Of course, there was a time, a little over a year ago or so, where none of us would have believed, and most of us did not believe, that a switch like the eR could improve SQ over the venerable Cisco 2940. I certainly was in that camp, until I started hearing folks post their success.
Then it was and eR and a Cisco in cascade, then replace the ps with a lps, and then add the 10 MHz clock. All pretty much improved SQ for all that tried these various steps.
I have been enjoying my eR + HDplex lps + silver cable for about 15 monthsāgot mine in the second batch. I stopped short of the clock. Although with the recent melt up of the US stock market, maybe I should add that piece. Uhm?
If you google āMaster Clock for your EtherREGENā there are 22 pages of people discussing this on a different audiophile style website. Google " 75ohm output by BG7TBL 10MHz OCXO FREQUENCY STANDARD 3 channel square wave clock Master Clock for your EtherREGEN" and you should find the clock on the Chinese site.
I didnāt think it would do much but I thought it was worth a try. I first tried the clock with an iFi power supply I had available and then bought a Farad Super3 for it. I also use a Farad Super3 for the eR. And while I was at it I also ordered a Sonore opticalModule Deluxe so I now run fiber from this to the eR (8 meter cable).
To my ears the clock alone (with the iFi) was a very nice improvement.
I sort of regret I posted this. But then again, should we not share things like this? I would say that an external clock to the eR is for those of us who like to meddle around in Tweakers Paradise.
With that in mind, I also went a bit further and got an Sbooster to my router and one to the Sonore oM.
I now laugh a silly laugh every time I look at the four power supplies and the three units that make up my network shenanigans. And the one Cisco.
I donāt know, I borrowed an eR for a while and it changed the dCS Bridge for the worse (using the really excellent Jorma AES/EBU). Has anyone done a proper tunedem eval of the eR?
The Aqua LinQ has a special purpose ethernet switch inside the streamer box, I was interested for a while as it sound fantastic but they donāt use RAAT with Roon - instead they use the HQPlayer NAA protocol which may sound slightly better but also leave that EUR6000 streamer a bit sensitive to 3rd party software changes etc.
Hi Yes I added it. To me it is a no brainer to try, given the low price/risk. The only thing is that the cable is not included so you need to buy one separately. I felt a nice improvement when I added it, but during the next week , let me try to take the clock out out to see if I miss something. The issue is that I constantly tweek my system so sometimes it is good to work back a little.
Ok so now I did the work back, removing the external masterclock and its supply, from the system and the reinstating it. To my ears, and this was spontaneously confirmed by my wife (who usually does not like to comment on any perceived differencesā¦) when reinstated the sound was better clearly defined, more prat. Point.
The ER includes a Crystek CCHD-575 crystal oscillator, which makes a pretty good clock.
Not sure UpTone advertises about that, but they should; the clock included in the ER is really good.
I very much doubt that a cheap Chinese external clock will outperform the one included in the ER (I would be very interested in seeing the phase noise measurements)
That said, adding such an external clock may well have an effect on the soundā¦ make it different. But better?
If the goal is to lower the clockās phase noise (does it really help?) the only way to do that is to add a really good, but rather expensive, external clock like the Mutec REF 10 (check the Thomann website for prices).
Iād explore the LPS and fiber options first, a lot less expensive.
The goal is, after all, isolation, which the ER does.
A good LPS (to a certain) and especially fiber will reduce network induced noise even more.
Alex from Uptone was going-to have a look at that cheap chinese clock as the clock inside was pretty good, being refurbished from mobile phone masts etc. Not sure if he ever did.
Alex Crespi from Uptone and John Swenson from Sonore (who I believe designed the eR) are discussing this clock with eR users on their forum. Here is a little info from Alex Crespi (with regards to the two types of clock sold from China):
āThe specs for the FE-180 are essentials the same as the DAPU. -125dBc/Hz at 10Hz offset (which, when corrected for 10MHz versus 25MHz Crystek 575 performance equals about 6dBc/Hz @10Hz better performance than the EtherREGENās internal clockā
I paid a total of 92 euro for clock and a very short clock cable. To my ears the clock made an improvement. It was not just different (like a cable might be, to my ears).
They are planning to measure this clock properly, but since they are busy with other stuff they have not yet done so (or at least not yet published the results).