A Very Useful New Discovery--EON Digital Filter from Network Acoustics


I've been on a year long quest to upgrade my stereo system, hopefully for the last time. As a senior "Luddite", I have been a late adopter of steaming capability. But now I'm converted. And just in time it apparently. In August 2020, DG released a new recording of all four Charles Ives Symphonies with the LA Phil and Dudemel conducting....with no CD format available!
Currently I'm listening to music through an Auralic G1 steamer/ Benchmark dac 3 DAC B into a newly built Audible Illusions Modulus 3B preamp and a Parasound A23+ power amp. CD's are played on an Audiolab 6000 transport into the Benchmark via Toslink. Speakers are Vanderstein Treo CT's. Oh there's still vinyl. I upgraded my trusty Well-Tempered TT with a Hana ML cartridge into a Sutherland Insight phono amp. Power supplies are a Furman PTS-8 with a Greenwave for devices switched on/off and an Audioquest 1200 for the devices left on, like the amp and the pre-amp. Everything is sounding really good (mostly acoustic jazz, Americana and Classical....lotsa acoustic piano).
I read on the 'Gon about a device from the U.K. called, EON from Network Acoustics. It is an EMI/RFI filtering device. We live on the Westside of LA. There's plenty of stray noise around. The one thing that worried me was the thirty foot run of contractor grade ethernet cable I was running from the office to the Auralic G1. I generally run mid-price cables, (Audioquest Carbon USB, Rocket 88 bi-wire speaker cables with DBS, Signal silver cables to the Sutherland, etc). Researching the EON, it seemed like this unit could be an asset, or at least save the money of 30 feet of Audioquest Cinnamon cable. And it was reasonably priced (under $500.00)!
I traded e-mails with Rich. He thought I would really like it but made two modest suggestions. He suggested that I add a D-Link DSG 1008G network switch (under $30.00)  and add a short link of good cable to the EON. (I ended up using the Audioquest Cinnamon ethernet). And he also suggested I pick up a IFI 5V power supply. ($50.00)
So.....what happened?
Suddenly the bass information, seemingly missing, was deep and powerful. I can actually feel the low bass strings on Christian McBride's acoustic bass pressing on my chest. And the percussive drive of Brian Blades drumming is being felt, not just implied. (Joshua Redman, Round Again, Nonesuch). The overall focus of everything is sharper. Like when you are tuning a guitar and the last little turn gets the top E string exactly right..... not just close. Brad Mehldau on, April 2020, sounds exactly like he is playing in my living room on a well cared for Steinway. Wow! Just Wow!!!!
I foolishly, but honestly, told my wife that I don't know to make this system sound any better.  I'm all done. Back to listening to music!
Important P.S The D-Link requires a male USB 2.0 Mini-B 5pin connector. Even though the IFI comes with many connector options, this isn't one of them. Nancy had one from an old I -Pad, keyboard connector.
mwgreene

Showing 11 responses by richtruss

My mistake, sorry, it should have been 50Mhz. I missed the zero. At 5Mhz it wouldn’t work at all.
The OP purchased an ENO and posted his thoughts on it here, to share his experience with fellow HiFi enthusiasts. I commented to help contribute my experiences with some of the comments. Maybe I’m not allowed to do that? I’m new to this Forum.
I read a review by those people of the Lyngdorf TDAI 3400 and they gave it a bad review, poor measurements. They completely misunderstood how it operated. It happens to be one of the best sounding pieces of equipment I’ve ever had, so in my humble opinion, they aren’t very good at reviewing. We have other reviews coming out soon in Mono & Stereo and Positive Feedback.
We have customers who already have an EtherRegen and have then added an ENO Ag between the EtherRegen and their streaming device, and have had a significant uplift in sound quality. The EtherRegen gets you a big lift, but still has electrical noise coming from it, that ENO will filter out, and that makes all the difference.

The ENO is very labour intensive to build, we build them by hand, and it can only be done by hand. If you own an ENO you know it’s been built by real engineers who take great pleasure in knowing they’ve made you smile.
There’s a new review here that might be of interest.
https://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/network-acoustics-eno-ethernet-filter-ag-eno-streaming-cable...
My good friend is a chartered RF engineer and has measured the frequency response of ENO. It starts to roll off at 5Mhz and then just keeps going down beyond the noise floor of his spectrum analyser.
Agreed; and you can just listen with and without it. It’s chalk and cheese or night and day if you will. Everyone who’s heard it gets it within seconds. The reason we offer the 30 day refund policy is that once you’ve experienced what it does for your system, you’ll not want to send it back.I guess the other question is this, can absolutely everything you hear be measured on a piece of electronic test gear?
30 days it is, you’ll know within 5 minutes of connecting it up though. You Should try the best, the ENO Streaming System Ag. Can you tell me how your current Ethernet Network is configured please?
Mr Jones, with the greatest respect, I think you may be a little unkind to our customers referring to them as chumps. If you were to take the time to read the completely independent reviews on TrustPilot, posted by our customers who are thrilled with the difference they hear, plus the fact that the ENO won a ‘Product of the year award 2020’ you might be a bit less negative towards people using innovative techniques to improve the sound quality of streamed music.
Oh I see, thanks Nonoise, that makes sense now. I’ll get back to cooking my roast dinner and supping my Rioja then 🙂