Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[steve williams]

With my Extreme I use my internal storage for XDMS and a NAS for Roon. I can’t tell a difference.

Having said that, IIRC Emile and tsaett have both said that with the Olympus an NAS sounds better than using stored internal files. After much deliberation on my part that is the way I am going as well and my NAS and storage was delivered yesterday. Also Emile and tsaett have said that the NAS should be out of the room unless you use a fanless SSD .....which I looked into and it costs way more than internal storage on the Olympus. I was hoping to find one for a reasonable price that I could power with the DCD but a light went on in my head (Duh) to put the NAS in the same room as my main router and use port forwarding .....sometimes this squirrel "gets" the nut. Total price for the NAS with 64 TB's in RAID1 configuration was just over $1800....thanks to tsaett as well as the encouragement of Emile and dminches. Tomorrow I will start downloading my 16TB's of data from the Extreme to the NAS by connecting the NAS to the Taiko router (today is Mother's Day so not a good time to start this venture). Once done the NAS will assume its final resting spot downstairs connected to my main network router.

 

[jelt2359]

So just a regular NAS? Not a special one connected via USB to the Taiko Router?

 

[Kingsrule]

Wonder if there is a NAS where the drives from the Extreme can be used in?

 

[dminches]

So just a regular NAS? Not a special one connected via USB to the Taiko Router?

NAS is a network device. It normally doesn't get connected via USB unless the USB is used as a source of data to be backed up on the NAS.

My NAS is in my audio rack connected to my Taiko Router via ethernet and uses the DCD for power. I don't believe it has to be fanless or outside the room unless it is noisy and can be heard at the listening position. Mine isn't.

 

[dminches]

Wonder if there is a NAS where the drives from the Extreme can be used in?

Google it. There are several NAS that can use m.2 drives. The issue is that the drives in the Extreme are generally 2 TB which means you would need a good number of them to created a large array. I currently have 8 in my Extreme. I am not sure there are NASes that hold 8.

 

[steve williams]

So just a regular NAS? Not a special one connected via USB to the Taiko Router?

as I said, the info that Emile and Tsaett have posted here is if a NAS is used in the music room connected to the Taiko router it needs to be fanless, use SSD's and to draw low power if it is to be powered via the DCD . For me to go that route would have been well over $4K and that would be even more than internal storage on the Olympus. As I also said that was my hope to be able topper the NAS via the DCD but when Emile said "out of the room", this squirrel tried to overthink what otherwise was a very simple solution where the comments were :it sounds better than internal storage in the Olympus". From what this simple mind of mine draws from that is that the Olympus by its very construction is highly sensitive to any noise whether that be from within it's bowels or from within the music room

 

[steve williams]

NAS is a network device. It normally doesn't get connected via USB unless the USB is used as a source of data to be backed up on the NAS.

My NAS is in my audio rack connected to my Taiko Router via ethernet and uses the DCD for power. I don't believe it has to be fanless or outside the room unless it is noisy and can be heard at the listening position. Mine isn't.

My take on this David is that using the Olympus which is so sensitive to noise will make what you and I don't hear as now something that will be heard on the network.

 

[dminches]

as I said, the info that Emile and Tsaett have posted here is if a NAS is used in the music room connected to the Taiko router it needs to be fanless, use SSD's and to draw low power if it is to be powered via the DCD . For me to go that route would have been well over $4K and that would be even more than internal storage on the Olympus. As I also said that was my hope to be able topper the NAS via the DCD but when Emile said "out of the room", this squirrel tried to overthink what otherwise was a very simple solution where the comments were :it sounds better than internal storage in the Olympus". From what this simple mind of mine draws from that is that the Olympus by its very construction is highly sensitive to any noise whether that be from within it's bowels or from within the music room

I don't agree it needs to be fanless or use SSDs. In a perfect world that would be ideal but, as you said, that limits the choice and makes it uber expensive.

My Synology NAS is a 2 bay and draws under 18 watts. I have configured at with 2 conventional drives at RAID0 so there is minimal disk spinning. I am sitting 7 feet away and cannot hear it even when there is no music playing. When the music is playing I certainly can't hear it.

 

[dminches]

My take on this David is that using the Olympus which is so sensitive to noise will make what you and I don't hear as now something that will be heard on the network.

I don't see it that way. In fact, I think the Olympus, along with the router and switch, is able to "reject" all the network noise. Plus, if network noise was still an issue then I would think the internal drives would sound better.

Are you referring to mechanical noise (drives) or Ethernet noise?

 

[wil]

BTW clearing the Cache after every listening session is a valuable tip. @Kris turned me onto doing this, takes 10 seconds and it keeps the evil spirts away...When XDMI is available and no more XDMS for a while that clearing of the cache will be helpful...

Is it possible to clear the cache in XDMS? Or does this only apply to Roon?

 

[John T]

Is it possible to clear the cache in XDMS? Or does this only apply to Roon?

I was referring to Roon. Not sure if clearing the queue (XDMS) is the same as clearing the cache? Or if it is possible/necessary in XDMS?

 

[Taiko Audio]

I don't agree it needs to be fanless or use SSDs. In a perfect world that would be ideal but, as you said, that limits the choice and makes it uber expensive.

My Synology NAS is a 2 bay and draws under 18 watts. I have configured at with 2 conventional drives at RAID0 so there is minimal disk spinning. I am sitting 7 feet away and cannot hear it even when there is no music playing. When the music is playing I certainly can't hear it.

No need to have a fanless NAS, nor is there any need for SSDs. Unless it’s situated near you and it needs to be completely silent.

I personally use a 2-bay Synology with fan and spinning disks, which is inaudible at about a 20 feet distance.

 

[Kingsrule]

Google it. There are several NAS that can use m.2 drives. The issue is that the drives in the Extreme are generally 2 TB which means you would need a good number of them to created a large array. I currently have 8 in my Extreme. I am not sure there are NASes that hold 8.

Thank you
I have 2 8Tb and 4 2Tb drives right now for a total of 6 drives. Hate to move on from these, especially from the 8Tb ones.
Maybe my best move is to get another 8Tb drive and put those in the NAS. Not sure 8Tb drives will even work in a NAS. A little Google time gives no confirmation one way or the other

 

[Taiko Audio]

Wonder if there is a NAS where the drives from the Extreme can be used in?

The do exist but are relatively expensive. It would probably be cheaper overall to get a simple NAS with a large spinning drive.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thank you
I have 2 8Tb and 4 2Tb drives right now for a total of 6 drives. Hate to move on from these, especially from the 8Tb ones.
Maybe my best move is to get another 8Tb drive and put those in the NAS. Not sure 8Tb drives will even work in a NAS. A little Google time gives no confirmation one way or the other

A practical issue is it’s very unlikely the NAS would recognise the Microsoft Storage Spaces file system.

 

[Taiko Audio]

I was referring to Roon. Not sure if clearing the queue (XDMS) is the same as clearing the cache? Or if it is possible/necessary in XDMS?

Those 2 are unrelated, clear image cache only exists in Roon.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thank you
I have 2 8Tb and 4 2Tb drives right now for a total of 6 drives. Hate to move on from these, especially from the 8Tb ones.
Maybe my best move is to get another 8Tb drive and put those in the NAS. Not sure 8Tb drives will even work in a NAS. A little Google time gives no confirmation one way or the other

You could probably plug those drives in a windows PC and use them as a NAS but the motherboard will need to support “PCIe bifurcation” on all PCIe slots you intend to use, so it will probably need to be server hardware.

 

[steve williams]

No need to have a fanless NAS, nor is there any need for SSDs. Unless it’s situated near you and it needs to be completely silent.

I personally use a 2-bay Synology with fan and spinning disks, which is inaudible at about a 20 feet distance.

I wish I could do that in my room but alas size constraints prevent me from doing such

 

[steve williams]

I don't see it that way. In fact, I think the Olympus, along with the router and switch, is able to "reject" all the network noise. Plus, if network noise was still an issue then I would think the internal drives would sound better.

Are you referring to mechanical noise (drives) or Ethernet noise?

so how close is your NAS from where you are sitting now inasmuch as it has a fan and no SSD.....and how do you account for the fact that Taiko has said that NAS sounds better than internal fstorage

 

[dminches]

so how close is your NAS from where you are sitting now inasmuch as it has a fan and no SSD.....and how do you account for the fact that Taiko has said that NAS sounds better than internal fstorage

it is 7-8 feet away. I don’t hear it, especially when the music is playing.

Maybe the NAS sounds better than internal storage because accessing data from the internal drives generates computer, not mechanical, noise. Maybe having the data enter the computer via the ethernet card is better, noise wise. Emile has done the testing so he may know exactly way. On the other hand, I don’t know if the difference is significant.