A Confused streaming system - Mutec / SOtM Ultra

[Confused]

I has some free time this morning to try the EtherRegen with and without the Mutec REF10. This is not the easiest thing to A/B test, you need to power down the EtherRegen, then switch between either the internal or external reference clock, then power up again. Apparently it programmes itself on start up depending on which position the switch is in. To give the EtherRegen a fair chance of performing well with its internal clock, I set the it up this way and left it running overnight, so the internal clock would be up to full stability. I could then power the unit down, switch to external clock, connect the cable from the REF10 and restart. The REF10 itself has been powered up and running continuously for months, so no stability issues here.

I thought that there would probably be little to be gained by adding the REF10, the EtherRegen is supposed to have an excellent clock and has the advantage of having the clock on the board exactly where it is required. However, I was surprised, there was noticeable improvement, to my ears at least. With the REF10 the sound was cleaner, the highs more resolved and just a general sense of things being more lifelike and coherent. From about news year's eve onwards, I have been using my system with the REF10 feeding the EtherRegen and have been thinking just how good everything is sounding, now I think I know why.

Of course, the Mutec REF 10 is a £3.5k product, and I am not sure if I could recommend anyone buying a REF10 just for use with an EtherRegen, but for anyone who already has a REF10 (or similar) the fact that the EtherRegen has a 10MHz input allows you to get steller results for very little money. This pretty much sums up my position, I couldn't be happier with how things are sounding at the moment. And all this from an Ethernet switch, I can hardly believe myself I am writing this.