EtherREGEN: All posts about firmware moved here

[Jud]

3 hours ago, Iving said:

I noticed that Dante Controller had got its knickers in a twist following the firmware update. Also RedNet Control only intermittently recognised my D16 AES. I cannot say what kind of explanation these could have been for my earlier (post-firmware) listening notes. I have reset everything now and all the lights are green and things are as they should be. I can't whack up the volume because there are too many people around. I shall have to wait until tomorrow to see whether the overall tone is still a little unsettling.

 

But I have listened to a few tracks that don't punch out "grunt" (a word I noticed earlier in the thread and which seems apposite). Joan Armatrading's "Dry Land". Ed Bruce's "Why Can't I Come Home". Tim Buckley's live rendition of "Pleasant Street/You Keep Me Hanging On" from Dream Letter. These are emotional tracks - and the more so for me for biographical reasons. The lump in my throat that usually I can stifle compels me to retract my "soul" remarks! (even if I save my "body" for later.)

 

I maintain that this firmware update has produced a *considerable* change in SQ for me. Mine is an ethernet-based system - I play local files thru Dante. The ER feeds a Focusrite interface then DAC. No USB anywhere. All I am saying is that I wonder whether my system is peculiarly sensitive to the ER. Either way - *for me the firmware update delta is as great as if not greater than the ER per se delta* - and I do not exaggerate.

 

What I am struck by is what one might call *accuracy*. I can't fault the music at modest volumes.

 

Tomorrow I'll crank things up with my usual diet of rockabilly and some other stuff I know really, really well - stuff that makes me dance. Then I'll know whether I need to miss that "bass". In all living memory I can feel my system's bass *somatically* - in my feet at the listening position (as an elephant "hearing" a love call across the savannah). I love to literally feel music and I don't use headphones. (My Snell Type A IIIs emanate not sound but *wind*). After the firmware update I could not feel that bass in my feet or in my body in the same way - and there was no mistake. Probably that change was *not* something to do with errant network settings. Perhaps, after all, I just haven't ever heard accuracy like this (at home) to recognise it. We shall see ...

 

(... and if I don't - perhaps I should sell up, buy a boombox and have a holiday.)

 

Hi @Iving. First, thank you for the Joan Armatrading suggestion.  She has always been a favorite.

 

After reading your initial comment about the bass, today I listened to music at normal levels for the first time with the post-update ER in the system. (I updated last night, but my wife was in bed.) I made sure to play two tracks with bass I can feel, as you say - Ruby Tuesday, by Colvin and Earle (Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle) and Amen, from Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas album.

 

My subjective impression of my system's sound was that nothing at all has been lost of the physical "punch" or "grunt" of the bass, and that along with this there may even be slightly more clarity/tone in the very low bass register.

 

Something else I noticed when listening to Amen was the "breathiness" of the trumpet's intonation, which hadn't been evident before. So although I was reluctant to jump on the "improved sound" bandwagon just due to not wanting to allow power of suggestion to affect my opinion, I must say I think it's very possibly true.

[Jud]

5 minutes ago, soares said:

Instruction were very clear and it just took me a couple of minutes to install the new firmware. Thank you Alex! 
Now the sound. The difference in my system is not subtle. The soundstage is bigger and the clarity increased substantially. But at the same time it seems that the sound is lighter. English is not my mother tongue and as such I have difficulties to explain my preliminar feelings. I regret not have made a copy of the original firmware.

Alex, from what I read, most of us didn’t have any problems with the original firmware. The firmware was not faulty at all.  I am using a Zen MKIII as server and a uR as end point. Between the two an oM and eR. I could also use my STi5   just for HQP purposes. All working fine. I understand that from your point of view giving the users the choice to opt for one or the other firmware would potentially lead to hardware repairs due to the amount of experiences that some of us would engage. However, it is not necessarily the case as the differences are notable. 
So, while I really  appreciated how quickly you and John has provided a solution to the problem some of us were facing, I would equally appreciate if you could provide us with the old firmware for the ones that due to a system particularly transparent might prefer a darker sound! 

Cheers Jorge

P.s. Please don’t tell me as you did earlier that one  might return eR if It is not satisfied...😀

 

Hello, @soares. If I might suggest: Please play some tracks you are familiar with that have substantial very low bass you can feel. (If you have Qobuz I can suggest two.) Play those, and also see if you have something with double bass or cello playing. I don't know if your system will be like mine, but if it is I think you will hear there is no lessening of bass response and in fact perhaps some additional clarity.

 

Of course if that is not what you hear, then hopefully someone will provide you the firmware file you would like. I just wonder if people are taking the further absence of "mud" or "rumble" for less real bass when that is not the case, at least in my listening.

[Jud]

11 minutes ago, soares said:

Oh thank you so much Jud. I will try tomorrow. I have Qubuz and Tidal, so It will be a pleasure to hear your suggestions.I agree with you that I am experiencing additional clarity, and it’s fantastic. The voices are more real. I know it sounds crazy and  but it seems that I am missing is not the bass response but somehow a kind of darker tonality... I am sorry. I really do not intend to cause any misunderstandings.  The eR is really a wonderful device with both firmware. It’s just that my system is perhaps too transparent. Let’s see if Alex will be willing to consider having available the original and the new one. From a marketing perspective I think that would be really incredible 👍

I’m not going to post links, because mine are for Qobuz in the US, and I don’t know if you access Qobuz from another country.

 

 The tracks are:

 

- “Ruby Tuesday,” from the album Colvin & Earle (hi res version) by Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle.

 

- “Amen,” from the album Old Ideas (hi res version) by Leonard Cohen.

 

You should be able to feel some of the bass notes in each of these. At least in my system, I don’t feel them any less now than I did before the change.

 

In Amen, you should also be able to hear some “breathiness” in the intonation of the trumpet. I wasn’t noticing that before the firmware change, so I think there may be even more clarity and information available from the music after the change.

[Jud]

2 hours ago, jos said:

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

Yes, I have to say the palpable sense of “you-are-there”ness continues to be fully present for me too, if not more so.

[Jud]

Perhaps the sound has changed for the worse in some folks’ systems; perhaps some people are looking for the same emotional charge again as happened with original insertion of the ER in the system. I don’t think this will happen, just because the difference between no ER and ER 1.0 is greater than the difference between ER 1.0 and ER 1.1.

 

While it’s indisputable the device actually works better electronically now, here we are, with some people (like me) quite happy, others not as much, and we will see what if anything Alex and John might prefer to do about it.

[Jud]

18 hours ago, Superdad said:

But the code change we made does not touch the SFP cage's SGMII interface at all

 

18 hours ago, soares said:

It is just an hypothesis that the decrease of SQ with v2 affects just the fiber port

Jorge, given what Alex has said, can this hypothesis be correct?

[Jud]

12 minutes ago, Iving said:

 

disagree

ER1 and ER2 are two completely different animals

they have different personalities

they are effectively two different products

ER1 earned very near unanimous approval

ER2 is very hifi but some of us feel it is inferior musically

it is fascinating that a single-design product can produce two different outputs the result of fixing an EEE problem and/or ???

the ER clearly has truly massive potential

ER2 doesn't feel like a final solution

 

Ah, OK, I was wondering what part of my comment you disagreed with. 🙂 No problem, I retract my assumption that everyone would think not having an ER at all would be more subjectively consequential than the firmware change. And I wish you an agreeable outcome.

[Jud]

3 minutes ago, dminches said:

 

Alex, maybe at some time (in another thread) you or John can explain what this means.  I tried to google it but didn't find anything meaningful.

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHY_(chip)

 

It's the chip that implements the Ethernet protocol for the switch. The firmware update improved the chip's performance with regard to receiving and sending Ethernet data.

[Jud]

2 minutes ago, dminches said:

 

Thanks for the link.  I know what the definition of PHY is.  What I would like to know is the definition of "improved the chip's performance" is.  That is a pretty general term.

 

 

The Wikipedia article says "the Ethernet PHY is a chip that implements the hardware send and receive function of Ethernet frames." Whether the firmware changes made throughput more reliable, closer to nominal speed values, or improved it in other ways, I wouldn't know.

[Jud]

27 minutes ago, JohnSwenson said:

At this point I fixed the EEE workaround code and found out that that it actually CAUSED dropouts every time an RJ45 A port connected.

 

If I'm understanding this, "just fixing EEE without touching anything else" is not an option.

[Jud]

By the way, I'm jealous of all of you getting to listen to a v1 or v2 ER tonight. All day power outage here!

[Jud]

31 minutes ago, andresz said:

As I said, I dont deny any ones experience I am telling you mine.

 

Agreed. Forgive those of us who are enjoying the ER with upgraded firmware and perhaps as much out of curiosity as anything else, say "But are you doing this, and have you tried that?" 🙂

 

I personally have no problem with anyone questioning the reliability of my subjective impressions, and I make no particular claim as to their validity. While having a great deal of scientific and engineering curiosity about how this all might work, I simply enjoy my music. But certainly in the matter of things as varied and personal as audio systems, I am quite reluctant to question anyone else's taste and experiences.