Uptone Audio EtherREGEN Owners & Discussion Thread

[Snoopy8]

1 hour ago, sufioz said:

Thanks for clarifying and appreciate the offer. Waiting with bated breath to see what lifts on the 19th Oct. I have Opera Consonance Refrerence Pro 8 (Streamer+DAC).

You are more than welcome to borrow mine, am in inner eastern suburb.  Yes, all of us want these restrictions lifted, but I hope it is done sensibly.

1 hour ago, sufioz said:

 I have Opera Consonance Refrerence Pro 8 (Streamer+DAC).

Not aware of any Opera Consonance owners who have the EtherRegen. 

 

EtherRegen owners with a variety of streamers, many of them with linear power supplies, have reported  a major improvement.  The exception are owners of  very high end streamers, Taiko Extreme, Pink Faun costing tens of thousands of €.  I suspect the EtherRegen will make a difference in your setup.

[dbastin]

Nice work @RussB

Maybe try this ...

 

nbn box > OM > fibre > EdgeRouter X SFP >

and

NUC > WW Starlight > EdgeRouter X SFP > sotm Cat 7 > OM > EtherRegen > sotm Cat 7 > streamer.

 

Even swapping the 2 underlined cables might be better.  And use OM with NUC as you currently  do instead of nbn box - if you have FTTP the NUC may be noisier than nbn.

 

The EdgeRouter X SFP will perform as both router and switch - it has a switch chip rather than software switching.

 

This configuration achieves:

- one less noisy device in chain

- inserts superior router

- removes noisy NUC input from ER

- isolates nbn via fibre

 

BTW, over on the Ethernet Routers for Audio thread I reported the EdgeRouter X SFP benefits from power conditioning, high end power cable, LPS and Synergistic Research ECT.

[dbastin]

On 04/09/2020 at 6:25 AM, rmpfyf said:

An isolator would be more effective

Yes, I think many including me have not asked the sample question ... do I need a switch?  My 2nd Gigafoil will replace ER and I suspect will sound better based on past experiments.

On 09/10/2020 at 5:47 AM, Snoopy8 said:

Leave it on,  no need to play music..

I used mine as a switch in my office for some weeks before installing it into hifi system.  I figured that gets data flowing too.

[RussB]

Thanks for suggestions @dbastin.  I will give that approach a try.  I have FTTC and separate NBN box and TP-link VR1600v router as provided by internet provider.  I haven’t dared to try replacing TP-link yet as can’t afford  much down time with 3 people using internet for work and study, and me not really knowing what I am doing, ... but you have prompted me to give it a try! I will check other thread as well, including for how to handle wireless.   I do most of my listening from files which are on SSD plugged into NUC, and at one point I did try Edgerouter downstream of NUC and thought I might have lost something whilst also gaining something.  But have made a few changes since then so will revisit.  At present I have Gieseler 12 v on Edgerouter but no power conditioning.

[Guest rmpfyf]

27 minutes ago, dbastin said:

Yes, I think many including me have not asked the sample question ... do I need a switch?  My 2nd Gigafoil will replace ER and I suspect will sound better based on past experiments.

I used mine as a switch in my office for some weeks before installing it into hifi system.  I figured that gets data flowing too.

 

They do different things.

[dbastin]

@RussB

Wireless is a matter of getting an Access Point.  Ubiquiti APs are pricey and way over spec for a household.  I use a TP link AP and its way better than WiFi via iinet supplied device. Or your TP link router could be configured as Access Point?

 

I will find and share the helpful tips I got from Ubiquiti community to get EdgeRouter up and running.  It probably took me about 15-30 minutes and I am a novice.

 

My intent is to use fibre from nbn box location to allow EdgeRouter to be located amongst my hifi gear (esp power conditioner) with small cost of cabling that does not transmit or collect noise. Currently getting amazing results with just Cat 5e fulfilling that role.

 

Finally, I removed the SSD and SATA data and power cables from my already very low noise Antipodes EX,  placed 1 x SR ECT in the EX on the outgoing ethernet port ... and to my surprise Tidal 16bit 44kHz audio sounds better than higher resolution off SSD.  Im not sure if that is due to removing SSD or the ECT but it will be interesting to hear how reinstalling SSD will sound.

Edited October 10, 2020 by dbastin

[richardloh]

On 10/10/2020 at 9:46 AM, dbastin said:

Yes, I think many including me have not asked the simple question ... do I need a switch?  My 2nd Gigafoil will replace ER and I suspect will sound better based on past experiments.

I used mine as a switch in my office for some weeks before installing it into hifi system.  I figured that gets data flowing too.

Hi Bastin,

 

Not exact but probably similar ....

 

I just had my 15 yrs old 15m ethernet from the hardware store plugged from my ISP's ONR directly to the CX that is about 7m across my living room and had just ordered a 25m Supra cat 8 cable from ebay to run up the false ceiling across the room.

 

I had my CX previously connected to an office grade Netgear switch with all others e..g. TV, cable setup box, nas etc. which is turn connected to an Airties mesh node that is powered by the zerozone lps as is the switch. 

 

Direct ethernet from the ONR to the CX sounded so much cleaner and clearer with more and distinct details as well ad increase in depth and width that my wife can tell in a 10s of seconds.

 

Looking forward to installing the dedicated 25m Supra cat 8 instead of the 15 yr old antique of probably cat 4 or 5 which cannot be worse ... glad done away with any expensive switch, lps, ethernet cable loom 

 

Cheers.

 

Richard

 

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by richardloh

[Jhsg]

Hi everyone 

 

just plugged in my new EtherRegen with a SOTM dCBL cat 7 running between the regen and my lumin U1 mini. 
 

Initially my soundstage was horribly smudged and localized in the speakers but after a few songs it’s started popping and I can hear some magic that I haven’t heard before. It’s one of those upgrades that is making me hear things with more clarity and definition than what I had heard previously. 
 

How much burn in does everyone think is needed? I’m going to leave roon running overnight and tomorrow while I’m at work. Hopefully over the next few days I’ll continue to hear some more improvements but so far I’m impressed. I’m definitely hearing more improvement than I did when I first bought $2k speakers cables for the first time.   

Edited October 14, 2020 by Jhsg

[Snoopy8]

1 minute ago, Jhsg said:

How much burn in does everyone think is needed? I’m going to leave roon running overnight and tomorrow while I’m at work. Hopefully over the next few days I’ll continue to hear some more improvements but so far I’m impressed. I’m definitely hearing more improvement than I did when I first bought $2k speakers cables for the first time.   

80 hours was when things started to come good for me. And continued to improve to about 200 hours...

 

Enjoy the music...

[Jhsg]

Just now, Snoopy8 said:

80 hours was when things started to come good for me. And continued to improve to about 200 hours...

 

Enjoy the music...

Thanks mate. 
 

I seem to be in a constant 0-200hr burn in process for something at the moment. One day everything will be burned in.

[EHT007]

Anyone in Au sell these? Wouldnt mind try it myself. Despite ASR review... 

[Jhsg]

4 minutes ago, Pasic007 said:

Anyone in Au sell these? Wouldnt mind try it myself. Despite ASR review... 

I just had a look at the ASR review. Interesting. I’m 2hrs in and it’s making a difference. No doubt about it. I’ve spent more for less benefit. 
 

Not sure where you can buy them from. I got mine second hand on here. 

[EHT007]

5 minutes ago, Jhsg said:

I just had a look at the ASR review. Interesting. I’m 2hrs in and it’s making a difference. No doubt about it. I’ve spent more for less benefit. 
 

Not sure where you can buy them from. I got mine second hand on here. 

Ah thats good to know. 

I also watched this, sry if it was posted already

 

[Snoopy8]

31 minutes ago, Pasic007 said:

Anyone in Au sell these? 

Sorry, no AU resellers. You can get direct from Uptone (shipped via FedEx)

https://uptoneaudio.com/products/etherregen

or from reseller in Hong Kong (check who they use for shipping during these COVID-19 times)

https://www.adark.co/products/uptone-etherregen-femto-switch-vip-purchase?_pos=1&_sid=37bde40d2&_ss=r

[Jhsg]

As I wrap up my first night of listening, I have to say that I’m impressed. The soundstage is far more 3 dimensional and I’m hearing a lot more detail. Very happy. 
 

The only issue I’m having is my roon remote seems a little less responsive and is crashing on my iPhone a fair bit where it was stable & okay last night. Could be a million things and possibly a roon issue. Weird but that’s hifi for you! 

[ikhuong]

5 minutes ago, Jhsg said:

As I wrap up my first night of listening, I have to say that I’m impressed. The soundstage is far more 3 dimensional and I’m hearing a lot more detail. Very happy. 
 

The only issue I’m having is my roon remote seems a little less responsive and is crashing on my iPhone a fair bit where it was stable & okay last night. Could be a million things and possibly a roon issue. Weird but that’s hifi for you! 

If you plug your last mile ethernet to b side, it is 100mbps port.

it gives best sound quality but not the best network speed, many streamer ethernet ports are designed at 1000 speed and will be impacted 

[Jhsg]

9 minutes ago, ikhuong said:

If you plug your last mile ethernet to b side, it is 100mbps port.

it gives best sound quality but not the best network speed, many streamer ethernet ports are designed at 1000 speed and will be impacted 

Thanks. That makes sense. 
 

I just read you can run either a or b side to the streamer and the benefit just comes from running the signal from a to b or vice versa. Are they the same - does a and b outputs sound the same? 

[Snoopy8]

20 minutes ago, Jhsg said:

I just read you can run either a or b side to the streamer and the benefit just comes from running the signal from a to b or vice versa. Are they the same - does a and b outputs sound the same? 

Correct, the benefit comes from crossing the "moat".  If you use B to A, be careful on what you connect on the A side. You do not want to reintroduce noise which the ER has reduced.

[ikhuong]

7 hours ago, Jhsg said:

Thanks. That makes sense. 
 

I just read you can run either a or b side to the streamer and the benefit just comes from running the signal from a to b or vice versa. Are they the same - does a and b outputs sound the same? 

If your upstream ethernet goes to B-end and streamer’s ethernet goes to A-end,  the bottleneck is still at 100 speed of the B-port, sound quality will be the same as signal has been passed through a “moat” which is a kind of galvanic isolation chip ( i think opto-isolator). if you plug all of them in a-end to maintain 1000 speed, you will disable the intended galvanic isolation design of Etherregen, 

 

upon reading around , i found the reason many highend streamers cannot implement 1000 speed with galvanic isolation because of the current technology, there is no opto-isolator on the market capable to pass 1000 speed

 

if you are still want to go full steam with Ethergeren without scarifying speed performance, It might not necessary but can look for streamers with 100 speed network port design , all MSB Dac and network  modules are designed to work with 100 only and have opto isolator as well.

 

 

[Jhsg]

Thanks for the guidance. 
 

I emptied the photo cache and reinstalled the app on my phone. Seems to be working fine now. Strange that it started misbehaving after I put the etherregen in the chain. 

[frednork]

very interesting review

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/190575/etherregen-audiophile-ethernet-switch-video-and-audio-review

 

Edited October 14, 2020 by frednork

[frednork]

blacker blacks

Figure 17. Pixel level pictures, side by side. Left to right: Amazon Cable Matters Cat6a, Blue Jeans Certified Cat6a, AudioQuest Cinnamon Cat7, AudioQuest Vodka Cat7, Revelation Audio Labs Prophecy CryoSilver Cat8+.

[HumanMedia]

I’ve happily had the EtherRegen since the second batch and it has its own Farad3 Power supply and Sablon ethernet downstream to an ultraRendu. Upstream it is attached via Blue Jeans CAT6a to a wireless repeater wirelessly connected to my main router.

 

So the EtherRegen is not attached to my main router, only to a wireless repeater.

 

Could I expect an improvement by replacing the ethernet connection between the upstream wireless repeater, with an optical connection to the EtherRegen?

 

And is it simply a matter of getting the Sonore Opticalmodule and connecting this with the Sonore optical cable and two SFP modules into the B side of the UtraRendu? 
 

Is that all there is to it?

 

Also I understand that different SFP modules have different sound quality. Are the Sonore ones the best or are there better alternatives, like the https://planetechusa.com/product/mgb-tlx-mini-gbic-lx-module-20km/

 

Any experience and advice appreciated.

Edited October 18, 2020 by HumanMedia

[ikhuong]

1 hour ago, HumanMedia said:

I’ve happily had the EtherRegen since the second batch and it has its own Farad3 Power supply and Sablon ethernet downstream to an ultraRendu. Upstream it is attached via Blue Jeans CAT6a to a wireless repeater wirelessly connected to my main router.

 

So the EtherRegen is not attached to my main router, only to a wireless repeater.

 

Could I expect an improvement by replacing the ethernet connection between the upstream wireless repeater, with an optical connection to the EtherRegen?

 

And is it simply a matter of getting the Sonore Opticalmodule and connecting this with the Sonore optical cable and two SFP modules into the B side of the UtraRendu? 
 

Is that all there is to it?

 

Also I understand that different SFP modules have different sound quality. Are the Sonore ones the best or are there better alternatives, like the https://planetechusa.com/product/mgb-tlx-mini-gbic-lx-module-20km/

 

Any experience and advice appreciated.

I have fiber upstream in place bw EtherRegen and Telstra cable modem with opticalmodule  as Media converter

my ideology is that 100% fiber isolation in stopping leakage current only makes things better or equally to copper, not worse. The copper to upstream might open an opportunity for leakage current in some setup or some extreme long/old in-wall ethernet which is degraded over time, or you never know,

 From my understanding at work, optic sfps have dozen  brands but only a handy of OEM (two or three worldwide) in optic manufacturing industry, main differences are on after sale support, RMA or some special proprietary/driver support on big brands such as Juniper or Cisco which same design, different labels with 5 times more expensive, their rrp are jacked up multiple times  so they can offer special deal to business together with routers/switches purchase

 

for home usage, go for MM sfp as they are generally safer to eye if anyone is ever curious and look into the fiber cores (ex: kids, pets). SM SFP use laser light, don’t buy the Long range version as the signal would be very strong, even most are classified as Class 1 optics, looking into a operational optics or fibers are not recommended.

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by ikhuong

[Snoopy8]

34 minutes ago, HumanMedia said:

Also I understand that different SFP modules have different sound quality. 

Am using these SFPs, suggestion from Uptone forum and can order locally

https://www.fs.com/au/products/75327.html

Feeding ER is one of these

https://cplonline.com.au/networking/routers/ubiquiti-er-x-sfp-edgerouter-x-6port-au.html

Have not experimented much more but I know that @RussB is also using an Optical Rendu.