Alex said that an LPS would not change the SQ. But again the Farad might be another animal. Please share with us your impressions. Thank you. 

The Farad is better, no doubt, but worth the money in combination with the ER? I don’t think so, but let’s wait...

[jos]

2 hours ago, simon_pepper said:

I was away on a business trip last week, so applied the firmware update this Sunday afternoon, after my system had been powered backup & warmed up after a week away etc.

I had not experienced any network drops with my Naim NDS network player (Streamer/DAC), UltraRendu running the SonoreUPnP Bridge for Roon connectivity, RPi2 running Asset R6.4 UPnP server, as ‘native’ UPnP server as backup playback path. There is also a ATV Gen3. None of these devices has any reported EEE issues. So the application of the firmware was purely to avail of the performance upgrade to the PHY layer for the ‘A’ ports.

 

Application of the update was straight forward and well documented.  I understand that in-the-field firmware updates was never planned, hence the USB port being internal to the device - anyway it means we were allowed to open and view the actual PCB - nicely done and densely populated.

 

Back in the system and all port responding - initial listening, I still have the soundstage space, and additional clarity over the unmanaged Cisco 5-port the EtherRegen placed. Is there more? I think so, however system is now playing the new Pink Floyd album and it all sounds mighty fine across the range, with good transient behaviour and fine detail resolution. So no issues here.

 

I have also placed a 20mm think Cork board under, and being 150mm x 150mm it is a perfect size for under the EtherRegen case, if not going on a shelf. My EtherRegen is behind my two Aavik tables. I have one of these boards under my NUC based ROCK server as well, sprayed black. If anyone is interested these Cork boards are on Amazon UK.

 

Now if John has found additional scope on the PHY layer of the A-ports, is there any such opportunity for the B-port? Or maybe a further optimisation of both PHY settings now the initial connectivity problems re. EEE protocol are solved.

 

Keep up the good work, and ignore the ‘bits are bits’ crowd, network optimisation and reduction of noise into the Streamer/DAC is obviously important and can have a significant impact.

 

As an example I understand Melco units are being configured as just network buffers, between a networked Roon Core & Music Library and the Streamer/DAC - that solution is at a different price point to the EtherRegen based approach, but still providing isolation between different IP traffic streams.

 

Simon

I use Audirvana for buffering; is there a difference?

[jos]

1 hour ago, Iving said:

 

Hi Johnnydev,

Many apologies - I am not sure I fully understand.

I haven't reported on grounding previously (afaik!) Please don't correct me if you find something!

After significant systematic adjustments since last I posted I have found that adding a ground wire from the ER to my IsoTek GII Mini Sub (you would have to review my System to interpret) adds body and weight - a positive tone adjustment for me - even if I discover eventually that it is not strictly "Hi-Fi". It doesn't matter.

I remove all "doubt and unrest" from my own mind by coming to my own conclusions after much mucking about and in the fullness of time. I don't know any other way! (bar the spiritual!). We audiophiles probably turn over too many stones in order to find happiness 😉

Thanks for your explanation so far; it is a good thing to report all of this. In addition: I totally agree with Superdad to remove so much gear (switches) as possible.