Lumin U1 Network Error

[Superdad]

16 hours ago, One and a half said:

The network in front of the Lumin is very important, the least amount of traffic, direct connections, cabling, earthing do influence the sound, the resolution on the Lumin is that good, all measures can be heard good and bad, goes without saying, one change at a time recommended!

 

Hi Gary:

I have to agree with you there, and I wish I knew why the Lumin units can be so fussy about their network connection.  We are approaching 1,500 EtherREGENs in the field and of the small handful of people who experience (generally solvable or random) connectivity issues I'd say about 1/3 of them are from Lumin users (all different models).

Many I should connect with @wklie and offer to send him a unit to test.

--Alex C.

[Superdad]

11 minutes ago, wklie said:

A Network Error at Lumin boot time can mean one of the two things: an Ethernet link is not established (usually the network port hardware LED does not flash), or timeout from getting an IP address from DHCP server.

After Lumin is successfully booted up (i.e. already got an IP address from DHCP), a Network Error merely means a physical link down.  Unplugging the network cable will also cause this.

 

Hi Peter:

Thank you for your reply.  I just now took another look through our support cases with Lumin users. Wish I could find a pattern and post something typical, but all these people have various complicated systems--with cables, switches, servers, power supplies, and Roon, etc. 

Most all have found stability and are working now. If there is one common thread it seems to be that loss of connection (which I know could be caused at either end--with the EtherREGEN just the poor switch in the middle) occurs after some idle time of the Lumin unit. So I don't know what happens there.

 

The other thing that happens is with Roon--and not just with Lumin users--is that Roon seems to always be polling for the endpoint, and if some other network traffic causes just a little extra delay (of the endpoint responding--through latency of our EtherREGEN) that it is still there, Roon will report that the endpoint is gone. Usually having the user connect the Roon Core server directly to one of the other 'A' side ports of the EtherREGEN takes care of the matter.

 

If we do find some pattern or have some solid questions or something for you to test, then I will get in contact with you directly.

Many thanks again.  We have admired your fine products for years--and we have quite a few mutual customers.

Best wishes,

--Alex C.

[Superdad]

6 hours ago, matthias said:

With top equipment the EtherRegen has best SQ when using the A-side only, so staying with 1Gbps.

 

Hi Matt:

Please do not spread that as a rumor. The only folks who seem to like to stay on the EtherREGEN's 'A' side (not crossing our active differential isolation and rechecking moat to 'B' side) have been a few owners of the $25K-$30K Taiko Audio Extreme--and they are using the SFP port on the 'A' side for optical connection to their Taiko.

 

We have a great many dCS DAC owners (both Rossini and Vivaldi) enjoying their EtherREGEN's A>B (or B>A; other than number of ports and speed our piece is symmetrical performance-wise for data/clocking/power on both sides). If those DACs don't qualify as "top equipment" I don't know what does. Also Lumin users, to be on topic here. 

 

Of course people are free to utilize the EtherREGEN in whatever ways work and sound best for them. A careful examination of the technical highlights of just the 'A' side reveals our design to be quite advanced and focused on performance for audio systems.

 

Cheers,

--Alex C.

[Superdad]

4 minutes ago, JMellin said:

I tested to swap sides on the switch so that the 100mbps port now face the internet side, first impression was good.

 

We went to extra trouble and expense to make the EtherREGEN symmetrical about its moat (i.e. differential clocking and reclocking and all super voltage regulation is the same both sides) just so that B>A performance would be equal to A>B. Main reason we did it was for optical endpoint users (opticalRendu), but there are other uses for B>A connection, such as multiple endpoints. And sometimes this configuration eliminates problems with certain combinations of Linux-based streamer endpoints and s/w--typically Roon, whose RAAT protocol is not tolerant of extra latency when it polls (frequently) to see that the endpoint is still there and awake.

 

[Superdad]

Hello all!  I'm just catching up with this thread.  Super busy weeks here as we are working to ship our the last big batch of EtherREGENs for 2020 (plus another 13 JS-2s next week).

A different user, with Lumin U1, posted a different issue over on the RoonLabs forum. Seemed a minor issue about having to reboot the EtherREGEN after performing firmware upgrades to his router. https://community.roonlabs.com/t/lumin-u1-uptone-etherregen-not-playing-nice/131427

But since he alerted me to that thread (I don't hang out or monitor the Roon forum) and since Peter (@wklie) was there giving some clear and patient advice, I went ahead and replied.  Below I repost the first portion of that reply (the second half was to the user Craig about his set up).

 

Thanks,

ALEX

 

Hi Peter and Craig:

First, thank you Peter for your clear assistance in these matters. It is obvious that you have been paying attention to both how the EtherREGEN functions and to other user reports.

I will contact you privately to arrange sending you an EtherREGEN unit for your own testing and enjoyment. But that will have to be late-January as we are completely sold out this month.

With just about 2,000 EtherREGENs in the field, and many successfully being used with various Lumin models (and Aurender, Auralic, dCS, Devialet, Innous, etc, etc.) we are confident that there is not any fundamental flaw or incompatibility. Still, we are always looking for ways to improve the piece and if something is discovered we may be able to issue a new (user installable) firmware file.

I do admit that the incidence of new EtherREGEN owner support issues is a bit higher for Lumin owners than with others, but it most always seems to get worked out. Sometimes it depends upon the upstream router handing out IP addresses.
But the recent report regarding cables with metal-shelled RJ45s and tied to both end shields is puzzling–yet not entirely unique even to Lumin and EtherREGEN. We have some theories about this, but need to do further testing.

 

 

[Superdad]

25 minutes ago, JMellin said:

When ER is restarted in scenario "no-traffix" everything starts working as soon as it has booted.

 

Hi Johan:

We have something for you to try.  

I can find no record of your purchase direct from us (perhaps through one of our good dealers and that is fine)--unless your last name is not Mellin--nor can I find any record of correspondence with you about your Lumin/EtherREGEN difficulty.  So please send a note with your correct name and e-mail address to us through the Contact Us page on the UpTone web site. Then I will reply back with a special suggestion.

 

Also, please let us know what power supply you are using with the EtherREGEN and if you are also using a 10MHz external reference clock.

 

Thank and regards,

--Alex C.