Anyone else order UpTone etherRegen? Percent improvement?

Network Audio
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I was able to order within the first 2-3 minutes and so I will get my etherRegen in the first shipment in about 4 weeks.

Anyone else waiting for theirs, or have a dissenting view of why they don’t think the device will pay the sonic dividends we’re anticipating.

I’m not worried since it has a 30 day evaluation period, but I’m wondering if I’ll experience a nice but modest improvement, (similar to the passive medical Ethernet isolator i bought), a revelation that takes digital playback to a new level, or someplace in between.

I have often wondered about the percentage of improvement provided by tweeks, and what degree is audible and worthwhile.

For instance, in a highly resolving system, I would imagine a 2-3 % improvement would be an audible and perhaps worthwhile upgrade, and adding several for a cumulative effect would yield a double digital increase, which would be large. Other high performance hobbies, Racing, etc, it’s often small improvement that mean leaving the pack behind.

Swapping in a different transducer might make a huge 30-100% percent improvement. I’ve found cables (even ones that are tens of thousands) to make subtle differences. Power conditioning seems to be higher on the scale of improvement, (at least in my system) perhaps as much as 20 percent or more.

I would rate various DS releases to afford a healthy increase of 5 to as much as 15 percent.

I Would like to hear others thoughts on trying quantify the percentage of improvement.

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Kind of hard to say since there are no public reviews and people won’t be receiving them till next month. This has been in the works for a few years and based on Uptone’s track record my guess is it’ll be a worthwhile investment for steaming audio.I’ve experienced maybe a 20% (over my dumb switch) improvement with a real cisco switch so i’m looking forward to what people think of the etherregen when they get them next month.

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Wow that’s a huge increase with just a Cisco switch !

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I also made it into the first release.
Looking forward to giving it a spin.

No doubt a controversial component.
Less noise is always a good thing, how much of an improvement probably depends on how much noise you had to start with. I imagine some may hear a huge improvement while for others it may be marginal.

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Looking forward to initial reports…

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Same here - be interested the hear what folks hear, especially since it’ll be next year at least before I can get one ; )

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I’d agree on the face of it about “probably depends on how much noise you had to start with.” except for all these sorts of things like power regenerators that help despite very low noise on the line, every USB device that has improved the performance of connections we didn’t realize had any noise, and…the vanishingly small reductions in noise Ted makes in each DS FW, resulting in profound sonic changes…:man_shrugging:t2:

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I totally agree with the racing analogy but listening to music is not a competition, at least not for me and with myself…I don’t know anyone that races for pleasure. It’s an addiction and a tough transition to ‘not’ racing.

I am curious to try the eRegen. I’ve got optical from a decent Cisco network switch from mid 2000s or so to my music server, this would sit between the two.

Will I pay $640 for 2-3% more ‘enjoyment’, yep, probably will (after 30 days of listening)

I have a pair of Cisco Nexus 7010 with 1st gen supervisors but they’ve been moving petabytes around my network for years now, same with the Catalyst 6513 cluster they replaced.

One of the primary things that makes or breaks a network admin is his or her gear…followed by many other attributes but you don’t get very far without 100% stable hardware and code that runs it. Seems if noise is errors, I want less.

Do these vanishing levels of noise make a difference? It certainly did in my system going to Windom. Is it 2-3% different or better, I don’t know how to quantify feelings

1 Like
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Well said, far more succinctly than my ramble :wink:

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I’m very interested but still somewhat reserved. All will depend on how much noise one has to start with and the extent to which one already handled that. My Pink Faun Lan Isolator & Melco already assure quite nice isolation/cleaning/reclocking.

No Bridge user anymore, but I’ld like to try if the upcoming Bridge III SQ-wise could surpass usb-matrix-hdmi. Using Melco’s dedicated audio ethernet output to BridgeIII, which of course will be heavily isolated etc.already, i doubt whether the Etherregen adds much value.

So for the time being I’m eagerly awaiting reviews and may use their 30-day money-back satisfaction guarantee in the future. Since knowing what the Matrix is capable of…:wink:

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Have any PS Audio customers received their EtherRegen, and if so, is anyone willing to post their early impressions?

For those who are interested, here’s a link to the official “listening impressions” thread, but my experience with this forum is that UpTone’s customers – especially the early adopters – are predisposed to love these products:

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If Alex ships the balance of the first batch on Wednesday, I might have mine by this Friday.
About 50 hours of run in and a week of listening, then taking it back out and listening again.
So I am over a week out on posting any results, unless I fall into a eR induced listening coma, then it may be longer.

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I am still waiting to see the promised measurements showing how effective this device is. I have a pretty good handle of the type of noise the EtherREGEN is supposed to block. I would just like to see actual measurements for once.

1 Like
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I have the EtherRegen up and running in my system. Here is my initial impression from just plugged in to a day later. All files played locally from Jriver/Mac Pro tower 2013, music on thunderbolt raid, speakers TAD CR1’s, BHK300’s, Atmasphere tube preamp, Directstream/Bridge2.

I switched back and forth several times from the 30 foot cable that runs directly from the second Ethernet port of my Mac Pro trashcan to the short cable connected to the ER, and putting the 30 foot cable on the ER. There was also a passive medical isolator in the system right before the Bridge card in my Directstream dac, which I will remove in the next round of tests.

I liken the changes I heard from the newly plugged in ER to having the music flow through a much bigger pipe. Instead of the musical signal being slightly homogenized , it now really has room to expand, flow, reach new crests and ebb to new lows.

I never compared ethernet plugged in directly to my Mac, vs into a router, so I don’t know if my setup benefits from not having a router in the music’s signal path.

Meaning the ER may have a bigger impact in your system than mine.

I also feel the improvement is one of those (sometime watershed moments) that your ear/brain must become familiar with to fully appreciate the benefits.

I’ll post back tomorrow after the unit has has a day of warm up and steaming, though I can’t imagine it sounding better.

————-

I’ve had the ER in the system for about 14 hours…

Doing a very late night session where I couldn’t turn it up, a few of the things I noticed Were that bass seemed very distinct, as if one could hear each undulation in the deep notes of organs.

Sense of depth and acoustic space each instrument occupies increased.

An orchestral track that previously sounded a bit harsh now sounded smoother while having more detail.

Sense of intimacy of voice on Springsteen’s western stars also seems bettered as well as some instruments like guitars just seemed fuller, more fleshed out and just more real.

I think the ER also reveals more of the recording and so Posibly any hardness baked into the recording may end up more apparent but I don’t have enough experience listening to say for sure.

I have a slight ground him issue in 1 preamp channel that I don’t typically notice much, and with the ER I feel like I notice it more , so perhaps the ER really is making the system quieter.

I told a pro audio guy about the ER and he mentioned he works with Dante networks. If the bandwidth is adequate This could be a huge benefit for recording studios, live sound and even tv productions that utilize Ethernet audio.

——————

After having the ER in the system for a full day I had a chance to play one of my reference tracks, the Rachmaninov symphonic dances Turnabout/Apollo DVD ripped 96/24 wav.

I found myself turning up the system louder than usual. I normally tend to manage volume of playback of this track due to hardness or any amusicality . The horn blasts with ER in the system took on a whole different character. Instead of hearing a steely brat of sonic chunk, what I was left with was the metallic bite of the horns. They had a similar spectral footprint but without what I can best describe as a haze.

Its as if the signal has gotten scrambled in transmission and the ER is suddenly decoding it correctly and the previous “hardness” now rendered with the composition and resonances of the actual instrument. In a video world I’d liken it to viewing graphics on an HD lcd screen vs. the same graphics on a 4K tv. It’s the same source material yet one monitor’s curves have ragged edges and the other one displays a much nicer smoother rending.

The voilins on the track now sounded the most natural and here in the room as I’ve ever experienced.

On Jen Chapin’s Stevie wonder cover, Revisions, the fingering on the bass hitting the body and playing like a drum, revealed the whole of the instrument’s cavity resonating. Jen’s voice was just so natural on this well recorded cut that she’s just simply there.

As I posted in another forum, “avoid this product at your own peril.”

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15

Seems similar to the air gap concept PSA is about to pitch heavy with Octave. PSA will be doing it on the output and the regen puts the air gap (they call it a moat) on the input.

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While I love the sonic effects of the EtherRegen, I am getting several disconnects per day from JRiver. (I have to unplug Ethernet or power from EtherRegen and often restart JRiver). It was stable before introducing the EtherRegen.

The Ethernet is connected to the second port of my Mac Pro 2013 tower, so the signal is not going through a router (the router is connected to the mac’s other port )

I’ve tried setting a static IP in the bridge as per directions on ps’s site (it seems to have put in number 1 numeral off what I though I punched in - is it possible that IP wasn’t available and chose one that is?)

Is there any other tips someone can give me setting the Mac to static IP or settings in JRiver?

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I’ve been following the development on computer audio. There’s new firmware coming out to fix an energy saving bug in the chip. A feature called EEE.

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I’ve had the EtherRegen in my system for about 2 weeks. Prior to the ER, I was using a Cisco WS-C2960G-8TC-L. Prior to the Cisco I was using TP Link media converter set for galvanic isolation.

Jumping to the point, it’s well worth the spend (to me). Bigger soundstage, more detail, and a 3D holographic realism to vocals and reverb. I was expecting almost nothing and was shocked. Loaned it to a buddy last weekend and he ordered one (his ships in January).

Although I jumped on Uptone’s offering within the first 3 minutes of it becoming available, I was pretty sure that if it made more of an impact than my Cisco, it couldn’t possibly make enough of a positive difference to justify the price.

I was wrong.

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Amsco, thanks I had read a little about EEE but didn’t realize it would effect my issues.

I have updated the ER (didn’t work on my Mac had to use a PC) and am waiting to see if fixes the lost connections.

I believe the FW update does actually sound better.

1 Like
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I posted my listening impression in their forum.
I did not have the EEE issue, but it seemed like every part of my networked audio went burzirk the night I went to listen to it for the first time.
HQPlayer kept dropping my license
My ultraRendu couldn’t see my matrix’s full capacity, no DSD
NAA would not restart on the ultraRendu
Its like there was a coordinated IP attack.
I wasn’t the only one experincing weird problems when I read through the forums.
Everything was fine the next day, maybe it was just me?