Sooooooo last night I listened to a live Pearl Jam show from 2003. CD Rip via the Melco. It was simply stunning. Unbelievably good. I have heard these shows before and thought they sounded a bit flat, good but maybe a bit soft. I have never been so captivated. Incredible. I can honestly say that last night I felt like I reached listening Nirvana! Live sounded live.
Well now with the DC3 fleeted in and having a spare output I wondered today what a second ER would sound like! I can’t imagine an improvement over what is there already BUT seeing as I am going to test the EE switch in the main system also I figured that the best test could be
1.) ER
2.) ER > ER
3.) EE
4.) ER > EE
5.) EE > ER
6.) ER at the router side with regular P/S
Anyway I gave Audiostore a quick buzz and should have the second tomorrow or the next day!!
I know @NigelB will be keen for a full and thorough test before parting with his hard earned so felt it was best to see what 2 of these bad bads can do!
@NigelB I think I will keep it simple and use what I have as a baseline. So first test would be does 2xER sound better than 1! After that I can substitute the EE into either position and see if I can actually tell a difference! After using the ER on the Nova and now the EE I know their sonic signature is quite different and suspect that I will not prefer the EE over 1 x ER but I will test it out! If I find a combo I like I will stick with it for a bit, I quickly dislike some things! I am looking for natural sound vs drama I will say!
My money is on 1 or 2 x ER winning my heart! A small difference is not really where I am at tbh! If the sound difference is negligible then I won’t be spending weeks getting used it only to then decide that 1x ER was better! The ER is instantly noticeable. I suspect over the course of a week I will have tested most options. This will be a ‘what I prefer’ type of non scientific test!!
2x ER (one stone cold) is incredible. I am listening to a live track and for the first time ever I can hear each side of the body a tambourine is shook to. Voices are more real to the point where you can hear effort and laziness. Soundstage is deeper with instruments placed better and are dead stable so very easy to follow. Real live music in the living room.
There is no way on earth (based on my experience) that the EE will compete with ER single or double. I put the ER on the Nova for less than 5 minutes and while the EE is lovely at sharpening up detail the ER allows more of a view into the recording. More natural, possibly less exciting on first listen and no sharpening effect. The EE is great for the Nova as I listen at lower volumes and near field. The ER would be wasted here as I listen while working. The ER has less Initial impact than the EE but on my ‘well known’ recordings it was instantly noticeable. My ears/my system and all that…!
The uplift is staggering, it really is. Its hard to explain whats happening but tonight (This post was paused as I got distracted) it was as if aomeone has snuck a sub into the room. The bass was so low and I could feel it in my body far more than ever before. The overall clarity was improved also. The switch has only had a few hours run in.
I am running Catsnake Cat6 Floating from wall socket > (DC3) > A side on 50 ohm ER > 0.75m Catsnake Cat6 Floating > A side on 75 ohm ER > 1.0m Catsnake Cat6 Floating > Melco N10 > 0.75 Vodka > ND555 - Neither ER is earthed yet.
The difference is certainly much more than I got changing to SL full loom and cheaper! In fact the custom Sean Jacobs DC3 plus 2 x ER’s is still less than the shortest Chord Music Ethernet cable
Why/how these small boxes have made such a difference is beyond me. I was expecting an incremental difference by the second but its at least as much as the first or the difference adding the DC3 to the first.
I wonder what 3 in sequence would do?! Can’t quite fathom why the second one acts almost like a sub, bass I never knew existed in songs is now subtelly present. This digital game is quite a mire! I fear a lot of demo’s of the ND555 will not show whats its truely capable of with some tweaking. The difference between ND555 and 1x555PS to where I am now is very very different.
Well my first is yet to arrive, i am now tempted with replacing my other switch. Per your other comments, i guess Uptone have always been transparent about what they were trying to achieve and with what components. Others are more hazy implying a new ground up product…but really a modification. Only a few more weeks to wait😬
Well my Paul Hynes SR4T linear supply arrived this morning set to 12v and is up and running with my single ER connected via a long 15m run to my Talktalk router via Designacable Catsnake 5e. My ER is connected to my Melco N1 via Catsnake 6a and my Melco to my 555 using a True Signal ethernet lead.
Initial impression is this is a significant upgrade over the supplied Uptone 7.5v power supply. Many have already described the sonic effects of adding a serious power supply to the ER and I now see what they mean. The music seems to draw you in and you feel closer to the musicians and there is a fabulous sense of spaciousness and clarity to the sound. I have read that there is a burn in period to come for up to a month so I will enjoy the journey.
I don’t begin to understand how this can possibly work but it sure does!
Thankyou, and you take care. It is surprising as Uptone play down the need for a psu, even though they make a couple themselves.
Looking at the Paul Hynes website they are having covid problems and have cut the production team down and are expecting an island wide lockdown. You got yours just in time.
One question, what dc cable did you purchase?
I believe it was positioning - firstly they have applied good quality regulation onboard with LT3045 regulators, but more important they were launching and asking $640 for a 5-port Network Switch, which many will, have and continue to question & scoff at. If it was a case that it was $640 for the switch which requires a $435 Power Supply, this would of made it worst with a $1,000 spend requirement.
Personally, my ER dropped in last November using an existing 12v LPS and I have not looked back since, with my Roonified NDS, Chord Sarum Tuned Streaming, Chord Athem & AudioQuest Vodka cables - it has never sounded better.
