UpTone Audio EtherREGEN

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UpTone Audio EtherREGEN

UpTone Audio is proud to announce availability of EtherREGEN. In development for nearly two years, this unique and highly advanced Ethernet switch will exceed expectations—producing surprising audible sonic improvements in fine music systems.

The goals and architecture of the EtherREGEN are completely different that any other Ethernet switch anywhere on the planet!

Other “audiophile” Ethernet switches are mostly either just clock and power supply modifications of cheap off-the-shelf switches, or passive magnetics augmented with passive filter parts and a single fancy clock board.

EtherREGEN is an all-new, from the ground-up design, built on a costly 6-layer circuit board, and its components and topology are unmatched by any other Ethernet switch.

The heart of what makes our switch so unusual is the use of ACTIVE, HIGH-SPEED, LOW-JITTER DIFFERENTIAL DIGITAL ISOLATOR chips combined with ULTRA-LOW JITTER DIFFERENTIAL RE-CLOCKING FLIP-FLOPS. No other Ethernet switch on the market attempts this (doing this, and doing it correctly is neither easy nor cheap!). On the circuit board photos you can see the isolators set across the wide “moat.”

Let’s back up a moment to explain the usage and reason for the EtherREGEN:

On what we call the ‘A’-side, there are 4 Gigabit copper Ethernet ports, plus an SFP cage for a Gigabit LC optical module. A typical user will attach a cable from their main network router or switch, and if desired any NAS (network attached storage) or other devices.

Across the “moat” at the other end of the EtherREGEN is a lone 100Mbps copper Ethernet port. We refer to this as the ‘B’-side port. It is to this port that you will attach whatever is your one computer/streamer/renderer endpoint—the component that is directly connected to your DAC (of course this includes the increasing number of DACs which themselves have an Ethernet input).

So why does this arrangement matter?

There are two types of sound-degrading influences the EtherREGEN is designed to radically decrease: Leakage—both high-impedance and low-impedance—and clock phase-noise. The clock phase-noise travels on the Ethernet signal itself and travels on power and ground planes. [Every edge coming out of any digital device caries the jitter/phase-noise of the clock used to ”clock out” that edge, this shows up on the ground-plane and affects the threshold of chips’ clock inputs. This is an oversimplification of a complex subject; we intend to publish a short white paper and measurements to demonstrate this.]

The circuitry across the moat is designed to eliminate the signal-borne phase-noise from one side to the other. EtherREGEN is mostly symmetrical—there is no “dirty side” or “clean side.” While it works identically in both directions, it is best to have the DAC-attached Ethernet endpoint device (computer/streamer/etc.) alone on one side—typically the ‘B’ side.

The circuitry between ports on the ‘A’ side decreases some phase-noise effects to some degree, but not nearly as much as crossing the ‘A’>’B’ moat.

The COMBINATION of the differential isolators and the differential flip-flops is what delivers the unrivaled performance of the EtherREGEN. The differential isolators prevent the data-borne clock signature from getting onto the PCB ground-plane, while the differential flip-flops prevent the signature from getting into the flip-flop’s own internal ground network. It takes both to accomplish the great feats of the EtherREGEN.

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Manufacturer:  https://uptoneaudio.com/

Product website –  https://uptoneaudio.com/products/etherregen