Experiences with EtherRegen
This I posted at Uptone pages on Audiophyle Style but because it involves the EtherRegen on the Devialet Expert I put it here as well. My apologies for the length, but I could not make this shorter without compromising what I want to report. At the end I will summarize the things I learned from this.
There are three reasons why I feel compelled to post my experiences with the ER:
First, there have been some posts saying ‘the sound is now so good I do not feel like changing anything’. I felt the same but for reasons below I did experiment further and my, how rewarding that was!
My writing might encourage others to find out if that could be true for them as well.
Second, a question some ask and for which not too many answers have been posted is whether the components upstream of the ER still matter. The same goes for the power supply for the ER .
Third, for fellow Devialet Expert users, a question asked but not answered that much is whether the USB input is still the best or if the ethernet input needs re-evaluation with the ER.
Of course my experiences are valid only for my system, listening room, my ears. I only aim to put one more data point in the forum and encourage others to experiment, with an open mind and foremost open ears. For they are our most sensitive instrument for assessing sound quality. No known measurement equipment or method comes even close!
As stated above I had reasons to start testing and experimenting even if I felt the sound to be so good that I just could keep on listening to it:
First, at the time the ER arrived, with also the IsoRegen and LPS 1.2 that were ordered with it, also the dedicated mains spur from the home main switchboard to my HiFi system was connected. And Roon updated from 1.6 to 1.7 and could not be postponed nor rolled back. That was four changes at once. I decided to let them settle for some time and then take the time to find out which effect each change had. I just wanted to know…..
Second, in my system there is (now: was) an Sbooster power supply that I borrowed and the time is nearing where it needs to be returned. I wanted to find out how to mitigate the effects of the loss of this lpsu in the system.
To start with I investigated the effect of the power cable feeding the wall plug. (due to availability for private persons this is a 4x4mm^2 cable. I use two for zero, two for phase in star quad. No twisting, this cable is stiff… and there is a dedicated ground pin for the grounding less than 2 meters from the HiFi set). This was no surprise, giving much more control for the bass, more flow in the music, more relaxed and transparent.
The IsoRegen (powered by the LPS 1.2) brings more spaciousness, subtlety and a bit more control for the bass.
The EtherRegen is a bir airier, further like the IR but less so. Later I found out that powering it with its supplied SMPS is less than optimal and compromised this result.
Anyway, this is were I felt like I could live with it. Easily an happy.
But… I needed to get the Sbooster out the system without too much loss.
I won’t describe all the details; that fills three pages of notes and goes along the effects mentioned many times by now. Let me just show a sketch of the before and after situation. Between the modem and HiFi side of system is a 10m AQ Forest network cable. I did a lot of changes and made notes after each step.
The pictures did not copy here, therefore they are in the attached pdf.
The start situation is the first picture there, after the changes is the second picture.
Removing the Sbooster at the modem side of the system cost spaciousness, detail, transparency and clarity. The further changes on that side compensated most of that. The change in switch resulted in more spaciousness than I had before. This switch is very good for audio, very cheap compared to the ER. It benefits from a good lpsu though. It not as good as the ER, but very good value for money.
On the HiFi rack side there also were a lot of changes.
Especially connecting the SR4 to the ER was an improvement, most noteworthy a jump in spaciousness, blacker background. But I still need the Sbooster….
At this stage I gained in spaciousness, detail, timbre, micro dynamics, in fact in everything. Not a big jump but still significant. And, the system sounds more balanced now. Better than before I started in fact.
I am using AudioLinux quite a while now. Before the availability of using acpi (giving the processor a constant frequency) I did not hear a significant difference in the wifi, ethernet or usb inputs of the Devialet.
Meanwhile wifi sounds less (or the others better) but I did not try ethernet for a while. Since the changes in AL and addition of the IR, I expected the ethernet input to fall behind now. But I decided to test it out of curiosity.
To my surprise, and much credit to the EtherRegen, I could now not hear any difference in the sound quality between the ethernet and usb input on the Devialet. That made it possible to remove the NUC and IR from the system. Now the Sbooster was free but also the Uptone LPS 1.2.
That LPS 1.2 I then used to feed the Netgear switch close to the modem/router. To my joy this gave even more spaciousness and a very little bit (if any) increase on other areas. My system has never sounded so good and relative to before these test the improvement in sound quality is impressive!
The end situation (for now…) is shown in the third picture in the pdf.
Roundup
I started with three reasons for writing this.
The first, ‘the ER is is so good I lost the urge to change the system’, makes me want to encourage those who feel like that to try and experiment more, not less. For me it turned out that a complete re-balancing of the system was very rewarding. Especially moving around of the linear power supplies made a lot of sense. Just swapping the ER in place of the previous switch turned out to be not the best choice, much more was to be gained.
And to my astonishment the best power supplies I have available are now on the switches!
Second, do components ‘upstream’ of the EtherRegen still matter? Oh yes, possibly even more so than before. The EtherRegen on its own brings an improvement. Fed by a good LPSU even more and this in itself is already impressive. And it makes it possible for improvements upstream to shine even more.
Third, with the ER the ethernet input of the Devialet gives much better results than before. For me exactly as good as the usb input, but I realise that my modest NUC, and not having taken measures like a Mutec reclocker may make this not the same for others.
John and Alex, thanks a lot for a terrific product in the EtherRegen. It took quite some work but my system sounds really really good now.
Also many thanks for all who contribute to the Audiophile Style long (A novel…) thread and the Uptone threads. I learned a lot from it and it stimulated me to push my system far further than I believed to be possible when I started.
Rob
the Netherlands
Schets systeem.pdf (Size: 38.63 KB / Downloads: 32)
This I posted at Uptone pages on Audiophyle Style but because it involves the EtherRegen on the Devialet Expert I put it here as well. My apologies for the length, but I could not make this shorter without compromising what I want to report. At the end I will summarize the things I learned from this.
There are three reasons why I feel compelled to post my experiences with the ER:
First, there have been some posts saying ‘the sound is now so good I do not feel like changing anything’. I felt the same but for reasons below I did experiment further and my, how rewarding that was!
My writing might encourage others to find out if that could be true for them as well.
Second, a question some ask and for which not too many answers have been posted is whether the components upstream of the ER still matter. The same goes for the power supply for the ER .
Third, for fellow Devialet Expert users, a question asked but not answered that much is whether the USB input is still the best or if the ethernet input needs re-evaluation with the ER.
Of course my experiences are valid only for my system, listening room, my ears. I only aim to put one more data point in the forum and encourage others to experiment, with an open mind and foremost open ears. For they are our most sensitive instrument for assessing sound quality. No known measurement equipment or method comes even close!
As stated above I had reasons to start testing and experimenting even if I felt the sound to be so good that I just could keep on listening to it:
First, at the time the ER arrived, with also the IsoRegen and LPS 1.2 that were ordered with it, also the dedicated mains spur from the home main switchboard to my HiFi system was connected. And Roon updated from 1.6 to 1.7 and could not be postponed nor rolled back. That was four changes at once. I decided to let them settle for some time and then take the time to find out which effect each change had. I just wanted to know…..
Second, in my system there is (now: was) an Sbooster power supply that I borrowed and the time is nearing where it needs to be returned. I wanted to find out how to mitigate the effects of the loss of this lpsu in the system.
To start with I investigated the effect of the power cable feeding the wall plug. (due to availability for private persons this is a 4x4mm^2 cable. I use two for zero, two for phase in star quad. No twisting, this cable is stiff… and there is a dedicated ground pin for the grounding less than 2 meters from the HiFi set). This was no surprise, giving much more control for the bass, more flow in the music, more relaxed and transparent.
The IsoRegen (powered by the LPS 1.2) brings more spaciousness, subtlety and a bit more control for the bass.
The EtherRegen is a bir airier, further like the IR but less so. Later I found out that powering it with its supplied SMPS is less than optimal and compromised this result.
Anyway, this is were I felt like I could live with it. Easily an happy.
But… I needed to get the Sbooster out the system without too much loss.
I won’t describe all the details; that fills three pages of notes and goes along the effects mentioned many times by now. Let me just show a sketch of the before and after situation. Between the modem and HiFi side of system is a 10m AQ Forest network cable. I did a lot of changes and made notes after each step.
The pictures did not copy here, therefore they are in the attached pdf.
The start situation is the first picture there, after the changes is the second picture.
Removing the Sbooster at the modem side of the system cost spaciousness, detail, transparency and clarity. The further changes on that side compensated most of that. The change in switch resulted in more spaciousness than I had before. This switch is very good for audio, very cheap compared to the ER. It benefits from a good lpsu though. It not as good as the ER, but very good value for money.
On the HiFi rack side there also were a lot of changes.
Especially connecting the SR4 to the ER was an improvement, most noteworthy a jump in spaciousness, blacker background. But I still need the Sbooster….
At this stage I gained in spaciousness, detail, timbre, micro dynamics, in fact in everything. Not a big jump but still significant. And, the system sounds more balanced now. Better than before I started in fact.
I am using AudioLinux quite a while now. Before the availability of using acpi (giving the processor a constant frequency) I did not hear a significant difference in the wifi, ethernet or usb inputs of the Devialet.
Meanwhile wifi sounds less (or the others better) but I did not try ethernet for a while. Since the changes in AL and addition of the IR, I expected the ethernet input to fall behind now. But I decided to test it out of curiosity.
To my surprise, and much credit to the EtherRegen, I could now not hear any difference in the sound quality between the ethernet and usb input on the Devialet. That made it possible to remove the NUC and IR from the system. Now the Sbooster was free but also the Uptone LPS 1.2.
That LPS 1.2 I then used to feed the Netgear switch close to the modem/router. To my joy this gave even more spaciousness and a very little bit (if any) increase on other areas. My system has never sounded so good and relative to before these test the improvement in sound quality is impressive!
The end situation (for now…) is shown in the third picture in the pdf.
Roundup
I started with three reasons for writing this.
The first, ‘the ER is is so good I lost the urge to change the system’, makes me want to encourage those who feel like that to try and experiment more, not less. For me it turned out that a complete re-balancing of the system was very rewarding. Especially moving around of the linear power supplies made a lot of sense. Just swapping the ER in place of the previous switch turned out to be not the best choice, much more was to be gained.
And to my astonishment the best power supplies I have available are now on the switches!
Second, do components ‘upstream’ of the EtherRegen still matter? Oh yes, possibly even more so than before. The EtherRegen on its own brings an improvement. Fed by a good LPSU even more and this in itself is already impressive. And it makes it possible for improvements upstream to shine even more.
Third, with the ER the ethernet input of the Devialet gives much better results than before. For me exactly as good as the usb input, but I realise that my modest NUC, and not having taken measures like a Mutec reclocker may make this not the same for others.
John and Alex, thanks a lot for a terrific product in the EtherRegen. It took quite some work but my system sounds really really good now.
Also many thanks for all who contribute to the Audiophile Style long (A novel…) thread and the Uptone threads. I learned a lot from it and it stimulated me to push my system far further than I believed to be possible when I started.
Rob
the Netherlands
Schets systeem.pdf (Size: 38.63 KB / Downloads: 32)
