UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Switch Review

[Wes]

is tintin the same guy who keeps getting booted from here?

I do agree you have to listen (in a suitably done test) as it is not clear what suite of measurements will really tell you what has better SQ, much less how any measure will be 'loaded' as to importance in the brain, ---> and all possible combinations thereof.

just "listen" is the war cry of confirmation bias tho

 

[Jinjuku]

Here is a video that I recorded with the EtherRegen and an Aruba 2530 switch,

The file server is my HP Elite Book, the playback machine is a Dell Optiplex 780 with Win7 Pro X64 with a dual 10/100/1000 Intel Server NIC in a static LAG team feeding my Emotiva DC-1. Headphones used were AKG 701 and ATH-m50x.

Playback software is JRiver.

 

[g29]

Here is a video that I recorded with the EtherRegen and an Aruba 2530 switch,

The file server is my HP Elite Book, the playback machine is a Dell Optiplex 780 with Win7 Pro X64 with a dual 10/100/1000 Intel Server NIC in a static LAG team feeding my Emotiva DC-1. Headphones used were AKG 701 and ATH-m50x.

Playback software is JRiver.

Did you happen to benchmark its throughput ? So far, those numbers are unknown.

 

[Jinjuku]

Did you happen to benchmark its throughput ? So far, those numbers are unknown.

Iperf averaged 11.7Mbps on the B side.

Will run iperf on the GBe side and post the output as soon as all the Windows updates install.

 

[Cortes]

I like Tintin, Milou is cute , there are the colonial/racist overtones which rather overshadow some well executed graphics.
Keith

Tintin is a masterpiece. Judging it from nowadays glasses, btw a moment where public speech freedom is at a record low, is as out of context and opportunist as criticizing the Bibble because there were no women at the Last Supper.

 

[krabapple]

Funny how Tintin put the word science in quotes, as if taking careful measurements isn't science, and simply 'hearing the switch in their system' somehow is.

 

[Wes]

merely taking careful measurements isn't science

science requires a test of a hypothesis using an experiment

 

[mansr]

merely taking careful measurements isn't science

science requires a test of a hypothesis using an experiment

Science can also be taking a bunch of measurements to analyse and form a hypothesis.

Real scientists rarely quote Popper. I'm sure there's a reason for that.

 

[Wes]

I don't think you are a real scientist - grad. students are often forced to read Popper & Kuhn.

 

[Dimitri]

merely taking careful measurements isn't science

science requires a test of a hypothesis using an experiment

You must mean this: https://cdn.britannica.com/26/151526-050-F95C5D11/Flow-chart-method.jpg

"Measuring" is slightly dif'rent

1. Lord Kelvin famously stated that “when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science” (Thomson 1889: 73).

 

[mansr]

I don't think you are a real scientist - grad. students are often forced to read Popper & Kuhn.

I'm an engineer, not a scientist.

 

[amirm]

merely taking careful measurements isn't science

science requires a test of a hypothesis using an experiment

There was a hypothesis as presented by manufacturer and its fans: that this switch improves sound quality. We performed experiments/measurements to prove that it didn't do this. And couldn't (architecturally) make the sound different.

 

[Wes]

right, you did 'science'

 

[Wes]

I am waiting to hear from tintin's son, rin - he has golden ears

 

[amirm]

right, you did 'science'

I didn't. Science already has concluded that this device does nothing. I just confirmed it with data and fit the definition of what you asked about.

 

[Jinjuku]

Did you happen to benchmark its throughput ? So far, those numbers are unknown.

Here is the GBe iPerf results for my setup:

Client is ASRock 3150 with onboard GBe and HDD

Server is Dell R620 with SSD

Both are running Windows 10 Pro.

C:\iperf-3.1.3-win64\iperf-3.1.3-win64>iperf3.exe -c fs-ll-1
Connecting to host fs-ll-1, port 5201
[ 4] local fe80::c46:9498:ba:e01b port 49846 connected to fe80::5d1d:1114:2e76:c0de port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 78.4 MBytes 657 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 78.0 MBytes 655 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 78.4 MBytes 657 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 78.0 MBytes 655 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 78.1 MBytes 655 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 78.1 MBytes 655 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 78.0 MBytes 655 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 78.2 MBytes 656 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 78.1 MBytes 656 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 78.5 MBytes 658 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 782 MBytes 656 Mbits/sec sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 782 MBytes 656 Mbits/sec receiver

 

[Jinjuku]

I installed an Intel CT Desktop PCI-e NIC:

C:\iperf-3.1.3-win64\iperf-3.1.3-win64>iperf3.exe -c fs-ll-1
Connecting to host fs-ll-1, port 5201
[ 4] local fe80::99d7:170:8858:67a port 49870 connected to fe80::5d1d:1114:2e76:c0de port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 93.0 MBytes 780 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 110 MBytes 926 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 110 MBytes 922 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 110 MBytes 920 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 110 MBytes 927 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 109 MBytes 918 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 108 MBytes 901 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 109 MBytes 917 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 108 MBytes 908 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 110 MBytes 925 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.05 GBytes 904 Mbits/sec sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.05 GBytes 904 Mbits/sec receiver


So nothing to worry about here other than the $107 per port cost for this switch.

Moral of the story: integrated NIC's leave a lot of performance on the table.

 

[Jinjuku]

And no switch just NIC to NIC cabled:

C:\iperf-3.1.3-win64\iperf-3.1.3-win64>iperf3.exe -c fs-ll-1
Connecting to host fs-ll-1, port 5201
[ 4] local 169.254.6.122 port 50149 connected to 169.254.192.222 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 106 MBytes 891 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 112 MBytes 937 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 112 MBytes 941 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 112 MBytes 942 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 112 MBytes 935 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 110 MBytes 928 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 112 MBytes 937 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 112 MBytes 936 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.08 GBytes 931 Mbits/sec sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.08 GBytes 931 Mbits/sec receiver

 

[Jinjuku]

And here is the eR A to B side results:


C:\iperf-3.1.3-win64\iperf-3.1.3-win64>iperf3.exe -c fs-ll-1
Connecting to host fs-ll-1, port 5201
[ 4] local fe80::99d7:170:8858:67a port 50252 connected to fe80::5d1d:1114:2e76:c0de port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-1.01 sec 11.0 MBytes 91.3 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.01-2.01 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.5 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.01-3.01 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.6 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.01-4.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.5 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.6 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.00-6.01 sec 11.2 MBytes 93.6 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.01-7.01 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.5 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.01-8.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.6 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.6 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 9.00-10.01 sec 11.2 MBytes 93.5 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-10.01 sec 111 MBytes 93.3 Mbits/sec sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.01 sec 111 MBytes 93.2 Mbits/sec receiver

 

[SIY]

Real scientists rarely quote Popper.

I do. And I *think* I'm a real scientist. That's what my business cards say, anyway.