You can take my EtherREGEN when you pry it from my cold dead hands. I don’t listen to measurements, I listen to music. Anything that brings me closer to my music that I can reasonably afford is gonna get a tryout in my system. If it increases MY enjoyment of my library it stays. If not I return it…
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We have all added it to our list of things Speed-Racer doesn’t need.
It’s such an important data point.
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Well, @aangen, I have yet to say that I don’t need the EtherREGEN or that I need the EtherREGEN. @tedsmith’s comments certainly make me more inclined to test one out though. I’d still like to see the promised measurements…
Go to ASR, a place I don’t need.
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After you…
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Me three…
My take away is the world of high end audio engineering is more “faith based” that I had previously understood.
My issue with Uptone is not so much about the actual EtherRegen. It is about the complete dishonesty of their ER webpage. There is no disclaimer clarifying that the design is based upon an unproven audio theory. That no testing has ever been done by Uptone Audio to verify anything they state about the design, or even the core theory.
For me, that is crooked.
If they had a disclaimer, and people still wanted to buy, ok, fair enough. But the website is written in a tone that suggests absolute certainty, that’s there’s no shred of reasonable doubt about the claims. I’m in no position to say that Uptone’s claims are wrong, just that as a company, they lack transparency. And for that reason, they lack my trust. This is more about ethics than audio.
I explained the theory, just because you don’t understand it or just don’t want to do the reading of my explanations or the link to Analog Devices description of the problem doesn’t mean it’s unproven or dishonest.
I don’t consider that I’m working based on faith - I use science to do my work (and I think the work speaks for itself) but I don’t waste my time trying to prove to others that any of my design principles have a positive effect on sound quality. I do know that many are skeptical of many of the things I’ve tested for myself, but that doesn’t mean I work on faith or am deceiving people.
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You have absolutely out done yourself with this post.
SMH.
For me, this borders on being slanderous.
From their website:
“There are two types of sound-degrading influences the EtherREGEN is designed to radically decrease: Leakage—both high-impedance and low-impedance—and clock phase-noise. The clock phase-noise travels on the Ethernet signal itself and on power- and ground-planes. [Every signal edge coming out of any digital device carries the jitter/phase-noise of the clock used to “clock out” that edge; this shows up on the ground-plane and affects the threshold of chips’ clock inputs. This is an oversimplification of a complex subject; here is the link to our ‘white paper’ about the technical mechanisms (to be followed with some measurement proof of the effects).”
If these deleterious effects and attempts to attenuate their impact are fictitious, then you have a point. If they are not a crock of crappola, then I just don’t follow your thought process and can’t fathom how you concluded the manufacture is “crooked”.
For what it’s worth.
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I’ll say this (I’m not well with a temperature so I may be crazy-talking here, but).
ASR make personal attacks on people whose designs they don’t understand (and probably haven’t listened to). I may have read some of their measurements before, but it was “holding my nose” to avoid the swill, and in the full knowledge that their “far-measurement” opinions are often wrong, as are probably some of their measurements.
.
As ever, extreme in any direction is usually the wrong direction.
Trying not to have to comb through 3300 posts in order to answer my question. 
Has it been determined in this thread that the Matrix X-SPDIF makes enough of an improvement with the DirectStream DAC to justify its purchase along with an AudioQuest Carbon HDMI cable? (I have the USB cable.)
I’m currently connected directly to a Nucleus via USB.
I haven’t read through every post, but scanned most… I think yes.
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For the Lumin users who have disabled volume control, if you haven’t already seen this: LUMIN firmware update: Version 13.0 (release date June 2nd 2020)
…for those who have bought, actually listened to, and appreciate the Matrix… yah. Totally.
I wouldn’t do without mine.
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The theory does not natter, if it sounds better, and you enjoy what it does and you think it’s worth the investment, then that is what matters.
If I understand how it acheives that then all good and well, but it’s not important and certainly not a deal-breaker
You may get some disagreement from those who have done some extraordinary things with a USB connection but for the most part I think the answer is yes. Although your inclusion of a specific HDMI cable may be a little more difficult to affirm. I think most would agree that the X-SPDIF-2 on its own is an improvement in each’s setup. After that I think you’ll get varying opinions about what additional add-on gives the next greatest improvement. Some would argue that rather than a decent HDMI cable it’d be a Linear Power Supply (LPS) to power the X-SPDIF-2 which typically performs better than when powered by the USB connection. You may also get some varying opinions on what HDMI cable provides the greatest improvement.
Bottom line is that you’ll most likely get an improvement from an X-SPDIF-2 converting your USB to I2S (via HDMI cable) into your DS DAC.
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I’m guessing this is the biggest potential for gains with this thing: I2S/HDMI and DS DAC.
I have a Mac Mini going USB to the Matrix and then either Optical or Coaxial to a TEAC UD-501 DAC. My system’s not as revealing as many here, so I’m a bit hard pressed to tell any difference.
To get the most improvement from this Matrix, you need to have the DS Sr. Or DS Jr. with the I2S inputs. It is these I2S Inputs that really shows the potentials of the Matrix. The other ingredients would be the quality of the USB and HDMI cables. I find adding a Purifier 3 inline with the USB made a very noticeable improvement. And then the power supply to the Matrix really put icing on the cake. Incredible sound when all is said and done.
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The funny thing is that I’m using the Matrix to convert USB to SPDIF because the TEAC’s USB port is frustratingly fickle. Sometimes it doesn’t recognize that there’s a signal unless I leave the DAC on at all times. It’s very sensitive to bitrates from Roon/HQPlayer, too. No issues with the Coax/Toslink ports tho.
I also have a Topping D70 DAC that has I2S, but its I2S port is incompatible with the Matrix. That made me pretty crabby, trying every possible configuration and never getting it to work.
Is the I2S port a HDMI-style connector? If so, it’d be interesting to see a pinout diagram. The most common incompatibility seems to be the polarity of the data pin pair and one of the clock pin pairs. This is documented in the X-SPDIF 2 manual. One of the DIP switches on the bottom of the unit flips between these alternatives. But I assume you’ve already tried that. 
The other thing is that, if memory serves, Ted Smith mentions somewhere in this topic that he prefers using the optical link between X-SPDIF 2 and DAC.