or rather shouldn’t be grounded to work correctly
Good post.
Nah, that couldn’t be happening, could it? 
Got my shipping notice today. Arrives Friday. Depending on when I get it, at a minimum, I’ll have it running by my evening listening session on Saturday.
Enjoy you new EtherRegen! My experience was that it doesn’t sound the best out of the box. Give it a while to make up your mind on the contribution.
Just arrived via fedex. I’ll know more tonight after a lengthy Friday evening listening session but I hear an improvement right away. I’ll be damned. Haven’t tried any of the fancy tweeks of course. Just a standard cat 6 cable on the B side, 2ft.
This compilation is ear candy to me so it was the first to play. Disc 2 so the recordings are older with limited bass. All the tubes in my system can make it sound a little relaxed, the ER has added a sharpness that I like so far.
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So an 8.2968% improvement?
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On the high side but…ya!
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I have mine rated a a solid 3.0777982% improvement. But I have some trick Cat 6 cables from Germany on their way. I could see it going as high as 3.08% perhaps.
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I have that release and I enjoy it.
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I added a Cables Matters Category 8, shielded cable to the B side of the regen. A decent little bump in improvement. This cable was recommended by participants on the audiophile style forum.
I lean towards being cable agnostic yet have spent real money buying them (who here hasn’t). I just don’t like the game of trying lots of cables and spending all that money. I buy based on whatever hype sinks in and then stick with them. Another factor is pure laziness. It’s all a lot of work and mental energy too.
Given that, this inexpensive experiment was well worth it. As was the $640 regen.
I’ve had my etherRegen for about three months now. When I first bought it (used), it made the slightest bit of difference and I was on the fence about keeping it. Then a buddy of mine, who was praising the etherRegen, encouraged me to try his Farad linear power supply with it. The difference was notable to the point where after I experienced it, I could not go back without it. I found a used Farad LPS with the upgraded silver DC cable, and it cost more than the etherRegen itself.
My experience as a result is similar to how @hthaller describes above. I do not get the same level of improvement using my Farad LPS directly on my network extender into my streamer, so the etherRegen is definitely doing its job.
My digital chain is as following:
EtherRegen w/ Farad LPS
Wireworld Starlight Cat 8
NAD M50.2 streamer
Synergistic Research Galileo SX AES
PS Audio DSD Sr
This is great! I have tried the EtherRegen but I have tried the AQVOX SE and currently have a maxed out SoTM SNH-10g with a SoTM SPS-500 power supply. It really is amazing what these things can do.
I recently swapped a Sonore opticalModule for the 10Gtek fiber transceiver I was using between my router and the ER.
The 10Gtek stuff powered by an HDPlex LPS with an Sbooster Ultra DC module was an improvement over an AQ Cinnamon Ethernet cable at a cost of less than $100 bucks. Swapping for the opticalModule and the associated System Optique SFPs and fiber link was a real ear opener.
After a bit of break-in with the oM in the chain I honestly feel like I have new speakers!
-Andy
Digital Chain is (very long!): Router > AQ Cinnamon Ethernet > oM (HDplex LPS) > 5m Fiber > ER (Sbooster LPS) > Synergistic Reference Ethernet > Roon Nucleus+ (JS-2) > Curious USB Link > ISO Regen (LPS 1.2) > VBUS Isolator > Synergistic Reference USB > Matrix X-SPDIF 2 (JS-2) > AQ Mocha HDMI > PS Audio DSD Sr. via I2S
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I just received mine today. It has transformed my streaming! Day and night. Superb!!
Router - generic Cat 6 - EtherREGEN- AfterDark Cat 8 - Roon Nucleus+ - Matrix Audio USB - Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2 - WW Silver Sphere HDMI - Directstream DAC - BHK Pre - BHK300s - Amphion Krypton3’s.
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I have the EtherRegen with a Mutec Ref10 clock between my Roon Nucleus and Bridge II. The SQ improvement with the EtherRegen was very significant and the addition of the Mutec Ref 10 clock to the EtherRegen was an equal improvement such that I now view my Roon listening nearly on a par with my analog and CD.
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An equal improvement? Wow. What are you analog and CD sources? Have you tried the Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2? That was a big jump from the Bridge II in my set up.
You can check out my system by clicking on the circular avatar space to the left of my nickname
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Due to Covid boredom and the govt. relief efforts, I spent the last 6 months recycling Uncle Sam’s MMT* funny money into several tangible items for my digital front end: a Matrix X SPDIF, Wireworld Plat. Starlight 7 HDMI cable, an EtherRegen, and (after the obligatory hiatus between order and delivery) one of Brad’s RAL HDMI cables (audiophile FOMO / peer pressure, y’know).
The digital front end consists of an Aurender N100H and the DSD, and the new gizmos were incorporated into the chain as they were acquired in the order listed above.
Bottom line is that they all helped and each removed a layer of the unwelcome glaze that characterizes less-than-perfect digital reproduction and provided further polish and refinement, as well as improving low-level resolution. I’d say that the Matrix made the biggest improvement, followed by the EtherRegen. Of the two HDMI cables, I’d say the RAL is the better of the two, but the difference between the cables was not as significant and I could happily live with either.
Since the OP requests % improvement, of the cumulative improvement (in my system), I’d guess:
Matrix: 45%
EtherRegen: 40%
WW Plat Starlight 7 HDMI: 10%
RAL HDMI 5%
NB: Being a lazy audiopihle, I have not engaged in shuffling items in and out of the digital chain. The ethernet cable from the cable modem to the ER is a generic cat6. I acquired a Blue Jeans Cable cat 6a patch for the short run between the ER and Matrix. Nor am I using an outboard LPS on either the Matrix or EtherRegen. I don’t discount what others have heard, but one of the reasons the Aurender sounds as good as it does is the attention paid to the LPS in the unit itself, so I put this at a lower priority. At some point I may sell the WW HDMI so I can fool around with an LPS for the Matrix.
- Modern Monetary Theory. a.k.a. “debt? What-me-worry?”
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MMT. Gotta love it. I have lived a lot of my life by that moniker. 