[brownbear]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Hey Mike,
Sure, here is an explanation of why using EtherREGEN in place of your switch would help the audio quality of your digital streaming front-end:

There are usually a number of problems going direct from consumer-grade routers:

1) the clocks are in generic consumer-grade routers are very cheap and induce clock phase noise, which is audible.

2) the flip-flops for these Ethernet switches are also very cheap, and contribute to the noise carried on top of the analog square waves that comprise digital bitstreams.

3) Most routers are powered by switch-mode power supplies, which are insidious with respect to producing low- and high-impedance AC leakage currents, which contribute significantly to clock phase noise and jitter. The impact of high-impedance leakage currents and their role in inducing clock phase noise and jitter is not well-known as this specific class of leakage currents were not even discovered until October, 2017.

4) The ports on routers typically have low-specification isolation tranformers and leakage currents can "jump" from port to port, contaminating more than one component in the chain.

5) There is no distinction between input and output ports on routers, which means that AC leakage currents can move from an "input" device e.g. a music server to an output device, e.g. a network bridge.

The EtherREGEN is a bespoke Ethernet switch product specifically developed for audio applications that mitigates and obviates these specific problems and source of noise as listed below:

1) the clocks in EtherREGEN are ultra-low-jitter/phase-noise Crystek CCHD-575 oscillators. Importantly, the clock distribution system (for the switch chip, the special Ethernet format conversion chips, and the high-speed flip-flops is run differentially throughout.

2) EtherREGEN has two isolated data/power/clock domains (the A side and the B side; separated by a "moat"). Each isolated domain is re-clocked using 10GHz-capable ultra-low-jitter (less than 0.8 picoseconds) differential flip-flops

3) The power supply for the EtherREGEN is specifically designed to prevent the passage of leakage currennts which induce clock phase noise.

4) the RJ45 module utilizes 12 transformer cores in each port (most Ethernet ports have 2~6 cores), and ground their center-taps through capacitors in a way that blocks port-to-port AC leakage currents.

5) ER uses an Active Differential Isolation Moat (“ADIM™”) that separates the A side (typically the input side)—to its ‘B’ side preventing leakage currents from being passed on to streamers, network bridges, and ultimately, DACs.

All of these specific features, functions and design embodiments are why ER provides notably superior audio quality for digital streaming than a generic, consumer-grade router.

Analogously, its no different than using a Shunyata Denali 6000/T V2 for distributing power vs. an el cheapo Monster power strip.

Would using the IsoRegen along with this product provide further improvement or is it recommended to use just one or the other?