Uptone EtherRegen

I bought an English Electric 8Switch a couple of weeks ago. It's a good thing that the dealer offered a 45 day return policy. Not only did I not notice any improvement in sound quality, I felt that it made my music sound more veiled and dark, as if some of the vibrancy (not be confused with bright/harsh/etched; I know what that sounds like) was told to sit in a corner and face the wall. I tried it for almost 2 weeks but didn't notice any improvements. So it went back to the dealer.

Is there anyone who has compared the 8Switch to EtherRegen? Not sure if I should try it out before giving up on the idea of an audiophile-grade switch.

I have both.  I like them both but they are different.  In my system the EE just made the sound sweeter and easier to listen to.  I use the ER with fiber and an external clock and it strips away layers of noise, adds blackness.  The ER with clock has a much more profound improvement, however if I take out the EE there is enough of a drop off I put it back.

The EE is on an Uptone JS-2 LPS, the ER is on an Uptone LPS1.2 powered by the JS-2.  Removing all the SMPS's in my system, even the meanwell I had on the LPS 1.2 dropped the noise noticably.

Tone in a review is irrelevant; only logic is. That’s what I take @djones51 to be saying. And what @amir_asr to be saying in his review.

I was very interested in the EtherRegen because of what Hans B. and others had to say, but the ASR logic is pretty compelling. Here’s one bit of it:

"Perhaps the biggest issue with claims of audio improvement is that your DAC is so far removed from Ethernet that little you can do upstream can impact it. Ethernet has a clock but that is used for communication on the wire. Once a packet (chunk) of data arrives, it is put in memory in the operating system. At that point, it no longer has any timing information much less a clock. It is the responsibility of the application to associate timing with it. And such software notion either works, or doesn’t. If it doesn’t your music will stop or drop out. None of that timing has any relationship whatsoever with the clock that the DAC eventually uses to play data sent to it. It is the audio application together with the DAC (and or Operating System) which determine timing."

If I’m understanding the issue, based upon how the tcp/ip data transmission works, timing is irrelevant; in other words, the receiving device buffers the data until it is certain it has been received correctly.

Consider this explanation for TCP:

"TCP provides applications with a reliable, in-order stream abstraction.
The network doesn’t.
So TCP has to do various things to ensure that it delivers payload in order.
That includes acknowlegements, retransmissions, and reordering.
Now, most networks do try to keep things in order, but TCP can’t assume that.
For example, even if the network does not reorder, if there are two possible paths, one shorter than the other, and for some reason we have been using the long one… if the route changes to the short one, briefly we can have packets in flight on both, and they’ll arrive out of order. This is normal, it happens occasionally, and TCP has to deal with it."
[https://qr.ae/pvBFJz]

Those who get angry or say "you have to listen to hear it" are welcome to their impressions. They are sure they hear something. But just as the mind begins to hallucinate in an anechoic chamber, the mind also listen for certain effects in order to match its own predilections. Nothing satisfies like satisfaction, right?

It’s interesting to read the different opinions on the EtherRegen in this thread.  I noticed no difference whatsoever but perhaps it will work for you?  One question for owners:  the unit has a provision for grounding.  Has anyone tried this and noticed improvement?

@hilde45 I've been in this game long enough to understand and believe the logic of specifications and theroreticals, especially in regard to streaming. And this is gone into in much greater depth over at audiophilestyle.com forum. The arguments go back and forth, but I can only say I often observe open minded obectivists try a tried and true streaming upgrade, hear the improvement and come over to the 'dark' side. Not sure I've seen a single instance of subjectivist moving to objectivist camp.

 

Not a surprise that any particular component that works for one individual doesn't for another, doesn't prove component ineffective. This especially true in streaming setups which are almost universally unique.

 

I've seen so many opposing technical explanations for why any particular streaming component should or shouldn't work, and I've seen these disagreements  go deep in the weeds far past my level of expertise.  In general terms all these arguments come to a draw for me, so I go to my perception or senses to determine for myself which direction to take. My take is I'm not trying to please a measuring bot or someone who professes to be the objectivist king, I'm into audio to please myself,  provide music listening pleasure only for myself. I don't care if someone believe me delusional,  and tells me not to believe my senses. What a terrible place to live, always doubting one's own senses, especially when it comes to something as benign as pleasuring oneself with audio system sound quality! One can understand and be mindful that our senses can be faulty, but that's for far more important things than evaluating sound quality of audio systems! I don't understand how some people get any pleasure from audio what with always worrying about some other's judgement of their choices! I say trust your senses, the worst that can happen is you waste some money, at least you won't suffer from inadequacy!