One step forward: ER +lpsu

Streaming Audio
105

Thank you for your comprehensive reply Thomas. I will post here my findings once I have the supply.

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106

Generally the usual voltage, from other users elsewhere, is 12v. But sometimes some prefer 9v. It must also depend on the ps used.

107

You may be surprised.

Mine needed about ten days run-in before it lost an ‘over-lean’ quality enough for me to not notice that initial run-in aspect. Immediately it had the clarity that makes it now a critical SQ component in my system.
Further run-in over many weeks and months greatly opened-out the sound - I suspect the on-board decoupling caps run-in whatever supply you use with the ER.

I still (presently) use the ‘basic’ supply it shipped with, but intend an upgrade ahead to that.
I did find a significant increase in SQ when I powered the ER from its own dedicated mains radial - it was an accidental discovery as I just happened to have that available from an old experiment when I tried a mains ring vs radial for the HiFi and preferred the Ring circuit over the Radial, so the HiFi is on the Radial with the Melco too.
So now the ER ‘bridges’ the HiFi mains circuit connected stuff to all the rest of the house equipment, such as all other switches and routers and potentially noisy stuff.

…anyway - my observation on what getting the PS away from the HiFi on its own circuit probably confirms the easier solution of using a better PS for it as an upgrade. I’ll eventually do both. :bear:

DB.

108

I don’t know what is radial or ring.
But I have an Hifi powerblock ( for Naim, Melco, Rega) and a different powerblock on another wall outlet ( for tv, router).
I tried both for the ER, and both for the ER linear ps: in both cases I had a better sound when using my Hifi powerblock. Is it what you name Radial ?

109

What I’m referring to - in my case - is that my house has three mains circuits available:

  • 1. The preexisting normal hose mains circuit - this is a ring-mains in UK, which means it makes a loop out and back to the House Mains consumer unit that feeds everything in the house.
  • 2. The ‘HiFi Ring’ I especially put in just for the HiFi equipment - the same as ‘1’ above, but just for the HiFi.
  • 3. A ‘raidial’ mains wire - meaning just one mains wire - not in a ring - which I’d placed to try for the HiFi but decided it was not to my liking so it has sat unused for years…until I tried it for the ER power supply.

So the HiFi has its own mains circuit - and everything else is on the normal ‘house’ mains circuit - except for the ER. It was just an experiment - which happened to surprise me with the positive result, so since I have it there I leave it in that circuit.

Otherwise I’d use a better Linear PS on the HiFi mains circuit from what I can deduce.
Previously I’d had the ER on the House Mains circuit. I’m otherwise trying not to plug-in any ‘dongle’ type switch-mode supplies to the HiFi mains circuit as I’ve had generally (with specific exceptions) poor results doing that with injecting noise onto that circuit.
One of the ‘specific exceptions’ in my case was the Melco - my version has a special low-noise supply which I auditioned and liked - the later versions have better supply for sure, but the one I have is good enough.

DB.

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110

I hadn’t thought about that. At the moment my ER is powered using the supplied SMPS, which incidentally sounds very good, plugged into the normal house ring main.

When I get my linear supply, I do have one empty socket on my Musicworks power block so I could plug it in there which is on my dedicated hifi supply so that it shares the circuit with all my Naim supplies and my Melco N1.

Something else to try… the search for nirvana goes ever onwards!

An update to my previous post I have heard back from Paul Hynes and they can build the supply optimised for the ER with the correct voltage and current specs… good news.

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111

Considering its price, I hope so ! :grin:
(ER + UltraCap 1.2 costs £ 1’105, in the UK)

I’ll test it tomorrow afternoon connected to the ND555 (after ~4 days connected to my main computer)

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112

No hope required - it is so blindingly obvious in a system like yours that you should fall-over if you were expecting no difference.
…but you may hate it - interested to read your report. :bear:

DB.

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113

Here are my first, very subjective, impressions on the UpTone EtherRegen with UpTone UltraCap LPS-1.2

I use the EtherRegen like so :

Roon Server----Cisco_3560—(fiber)— EtherRegen—ND555

The EtherRegen effect on sound quality is described, by some forum members, with lot of hyperbole. More details, more prat, better soundstage, more clarity, more dynamic, more, more etc.

I humbly admit I got tempted! :star_struck:

But what I perceived is rather different.

From what I heard, the ER adds nothing (which makes sense by the way).

But…

But it undoubtedly has a positive effect on sound. And that effect is really nice!

It is not as obvious as adding a Naim power supply, and it does not bring what a power supply brings (far from that, really!).

It is subtle, but very much present.

( Btw, my definition of “subtle” is not “intensely listening until a detail magically appears”. For me, “subtle” means “obviously there” but “lightly marked”. )

It does not affect “this” or “that” precisely, it is more like a “wide range effect” (from the very low end to the top highs).

It’s a very nice effect, but hard to describe.

While it adds nothing, I would venture to say that it removes something!

It removes perhaps some “graininess” and/or some “sharp-edginess”. What a neologism! We should start an audiophile thesaurus! :joy:

Details, airiness, soundstage precision and layering, are the exact same. No more, no less.

My system is quite revealing. The ER did not make it more revealing, the way a second 555PS DR did.

But everything gets more “clean” and “liquid”, and this makes the hell of a difference!

…not sure it means something, or even makes sense. Those things are hard to describe.

This is going to sound odd: my system gets closer to the Soulution presentation, which is rahter nice!

Did I make an A-B test?

Yes, of course. And the victim was my dear wife. :laughing:

I never do A-B tests myself. I’m obviously not objective (too many cognitive biases).

Her conclusions, her words: “slightly cleaner”, “slightly lighter”, “much more readable”.

As a base line she hears no difference between two Ethernet cables. For her, if it’s not obvious she doesn’t bother mentioning it, and probably doesn’t care (nor do I).

So, does the ER make a difference?
Unfortunately, yes very much so.
The effect is subtle but I like it, a lot! :smiley:

Is it worth the outlay?
Well, this is silly question. Isn’t it?! :wink:

  • NOTA BENE :

Knowing that the above could be used as a “buying advice” I’d add the following:

In my opinion, if you have a bare NDX2 and you’re planning to buy a fancy switch, well don’t do it!

The ER + UltraCap 1.2 costs £ 1’105, in the UK.
That’s a lot of money!

If I had a NDX2 I’d save my cash for a Naim 555PS DR and would use a Cisco Catalyst (with the latest firmware) as my main switch.

Both Cisco Catalyst 2960 or Catalyst 3560 are brilliant switches in terms of sound and have useful features, (like IGMP Snooping) and cost peanuts on the second hand market.

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114

This is interesting. I also got ER given the many great comments and reviews. I cannot say that it improves the sound quality but doesn’t degrade it either. My main observations is that it discernibly gets the noise floor down in my installation. It is clearer.

115

That’s exactly what it is supposed to do.

I did not mention the noise floor because I don’t actually know where the noise gets lower. And what’s going on. But I suppose that what I perceived is related to a lower noise floor.

I just described my impressions.

116

Adds nothing but the sound is better, is like playing with words. In that spirit of thinking, no component adds something, but enables the sound to explain more itself, removes noise, glare…so yes, adds nothing.

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117

I have not Magico/ 500 series system but on my more modest system the ER/MCRU gave more improvement than going from xps 2 to 555dr on my Nds. I don’t exaggerate.

118

Thanks for the comprehensive review.

I think in the best case, the signal is an unchanged passthru. IMHO, If you have a well-designed DAC, such a device doesn’t improve anything. If you don’t have a well-designed DAC, it makes sense to invest the money in one. But again, it’s my view and and my money.

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119

Indeed, there is no audio signal to change. It’s data that is transmitted to the streamer.

If the DAC is perfectly isolated from the streamer section , and if the streamer section handles correctly the “ethernet noise” than yes a switch like the ER would be useless. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for the NDxxx.

What the ER does, and the fiber probably even more, is to isolate the ND555 from the rest of the network. I suppose one could achieve the same result by other means.

120

I notice that the ER bandwidth is around 10 mbps, so it means that you cannot stream any sample rate higher than 192/24 or DSD 128?

121

It’s 100 Mbits, just like the P800 streaming platform.

I stream DXD files (PCM 24 bits / 352,8 kHz) , and it’s rather fine :grin:

122

I am sure @Michaelb will approve: with the ER and good linear ps, vs Cisco, you hear more clearly into the recording and the meaning, the why of the playing. The details come in sharper relief, the bass is better defined and extended, the prat is better, there are more colors and textures, and the soundstage is wider. The sound is also more fluent, easy going.
It adds nothing? In an objective way of thinking. But subjectively, the ER/ps adds a lot more in the listening experience.

123

Thank you for your honest report Thomas and I think you describe the effect of the Ether Regen very well.

My Paul Hynes Designs SR4T linear power supply is on order and will be delivered at the end of the month. I will of course report back once it has had a chance to settle in compared to the already very good SMPS supplied as stock with the ER.

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124

Thanks Micheal!
It’s not an easy task :sweat_smile:

Adding a stable and quite power supply to the ER should make a difference.

And using the ER’s SFP port is also worth trying, if your main switch has one.

Look forward to your findings with the Paul Hynes Designs SR4T.