Mike Rubin

As an SE owner for several years, I have genuinely appreciated two things about Sonore over the last few years: the upgrade path for owners of existing units, which has allowed me to keep my original unit current, and the support that Jesus, Adrian and Barrows so quickly provide. I could never afford a $5350 product purchase but I have managed the more bite-sized chunks in the upgrade process, so that has been great. I also want to reiterate what Chris said in his review: the current version is the most stable yet, by far. My network can be quirky and complicated to troubleshoot, but my main system has been stable as can be since the latest upgrade. I have posts here and on Sonore's own forum about grievances that no longer exist after this upgrade. It took me awhile to get used to the radical change in sound presentation after updating - much more major than other upgrades I have experienced in my system - but the stability I have experienced is what I value the most in the end. It really is quite an accomplishment. Bravo for that alone!

Just to follow up, I haven’t had a single disconnect since I followed the manual’s stipulation and grounded the EtherRegen using the inexpensive grounding strap kit that I bought at Amazon. I would delete this entire thread if I could, because I seem to have reached some wildly inaccurate conclusions before I added the ground.

Price reduced to $700 plus shipping.

I actually read the manual four years ago when I got the EtherRegen, but it didn’t occur to me to look it for this issue. For one thing, I don’t know how a grounding failure manifests. For another, it’s something that only developed this year, at least as far as I know. Weird!

For anyone still reading this, I believe I owe both AfterDark and Uptone apologies. The grounding cable that I bought at Amazon seems to have resolved my drama. I have been up and running for a full week since I added the cable. Fingers crossed that my issue stays resolved. Thanks, @Superdad, for pointing me at the user manual.

Thanks, Tom. I ordered something like that this morning. Should be here in the next few days.

How would that work, Tom? Do you mean I should get an extender if there aren't enough free outlets available?

Thanks, Alex. Will order this. If there’s a spare wall outlet near the network stuff (I don't think there is, with so many little boxes in one place), I will plug in there.

Hi, Alex. I don't intend to bash anyone's product unfairly here, so I apologize for suggesting the LPS is the problem if it is not. I read and reread the EtherRegen user guide and now realize the EtherRegen should be grounded when using the ultracap. Unfortunately, the guide's suggestion is that the wire be connected to a nearby audio equipment unit chassis. My EtherRegen is in a shelving unit that houses my AfterDark clock, NAS, and network equipment, nearly all of which have plastic, not metal, enclosures. All of the nearby audio equipment is on the other side of the room. I know nothing about choosing a grounding solution, but it appears that I might be able to ground to an open socket in a PS Audio Duet power center. Would something like this work, with one end of the wire attached to the EtherRegen post via alligator clip and the other attached to the plug that goes into the electrical outlet? Grounding Cord, Ground Cable, Grounding Wire, Ground Wire, Grounding Strap, Ground Strap, Grounding Cable, Anti Static, Grounding Plug - 3-Prong Ground Plug with Alligator Clip - 16.4 Ft https://a.co/d/eb8dZwe

Sounds as though you may have a corrupted SD card. This has happened to me several times. The unit remains online but it just won't play anything despite the usual troubleshooting and following the correct restart routine. Send an email to Sonore. Jesus R has very graciously replaced SD cards when they go bad.

And now it looks as though I may be slandering AfterDark, unfortunately. I now think the problem is with my ultracap 1.2 power supply. I can't get the EtherRegen up and running from the internal clock when connected to the ultracap. When I remove the ultracap and use instead its power brick on the EtherRegen, I can get it back online whether or not the AfterDark clock is connected. It currently is running with AfterDark clock and the brick. If it's still up and running three days from now, I will be sending the ultracap to the recycler rather than the clock. I don't know if anyone is following this, but I will report back in a few days.

I substituted a second LPS (also After Dark, which I had as a spare) and an Oyaide cable that I used before I got the Cybershaft cable that I removed for testing. I was up and running for three days, but got disconnected again this evening. The odds of two LPS being defective in the same way probably exceed the odds of two cables being defective in the same way, but either set of odds should be minuscule. I am confident the clock is the defective device. Just to be sure, I will revert to the EtherRegen’s internal clock. If that’s up and running for more than three days, the AfterDark clock goes off to the recycler, as I am not comfortable reselling a product that I don’t trust. With two units failing within eight months and a $300 plus overseas postage repair cost, I don’t see myself investing in this brand again.

I make four local backups to external USB drives. Because I one-way sync so that all the drives are mirrors of the original NAS drive, I run the risk of substituting a bad original for a good one on all of the drives simultaneously, but I found it too hard to manage differing backup protocols on different drives. Thus far, knock wood, the danger has been more theoretical than actual. (As we speak, I am creating a mirror on the external USB drive that replaces the one that failed last month, which WD just replaced under warranty.) I also store a backup in the cloud with iDrive, which sent me a USB drive on to which I loaded my collection initially and that I then returned to the company via snail mail. It took them a couple of days after receiving my files to post them to the web. Once that happened, a scheduler automatically started to back up incrementally overnight. (Because the iDrive service can’t mirror a mapped drive, there are some differences between the NAS collection and the iDrive one. Particularly, I have been replacing years of mp3 acquisitions with FLAC files and SD files with HD ones. With iDrive’s inability to sync mapped drives, I then have to delete the old files from iDrive manually if I want to try to have just a mirror. I usually just end up leaving the deleted files on iDrive.) Like @Jud, I routinely back up to the local USB drives every time I make a change to my collection. I have lost too much data, musical and otherwise, to faulty media despite my always, always, always running backups, I am a firm believer in total overkill redundancy for any home user and, especially, any business one. Just because you have a backup, it doesn’t mean that the backup device won’t fail out of the blue or that the device will be able to restore at all even if it purports to be so doing or that the current version of the software will restore the data an older version created.

Thanks. I don't have another LPS around here, but I do have some 75 ohm BNC cables. Will give one of those a try.

Haven't tried a different cable. Still using the cybershaft that I bought from Uptone. 😁 The power supply is the matching AfterDark LPS. Will PM you now rather than call since it is late. Thanks, Alex!