  Cochran, Orr and Teichner introduced $L^2$--eta--invariants to detect highly
non--trivial examples of non slice knots. Using a recent theorem by L\"uck and
Schick we show that their metabelian $L^2$--eta--invariants can be viewed as
the limit of finite dimensional unitary representations. We recall a ribbon
obstruction theorem proved by the author using finite dimensional unitary
eta--invariants. We show that if for a knot $K$ this ribbon obstruction
vanishes then the metabelian $L^2$--eta--invariant vanishes too. The converse
has been shown by the author not to be true.
