kennyb123

The focus of most other audiophile switches on the market seems to be on the use of much better clocks. It’s been becoming more apparent that the EtherREGEN’s better clock plus the reduction of clock phase noise have increased precision in the time domain. This is most apparent in the bass - especially In the attack of bass drum beaters - which have more of the “feel it in your gut” impact of a real bass drum. Time domain improvements aren’t just limited to the bass though. This improvement was there from the beginning but may have improved since the EtherREGEN’s clock has had a little over 24 hours to stabilize.

Exactly what I’ve been hearing - I couldn’t have said it any better. Harshness is a weird thing in that we pick up on it, but we really don’t get a full appreciation of how much it had been imposing upon us until we hear it stripped away. I’ve been repeatedly surprised by the absence of a hardness that I had become accustomed to hearing. How much clarity has improved has been a surprise too. I mean, I suspected that noise had been entering my system through the network, but until hearing it stripped away I had no clue how badly it had been harming the music. Those of you waiting to receive your EtherREGEN - you are in for a treat.

Nothing got replaced - the EtherRegen plus a WW Starlight was Just placed right before the Zenith. I have fiber coming into my house. Cat5e runs into each of the rooms within the walls from a patch panel in a closet. The fiber coming into my house gets converted to copper via a Fios device. This runs into the closet there it enters a Synology router, which is also my internet gateway. From the patch panel a very long length of copper travels inside the wall up to a wall jack in my listening room. A 5m run of WW Chroma went from the wall jack to my Zenith.. I disconnected the Chroma from the Zenith and connected it to the A side of the EtherRegen. Then from the B side to Zenith I used a 1m WW Starlight.

@Superdad thank you so much for getting the first batch shipped out so far ahead of the promised date. I’m loving what I’m hearing so far! @JohnSwensonand you have another winner here. My initial impressions:

The message I just sent to friends: “Only 20 or so minutes of use so far, but I really like what I’m hearing. Greater ease, reduced harshness and a more natural/beautiful sound are immediately apparent. It should take a few days for this to burn in, but at this point it’s already earned my recommendation. I’ve been sitting here unable to press send as things have gotten even better. I’m arriving at the point where I’m about to say the EtherREGEN should not be considered to be an optional accessory given the noise present in our networks.” Too early to conclude that, but color me very impressed so far. I’ll follow up with another post after it’s settled in some more. As far as usage, a 5m length of Wireworld Chroma ran from my wall jack to my Zenith. I inserted the end of the Chroma into the EtherRegen “A” side and then used a 1m length of Wireworld Starlight to make the connection from the “B” side to my Zenith. I’m using the included power supply.

So very well said. Over the years I had tried to make the same point about their measurement having sufficient precision. I couldn't explain it as precisely as you did. Sorry for going off topic here Alex. I just thought the above was an excellent point.

I heard smearing from the Lush as well. It didn't last long in my system. Later I got to try the Lush^2. There was no apparent smearing that I could hear. The Lush^2 is a cable I could have lived with. I could not say the same thing about the original Lush.

I thought so at first as it seemed the Phoenix would cannibalize sales of the Statement. But there are a heck a lot more people who can afford the Mk3. The Phoenix enables them to take incremental steps in that direction. I believe the Statement's ethernet implementation will also be offered as standalone product as well - furthering the incremental steps one can take with the Mk3. I'm not aware of any of Innuos' competitors offering a path forward like this. The Phoenix makes the Mk3 a more appealing purchase. Sure the Phoenix can improve the Raspberry Pi and other brands of streamers .. but will it make them sound more like the Statement? That's more assured if the starting point is the Mk3. I think the other thing at play here is Innous capitalizing on the success of the Statement. It's not simply about improving USB for the sake of it. It's about moving the Mk3 closer to the Statement's level of performance.

The Mk3 was likely designed hit a price point. Its USB output is as probably good as they could achieve within those price constraints - and still "excellent" relative to other streaming solutions priced at or below the Mk3's price. I suspect there were also physical space constraints. There's not even enough room inside the chassis to have included additional power supplies. A another chassis would have been required. I don't believe the Statement had price constraints. It's Innous' statement product - and it includes their best USB implementation. The Phoenix brings that USB implementation to the Mk3. Or said another way, the Mk3 would have had to have been priced a lot higher to include this USB implementation.

Sensational review, Rajiv!

Interesting. When I did these comparisons I found only a slight advantage in favor of locally stored over files stored on my NAS. Files stored on my NAS did sound noticeably better than the equivalent streamed from either Tidal or Qobuz. My system is substantially more resolving now than back when I last did these comparisons. I'll have to give it another go, but I will wait for the EtherRegen to land first. It was that comparison a while back that got me convinced that I need to try the EtherRegen. My first test with it will be to compare files on NAS to Tidal/Qobuz. I could easily compare to files stored on the Zenith too.

That's a great write-up. I had read this awhile ago, but I see now that there would be benefit in me going through it again. I see, for example, that you recommended the LPS-1.2 on the clean side of the ODX as you found it a step up from the PP2 battery. I did that comparison a few nights ago, but didn't reach the same conclusion. I should revisit that again. I had a mishmash of DC cables, but as you report, these can have a very positive impact on things. I actually found the other night that using a really good DC cable into my TT2 improved the sound more than LPS-1.2 relative to the battery. I really appreciate you taking the time to do such a comprehensive write-up... and for reminding me about it above.

Thanks! I have yet to mention the OPTO DX here on this thread. It was most certainly a game changer as far as the interface between the Chord HMS and TT2. I'm really liking where things landed as far as the BNC cables I'm using on both ends of it. OPTO DX: https://audiowise-canada.myshopify.com Interesting. A friend a few hours away does have a dCS Vivaldi with the clock. He's using Shunyata Sigma clock cables. I wonder as well if the ODX would be beneficial there. The Chord HMS may be a bit of a strange beast as it uses a FPGA that generates a lot of RF. The ODX makes a huge difference when used with the HMS for that very reason. If a particular external clock generates high levels of RF, the ODX may help there too.

I have purchased one and I believe it will ship in the first batch. I'm very much looking forward to it.

With my Zenith Mk2 Std, it was my impression that music stored locally might sound just a bit better than music stored on my NAS. No way was that difference enough to justify moving music onto the SSD. And my hope is that the EtherREGEN would, at a minimum, level the playing field. There are advantages to storing music on a NAS including the ability to hot swap failed drives. The larger the music collection, the more appropriate I think it would be to store it on a NAS. Maybe others can chime in on whether its worth it for you to store your large music collection on the Zenith - and whether the additional expense would be justified.