EtherREGEN's - A discussion about them and what it is they do....

treitz3

Well, this weekend should be an experience of sounds changing, images all over the place and some experimenting with this EtherREGEN and the associated equipment that is due to hit the household today. Brad Vojtech's (Revelation Audio) cables also came in last night for the kW-750 (Not as long of a wait as I anticipated).

I'm looking forward to hearing what all of the hub-bub is about.

Tom

treitz3

Well, I did not end up getting the gear until today.

Whoa!

Tom

treitz3

"Effortless" - Best word to describe what I am hearing.

Thank you to those who helped answer some of my "rookie" questions with regards to this. It is much appreciated! I truly do not know how much cleaner it can get than this...

Tom

Dr_Wu

Did you listen to it before and after connecting the clock?
Thinking about a clock/LPS combo for my ER
Thanks, and enjoy your upgrades!

treitz3

No sir, I did not. I hooked everything up at once, tried a couple of different configurations and then spent WAAAAY too much time listening into the wee hours of the night. I'm gonna be seriously hurtin' later on today because of it. DOH!

Give me until next week and I can run a test with the current gear for you. I'd like to let the system warm up and stabilize until Sunday, so I can do a real evaluation and see what the changes are, before making any more changes to the system.

I may not be able to swap out the LPS due to my configuration (don't want to bypass the "moat" in the ER) but the EtherREGEN (as you know) has a switch on the back that allows you to engage the Master clock or bypass it. I can power her down, flip the switch and run it without the clock.

4 major differences observed last night;

Air/sense of space
Depth is outstanding
The lower registers got exponentially better
Poorly recorded songs sound listenable/enjoyable

Tom

erniejade

I am glad you're hearing the same things I heard going to the EtherREGEN. That little warm running thing really makes a difference and helps show off the cables and the power supply upgrade, even more. For me, going from the Supra Ethernet to the RAL Ethernet was not subtle. Without the EtherREGEN in place, the differences were slight between Ethernet cables. More of everything just comes through with the ER in place.

treitz3

Well, I can't really say what the EtherREGEN does by itself because everything seemingly hit the door at the same time. I was gonna hook everything up just to find out what did what but decided against that because I wanted to find out what my investment would actually do to the end result.

Last night, the last of the components finally came in and I did some more experimenting with how everything got hooked up. I believe I have found the best configuration to extract everything out of the Vega G2. Here is a list of how everything is configured;

NETGEAR Nighthawk Multi-Gig Cable Modem CM2000 >
Shunyata Alpha Ethernet cable >
NETGEAR Nighthawk Tri-band Mesh (MK83) AX3600 Router >
******wirelessly over Wi-Fi using a different band******
Dueland dca12 - 20 amp PC >
Richard Gray Pro400 Power Supply >
LPS #1 - AfterDark High Current LPS with 12V / HiFi Tuning Cryo Gold Fuse + Furutech Rhodium IEC, dual rail via >
DC PC's - Continental Triple Crown CFS DC Power Cable (Limited Edition), 0.8 Meter / Copper Conductor / DC 2.1mm - 2ea
DC PC #1 goes to the EtherREGEN v1 B side
CD PC #2 goes to the NETGEAR Nighthawk Extender (satellite) - Ethernet out to A side of the EtherREGEN via Shunyata Venom
LPS #2 - Zero Zone 12VDC 15W Linear Power Supply >
Master Clock - AfterDark Emperor Signature ClayX Giesemann OCXO 10MHz Reference, 75ohm >
Clock Cable - Project ClayX Black River Giesemann EVA Reference 75ohm BNC Clock Cable, 0.80m > B side of EtherREGEN
EtherREGEN B side out Ethernet via Shunyata Omega > Auralic Vega G2

This is the best combination/configuration that I have heard so far and while I was pleased with the Auralic Vega G2 (after I figured out how to get her up and running), the end result as to what hit your ears left me still wanting.

Now that I have had some time to listen? I am honestly floored at what I am hearing. I am hearing things I have never heard before and also in a way I have never heard them presented before. Not just a sound here and there, I mean like all over the place.

I was texting Trey and Rick last night and one thing that dawned on me was the movie, Avatar. I have listened to many of the songs before on vinyl and through my Marantz but as I was listening to Billie Eilish, I made the comment that "I see her".

Yes, for the first time, Billie Eilish was truly an audiophile experience. Yosi Horikawa's "Bubbles" took on a WHOLE other presentation and when I say that "I see them"? I am not kidding. It's so palpable that you can "see" the balls dropping and know exactly the size, how heavy each one is and even what material(s) each ball is. With your eyes wide open or shut.

Before this, the best system I heard where you could "see" the balls was down at LSAF in the Raven room. Granted, I could only see that one ball on the left at the beginning of the song. Now I see all of them and the sounds are just flat out incredible.

The weight of wood instruments is uncannily natural, the timbre and tonality is quite nice and different than what I have heard out of the Tyler Woodmere's before. Sounds that were kind of annoying are no longer annoying at all. They are laid back and now part of the music.

There were some significant changes during the warm up cycle and sounds were all over the place for a little bit but when the streaming rig finally started to open up? Man, she took me places I had never been before along my audio journey. Places I never thought possible, truth be told.

I could literally write for the next 2 to 3 hours on all of the changes I have experienced and new sounds that I am hearing but I won't. I will say that I am a very, very happy camper and I'll offer you my final (and VERY long) listening impressions in a month or two, when everything is dialed in and settled down. In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the latest path along my digital audio journey. This is so much fun and highly rewarding!!!

Tom

rebelsoul

treitz3 wrote: »

I ran across this one today - https://www.beatechnik.com/lhy-audio-sw-8





There isn't much information out there on these yet, as it's mostly used overseas. Looks like it's built solidly and has many of the same tech that the ER uses. No option to add an external clock though.

_____________________________________________________________________________

That said, I was able to run across this very long article/review today that shed a heck of a lot of light on this subject (to me). It takes a while to read, so if you don't have the time, reserve some time and revisit it later. It touches on one subject that I had always pondered. Using two ER's or "moats" in your signal chain.



The biggest change in sonics (much like the Ethernet cables) come at the point to where the signal enters the DAC or end point of the chain but I could not for the life of me figure out why one would (see photo above) go through a standard switch (dirty signal) into an ER (short for EtherRegen).

Logic would state that you go straight to the ER, with one leg going to daisy chain a standard switch/router for all of your other computer needs. If this isn't possible for some reason I do not know about, please let me know. I haven't ran across anything yet that would say that this isn't possible. I base this theory on the. "You can't make chicken soup out of chicken chit" philosophy. Why start with a dirty signal? Wouldn't one want to start out with a clean signal and clean it up from there (if needed)?

So, since I lose the hardwired connection in my signal chain....I lose part of the noise inherent in certain configurations but this leads me to what I have always thought. The article touches on this within the results. Have one ER at the start and another where it makes the most difference. I.E., at the end of the chain.

Have any of you tried this?

DK, I know you are waiting for the new ER to come out. Maybe you could try this on one of your systems (Two ER's in the chain) when the new ER's come out.

This is quickly becoming a really deep rabbit hole, especially if I end up with 2 ER's and the associated gear/equipment for both of them (LPS's, digital cables, PC's, clocks, BNC cables, etc.). Some of this may or not be needed at the end of the day but the journey in learning and experimenting sure will be fun!

Thanks for the kind words, @Dr_Wu.

Tom

Lhy sw-10 has the 10 hz clock input and fiber and a better crystal.

heiney9

Mine came today. Along with another goodie for the office rig.

treitz3

Have you had time to hook it up and give 'er a whirl yet?

Tom

heiney9

treitz3 wrote: »

Have you had time to hook it up and give 'er a whirl yet?

Tom

No. While I'm excited to hear it, it's a huge chore to plug anything new into the power conditioner. I am in desperate need to pull everything apart and reroute cables and make space for the new gear. This is a 1/2 day (atleast) project. So, it will have to wait. Plus, I don't even have a decent ethernet cable to run between the ER and the Node3. This purchase came about much quicker than I expected.

Normally I'm all over a new piece of gear, but with such limited time to sit and listen these days even if I installed it today I wouldn't be able to really listen for awhile. I plan on getting the USB Regen up and going in the office rig this weekend.

The USB Regen didn't come with the supplied PS so I asked UpTone if I could use the one from the ER. Pretty sure I can, it's the same voltage, but more peak amperage and watts. I purchased (this morning) the exact PS that came with the USB Regen from DigiKey. I'll use that until or if I decide on a suitable linear PS. I don't tend to tweek to the "nth" degree on the office rig. UpTone had good things to say about the PS they sold with it, so I'm going to try that one for awhile.

Here's the exact unit

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/mean-well-usa-inc/GST25A07-P1J/7703646?s=N4IgjCBcoCwBxVAYygMwIYBsDOBTANCAPZQDaIATAOwAMVArPSALqEAOALlCAMocBOASwB2AcxABfQmDAUaiECkgYcBYmXABmAGzaqCViE7c+QsZMIUwcKgqUq8hEpHIUKAAgDqLdl0ggAVWFBDgB5VABZXHRsAFd+XAsQAFoYOzQsR3UXEG0wGho05gkpSg0AW2jhdwB3XExMd1FsLmKgA

Original plan was to use the ER power supply with the USB Regen and get linear PS for the ER. That will be a future upgrade. I'd like to get a used Keces P3 or P6 linear supply to run both the Node3 and ER from a single unit. Again, in the future (new) or when I find a used one.

https://power-holdings-inc.com/Keces-P6-6-Amp-Linear-Power-Supply-p485459710

H9

msg

Annnd once again I curse the day I found this place. Late December, 2013...

VR3

treitz3

LOL....nobody ever said this was a cheap hobby. Well, maybe those who have "yacht collecting" as a hobby might.

Nothing wrong with trying to achieve high fidelity excellence. The end result is as much fun as the journey!

Tom

rebelsoul

Th

treitz3 wrote: »

LOL....nobody ever said this was a cheap hobby. Well, maybe those who have "yacht collecting" as a hobby might.

Nothing wrong with trying to achieve high fidelity excellence. The end result is as much fun as the journey!

Tom

That's for sure , I thought selling my albums and c-19 and my turntable was going to save me money lmao. It did pay for my bat mono blocks and got me to a whole nother level but now $650 switch , $500 Ethernet cables, $1600 muon pro.
$90 if silent Ethernet . $230 ifi power 2x 12volt power supplies there new and supposed to be 10x quietiter than lps for my modem and TV box.

treitz3

LOL, I definitely hear ya'. It all started for me with a simple and cheap Ethernet cable swap out. Now, I don't think I have any original equipment left. Here is a snapshot of the current streaming part of the rig.

Network/Streaming system leading up to the Canary Pre -
iFi iPower Elite 12v PS>
NETGEAR Nighthawk Multi-Gig Cable Modem CM2000 >
Shunyata Alpha Ethernet cable > to mesh router
iFi iPower Elite 12v PS>
NETGEAR Nighthawk Tri-band Mesh (MK83) AX3600 Router >
******wirelessly over Wi-Fi using a different band******
Dueland dca12 - 20 amp PC >
Richard Gray Pro400 Power Supply >
LPS #1 - AfterDark High Current LPS with 12V / HiFi Tuning Cryo Gold Fuse + Furutech Rhodium IEC, dual rail via >
DC PC's - Continental Triple Crown CFS DC Power Cable (Limited Edition), 0.8 Meter / Copper Conductor / DC 2.1mm - 2ea
DC PC #1 goes to the EtherREGEN v1 B side
CD PC #2 goes to the NETGEAR Nighthawk Extender (satellite) - Ethernet out to A side of the EtherREGEN via Shunyata Venom
LPS #2 - Zero Zone 12VDC 15W Linear Power Supply >
Master Clock - AfterDark Emperor Signature ClayX Giesemann OCXO 10MHz Reference, 75ohm >
Clock Cable - Project ClayX Black River Giesemann EVA Reference 75ohm BNC Clock Cable, 0.80m > B side of EtherREGEN
EtherREGEN B side out Ethernet via Shunyata Omega > Muon Pro Filter> Lumin UX1>
Audiolund xTreme Silver Series 1.5m furutech BNC>
LamipzatOr - Lampizator Level 5 Gen 4 tubed DAC with separate PS, KAS Audio Primus PC>
Snake River Signature Series Hybrid (Gold. Silver, Copper) RCA>
IsoMax Ci-2RR Isolation Transformer>
Snake River Cottonmouth (Gold/Red Copper) RCA> Canary Pre

All of this, within the past 3 and a half months.....so I definitely understand what you are saying. All of this has brought me to an entirely different playing field when it comes to streaming and I am enjoying the heck out of listening. I look very forward to listening everyday. It isn't very often anymore that the system is powered down, not playing anything.

You are gonna love that Muon. Have you got it in yet? They shipped it to me pretty quickly (something like 4 days or so).

Tom