I’ve finally integrated the Eno in my system after wanting to try one for a while. The digital journey in my set up is a Chord Epic Array Ethernet cable from router to an Adot MC03 audiophile media converter with Linear power supply, switching to fibre, to my EtherREGEN Network Switch with an MCRU option 3 linear power supply, AudioQuest Vodka to Eno to Metronome DSS network transport to Gryphon DAC to Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated amplifier. To be honest I’m astonished how the presentation has changed with the Eno on board. Darker background, more air, PRAT improvements and the hint of digital glare has all but disappeared. Great review Hans, the only thing worth noting, which is at odds with your experience is the presentation is better with the EtherREGEN in the chain. I guess this could be system dependant and come down to personal preference. This has been such a revelation I’m already considering upgrading to the Muon Pro. 😀
I am not trolling or hating, I am a big fan of the channel, but it is hard for me to accept, that for the price of two of these passive signal cleaners, one could buy Hegel H120 integrated amplifier, with balanced inputs, dac and streamer. I am not accusing nor insulting our messenger, but something looks out of balance here.
I understand that completely! A review of the Eno was requested several times by viewers but I didn't feel like it. Until the manufacturers - two guys that started a company - contacted me and asked if I would look at it regardless whether I would review it or not. It took me 3 seconds listening to know I had to review it and two weeks later the video was published. I you can spare a grand, get the ENO System. With the 30 day return policy there is only one risk: you won't return it.... And to be clear, I have no benefit in any form or shape if you do.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannelHopefully soon Hans. I got the Auva 100 and 4 sets of EQs, following your reviews, and love them. And am looking at purchasing the Eno or Muon Pro, but am really curious to see what Stack Audio can bring to the table.
I plan to try an ENO isolator. I have the SOtM isolator, which varies from very small improvement to almost none, depending on connected equipment. So I will definitely compare the two.
Hi Hans, the ENO2 will be launching in March/April. I got this from Rob, since I was holding out on buying the ENO, until some more reviews on the Stack Audio Smoothlan come out. I don’t think the Smoothlan will outperform a new and improved ENO2, so I my choice is clear. (By the way, I got the Auva 100 and 4 sets of EQs following your positive reviews, and I am still amazed about the nice and clearly audible changes Stack Audio products bring. Thanks).
i had the isocat6 filter with great results. then add the pink faun lan isolator with great improviments. if i add an ENO filter too, its a good idea? can i expect improviments?
are the benefits only to ethernet endpoints? my dac is still plugged into my roon core (i know i know sorry) . what would this do between between a commercial router and a windows pc? this looks great, but should i concentrate on good roon endpoint first?
I don't think so. The computer itself generates so much electrical noise... If you have a grand to spend, spend it on a good network bridge. The USBridge Signature is only € 400 and will give more improvement in your situation.
Hans…thank you for all you do! A quick question…now that you’ve owned this for a while, do you still recommend it over EtherREGEN? Set up is eero acces point into Lumin U1 Mini. Thanks!
You’re right in that fibre uses pulses of light instead of analogue waveforms to transfer the data, but at some point in the circuitry, in a device somewhere in the chain, it has to be converted back into analogue waveforms, as, right now, we cannot convert light pulses into music within a DAC. So there will be unwanted noise generated in that process.
I have not tried but I am sure the result will be good. Although I would first invest money in the Signature version. That will probably have even more impact on the sound quality.
I purchased the SOtM sMS-200 Ultra NEO, based on your review and, so far, I am very pleased with it. Did you try the ENO with the SOtM to compare the difference to the Aurelic Aries G2? I’m curious how much benefit the SOtM might have in this combination.
Good morning Hans, ok I just order the SOtM 200 ultra and sp500 power supply as you recommended instead of any other streamer. Question in my setup will the Eno improve or not the sound. router, switch, SOtM, Roon with hqplayer, denafrips ariesII, Auris Ha2-sf with NOS Telefunken 802s and 4 NOS sylvania 12bhta and ZMF verite closed. I only listen music with Headphones. Will the ENO add noteworthy improvement? thanks
Hello from Montreal. I have the Innuos Zen 3 and I just added the Phoenix reclocker using the ethernet connection from my modem, is the ENO a similar product without a linear power supply? Just asking. The sound quality from my streamer is now that much better with the phoenix especially after three months of break in. Can I say warm, less bright, analogue and happy. Take care
The Phoenix reclocker is a USB device, the ENO system is for the network connection. Truly different applications and thus different devices. But both aim the further improve the sound quality by perfecting the signal. The ENO System is a passive device that needs no power supply.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Thank you for the reply, With my Innuos reclocker I do plug the ethernet cable into it and then USB to the streamer and so forth to my dac. So the ENO is a step before by filtering the signal from the router via ethernet. I really enjoy and appreciate your help and guidance. Canada is slowly getting through this pandemic, we still have areas of the country under a curfew and travel restrictions and other areas have opened up. We have been extremely cautious not like the USA. I assume you and your country have been affected by all this. Take care
Hi, thank´s for another inspiring review. I am using the EtherRegen with an Auralic Aries Femto on the audio-dedicated output. I am wondering, if using one of the 3 conventional outputs, then with the ENO into the Auralic, would be a solution to avoid double filtering effect. Since my DAC is also an network streamer (AudioNet DNC) I could use the one dedicated output on the ER for this. Have you tried this way, using the conventional outputs in combination with the ENO ?
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel The EtherRegen has only one isolated output for Audio. As far as I understood from your test-setup, you used this single isolated output to connect the ENO, and from this to the Aries G2. According to Uptone Audio, the 4 Ethernet connections on the other side of the device have not the benefit like the single audio-dedicated output, so I assume less filter effect. Since you said, that using the ER in combination with the ENO was not that good, I presumed, that you might have used the single, isolated output of the ER. I am wondering now, what would sonically happen, if you used one of the 4 ethernet connections on the other side of the ER (less filtering and no isolation), then into the ENO, then into the Aries. Would it bring the same benefit as you described, when putting the EtherRegen out of the chain ?
@@michaelnosbuesch6920 I don't have the Eno, but I have the EtherRegen. You should be able to have a good result by doing the connection you described, as 4 ethernet connector side of the EtherRegen behaves like a regular switch.
Hans, this review is very timely for me. I am in the last days of my 30 day trial of the Uptone EtherRegen. If I understood this review today correctly you say the Eno is presents a bigger improvement than the Uptone ER device? If so I will return the Uptone and buy the Eno. The Eno requires no wall wart to upgrade also. Thanks!
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Dear Hans, currently I’m using a Cisco 2960 + Etherregen. I conclude that you find the ENO more analog sounding than ER + lps 1.2 which I like. I’m not sure if I want to add a Farad lps (which should sound better than the ER + lps1.2 combination or replace the ER with ENO.) Long story short: can you make a prediction if the ENO will outperform the ER + Farad?
2 года назад
@@nicktube3904 that is definitely a question many might have. But also ENO has evolved with the new Muon line. Hans, did you have any change to test / compare already ?
Hi Hans, thanks for the video. As Network Acoustics said that the sound difference is caused by the unwanted 'noise' mixed in with the Ethernet signal. I wonder how the sound with ENO compares when you disconnect Ethernet from your Auralic Airies G2 and use wireless streaming via Wi-Fi in your Reference Setup 1.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel I was going to ask a similar question. After buying an Aries G2 to replace an ultraReendu I didn't find appreciable difference until I went wireless. I re-purposed a TP-Link router I had bought for my daughter's Erasmus year connected to an ethernet socket in my music room and this was what made the Aries G2 a "keeper" for me. ( I had done a full renovation of our house to bring it to a low energy use and included in the specification several ethernet sockets in each room and found better sound via wireless in the room rather than direct ethernet connection) My rationale for what I was hearing was that wirelessly all the "noise" associated with cables was negated and Auralic's wireless implementation proved to be as good as they claimed. Have you ever been able to compare the Aries G2(.1) with a strong stable wireless connection vs a wired connection?
Hi Hans. Thanks for the review. I have a question that is off the topic of this review. My Roon Rock with a wall wart switch mode power supply is connected directly to my Denafrips Ares DAC with a USB cable. I plan to order an UpTone Audio USB REGEN to go between the two and either an UpTone UltraCap LPS-1.2 power supply or a linear power supply (probably Chinese) for the computer. Which of the two do you think would benefit the most from a better power supply, the Roon Rock or the USB REGEN? Also do you think the Allo USBridge Sig with Shanti power supply would be comparable to UpTone Audio with UltraCap LPS-1.2 power supply? I know you reviewed both of these in earlier incarnations but I wasn't certain which of the two you preferred.
I have a similar setup. I replaced my USB Regen with an IsoRegen. Better than an USB Regen w/1.2. Use the 1.2 with the Isoregen if that's what you meant (the USB Regen is discontinued.)
Better than English electric 8, which was slightly better than the Bonn silent angel, both of which were bettered by the etheregen (which was my most recent purchase and was a huge upgrade). The pace of advance of digital music is such that one must fight FOMO and enjoy the music, as Hans says. The nice benefit of the rapid improvement is it means yesterday's highest end unit gets put up for sale on the used market more rapidly. On that note it looks like the Brooklyn has been retired in setup one...?
I agree with most of it save the Brooklyn's retirement. Setup 1 might probably get three stages: the Brooklyn Hypsos combination, the Terminator-Plus Gaia combination and a DAC one stage above that. Nothing definitive yet, it all hangs on the money. I don't need an income from the Channel but I can't afford to put more private money in it. Luckily the channel is well supported financially.
Have you tried comparing the ENO to an ER connected via optical cable? I found that when I connected an optical cable to my ER there was an improvement in sound quality. Also, was the ER in your setup powered with the standard power supply or a linear power supply? I am currently running a standard power supply but considering an upgrade to a linear power supply and was wondering if you have tried different power supplies in your setup.
Really enjoyed your video. With the risk of starting a bits-are-bits discussion (which is not my intention) I was curious if you had any deeper insights to the use of the ENO in series with another audio grade switch - the EtherREGEN in this case (or for that matter the SOtM switch in your reference setup video from November last year). I do believe that there is no controversy in the statement the IP-protocol is bit perfect when it comes to payload / data and that the concept of audio jitter does not apply to NW traffic (given its packet based nature and ignoring packet loss which is rarely a practical issue). So with the data being bit-perfect and jitter not been applicable (or at least constant), wouldn’t that just leave us with noise as an explanation to the variation? So to my question, in this video, you conclude that the EtherREGEN in combination with the ENO does not sound as good as the ENO alone. Wouldn’t that mean that the two devices in serial would create a noisier environment than each device on its own? Do you have any thoughts on why these two devices would create more noise in series?
Great video, Hans. I do love your channel and the quality of informations you provide. Basing upon your previous videos I bouught an aires g2.1 for my rig. Next week it will be delivered to me, I'm so excited! I have a question. in my home the rooter is connected to the switch in another room and in the listening room there's an RJ45 wall plug. insert the eno between the wall plug and the aires will incrase the quality in spite the rooter and switch are in another room? you have already answered to a similar question, but I would like some more clarifiyng details.. thanks a lot!
Since digital signals came up again, what is your opinion on the possible physical (not subjective) cause(s) of an observation I made: over the past 20+ years I have consistently noticed that a digital source that has analog outputs (including a DAC) and digital outputs still maintain a similar sound over the digital output as the one over analog outputs. Improving parts, e.g. PSU and clock might improve both, but still the characteristic sound remains identifiable and similar. A Lumin always sounds like a Lumin, and so does Auralic, Elac, Naim, Linn, etc. What makes these sound signatures? What are the most critical parts in the chain in Pareto sense (analogous to the tweeter series capacitor in speaker crossovers)? I don't expect an answer to this here (maybe one doesn't even necessarily agree with this observation), but if you have already written or said something about it, please share a link, or otherwise think about eventually addressing it later. Thank you :).
Since it's impossible to design audio gear using only measurement equipment, the final stage of design is the voicing, the tweaking the sound by ear. Here of course the other equipment used and the personnel play a large role. Since perfection is only a goal, not a reality, each team will find its own compromise towards perfection. Therefore there is something as a 'Naim sound' and so on. About the digital and analog outputs having the same signature: that is the character of the phase distortion that causes jitter in both internal and external DAC's.
I’m trying out an Eno system demo unit and I think it’s the best ethernet set-up I’ve tried so far. System Synergy is still important as it was a tad to bright when combined with my AQ Diamond USB cable. Matched up very well with a Shunyata USB cable and together they produce the best streaming sound I’ve had to date.
Enjoy your videos, especially review of the inside of the device, I find no difference between any of my digital inputs on my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 and would be concerned if I had to put so many devices in the signal path to make it sound sublime. Keep up the great vids!
Hi Hans, Thanks for a wonderful review. I wanted to let you know I auditioned the Auralic Aries G2.1 after seeing your reviews and chose it as my bridge and have ordered the product. I have been watching all your network videos to gain more knowledge - I got a curious question after this video, in your reference set up 1 are you planning to continue with EtherRegen or moving to Eno - Did you make a decision. If Yes, would love to understand the reason…. As this might be insightful for me in thinking about my set up. Thanks.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel - Thanks very much Hans. I just spoke to Richard while waiting for your reply - reading more reviews and I went ahead and ordered the Eno full set up! Also I ordered the Gaia to improve my setup. Alvin from Vinshine was a pleasure to work with! Thanks for all the useful information in your videos.
It would be very interesting to compare the ENO to using wifi to connect to the Aries G2. Auralic claim to have minimised noise generated by wifi, and I can say the Aries G1 is very very good in that regard (I had one).
Having recently acquired an Auralic Altair G1 (for use with 2x Auralic Merak Monoblocks and Focal Sopra No.3 speakers) I have not yet had the chance to fully experiment and decide whether it sounds better over WiFi or Ethernet, though I am most interested to see how they compare. I fortunately have quality, heavily shielded CAT6 cabling throughout my house and a commercial grade switch (with built in power supply - not a cheap SMPS) and a separately connected gateway/router - again, commercial grade with quality built in power supply, no SMPS). However I also have rock solid, high bandwidth, mesh networking, multiple access points (commercial grade Ubiquiti UniFi - to work with their Router/gateway, a DreamMachine Pro). That said I also know how heavily polluted my current location is from neighbour’s wifi, and albeit my set up has zero issues we all know that doesn’t guarantee sensitive audio equipment will see the issue the same way! Anyway, will be interesting to see if the quality of the audio is dependent on the quality of the wifi network, or the pollution it has to operate in. As I will be moving house in a few months to where wifi traffic should be much, much reduced, maybe I will have to repeat my testing then and see. According to an article by J Darko (is.gd/sLNRsF ) AURALiC CEO Xuanqian Wang believes their circuit designs implement wifi in a way that is able to minimise noise to the DAC, and in fact they recommend connection over wifi instead of Ethernet on their devices for this reason. In this instance however, the question is whether their wifi implementation can be as good as Ethernet connections filtered by means such as the ENO etc. As I don’t (yet) own one that I will not be able to say - only if it is better than unfiltered Ethernet. There is a (long) quote from their CEO in this article which I’ve copied/pasted below to those interested to hear his view: “The network router, the NAS and other network device are directly attached to the router using Ethernet cable which can be quite noisy. If the streamer is attached to the router using Ethernet cable then the noise can easily be transmitted to the streamer over this physical link. The regular CE, FCC and other EMC standards only guarantee the device will work stably, but when we are talking about sound quality, we are actually talking about EMI noise that is 1/1000 of the EMC’s standard, so it affects [sound quality] a lot. That’s why audiophiles say different NAS or different routers sound different. The Ethernet cable is [also] a big problem. It runs long and can pick up low-frequency noise which cannot be filtered out. This noise will introduce jitter at low frequencies which no PLL circuit can get rid of and it will affect sound quality a lot. WiFi will sound better if: The engineer that designed the streamer knows how to design the WiFi module right. ‘Right’ means the module does not introduce noise to other audio circuits sharing the same ground circuit; The WiFi signal between streamer and router is strong and stable. This is because if you have a poor WiFi signal, the WiFi protocol will try to fetch the data again and again due to large error rate (Yes, we use TCP to transfer music data which has error correction). If there are too many retries, it will add additional load to the processor and potentially generate more EMI noise. The reason that many audiophile companies claim Ethernet to sound better is that they are not capable of designing a good WiFi circuit and they have no such background knowledge (poor WiFi network). All our streamers use existing Intel WiFi modules because they work well on a Linux system and they are well designed with minimum EMI noise generation and, most importantly, we know how to design the circuit around it correctly.”
@@stephendixon8575 So! Did you get to test WiFi vs. Ethernet on your Altair? VERY interested to hear your results considering you have a well implemented Ethernet system.
There is now a Eno 2. Might try it as it’s more affordable than the Muon. If you give the Eno a 👍🏼 then I think the Eno 2 will also get a 👍🏼 or maybe even 👍🏼👍🏼
Other good one, Hans. I enjoy the format of your reviews. Will the ENO work in a situation where the network switch and Roon Nucleus are in a different room from the system? In this scenario do you think upstream ethernet cable matters?
I have not tried but I think the effect will be limited. Use the ENO just in front of the network player, there it will reduce the noise and will give great results.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Dear Hans, I’ve been planning to buy an Audiophile Network Switch in order to improve the Ethernet signal feeding my loyal Zenith mk3 music server. I looked at the “entry level “ options (Silent Angel Bonn N8, AQVOX and Chord English Electric 8Switch), the more expensive but rather more interesting (SOTM and Uptone Audio Regen) and also the prohibitive but (reportedly) great Phoenix Net from Innuos. However, I must say this new filter from Network Acoustics is the product I definitely want to try. Let’s hope my system is able to justify the investment…
Hi Hans, congratulations with your wedding anniversary! I have replaced my ER with the ENO filter and agree the sound is very analog and pleasant. However, compared to the ER with Audioquest Vodka lan cable connected to my music server the sound now seems less dynamic. Thus I was wandering if you tested the Network Acoustic lan cable separately from the ENO filter? How much would I gain from upgrading the lan cable in front of the ENO filter (currently Supra cat 8) by adding the Network Acoustic lan cable or another high-end lan cable?
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Yes, that makes the most sense as Marcel must bare in mind that their cable has been optimised to work with the related device. This reminds me of some really interesting comments that GR Research was saying (see their YT channel) about filtering in general. Now whilst that was originally about either power cables or speaker cables that act as a filter for EMI/RFI, the same principles apply to the points he was making: 1. Almost all audio circuits with built in power supplies start with some form of filtering (or should do) - so for those non-believers in the impact of filtering all cables, ask yourself why the makers put it in to begin with. 2. However, no single cable or filtering device will be perfect for ALL devices, or all systems, or in every location/situation - depending on the level of noise impacting that location. 3. Further, if you combine TOO MANY filtering devices, or a heavily filtered cable with a device already having a well filtered circuit design or power supply (as appropriate), you can actually go TOO FAR and the music sounds worse! It’s not a case of you can never have enough filtering for optimal sound. Perhaps this last point is at play here with the combination of devices filtering the signal in series, or where the AQ cable is being used instead of the manufacturer’s recommended one?
Dear Hans, I understand what you said in the conclusion, I rate my system between 1 and 2.( AN Oto, AN-J speaker + Auralic Vega G1) But I think the ‘streaming’ part of the Auralic is the weakest link in my setup. So the streaming end is not quit high end. So I was wondering what you recommend in my situation ER or perhaps the ENO ? Ps: my current switch is the Cisco 2960 modded with ifi iPower X
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel From the latest video You released "Other music I like to play", where at the end you describe the reference set up, the SOtM sNH-10G is used in front of the ENO. So the EtherREGEN was not a good combination (complementary) with ENO, but other switches are / or might be? Could you please advise which other switches You have tried and with what result? Any cheaper recommended alternative than the SOtM sNH-10G? Of course not expecting the same sound quality for cheaper, just a good alternative. E.g. EE8, Silent Angel Bonn N8. Thank You. PS: I have just ordered the ENO and have a cheap dedicated switch with very good linear power supply.
3 года назад
@@henrikhengerics6782 how did the ENO work out in your setup?
