Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[Taiko Audio]

Is the ETA still TBD due to supply issues?

We are waiting for sufficient quantities of the Ethernet controller chip.

 

[Taiko Audio]

2A: Schurter 0001.2707.11
4A: Schurter 0001.2710.11

IDK if this was asked but is the extreme fuse a 5x20 mm I know is 4 amp slo blow

2A for 220-240V
4A for 100-120V

 

[rau]

2A for 220-240V
4A for 100-120V

So a 5mm x 20mm, that's what I needed to know . Curious about using a SR Purple Fuse

 

[dminches]

So a 5mm x 20mm, that's what I needed to know . Curious about using a SR Purple Fuse

The Schurter parts that Emile posted are 5x20 in size.

 

[jbrrp1]

I will have to go back and do some comparisons between local and streamed, now that I have my Extreme wired to its very own StarLink mesh access point, but even before on slow-speed DSL I was hearing very little difference between streamed and local. So little in fact that I would not have wanted to have been forced to identify which was which blind.

If anything, the StarLink connection sounds even better than what I was using before, so I wouldn't be surprised if any differences have disappeared.

Steve Z

+1 on this, as well. It's to the point that I really don't care if it's local or if it's streaming. With cat6man's observations, I plan to revisit this, too, just to see if I still feel the same way.

 

[oldmustang]

So a 5mm x 20mm, that's what I needed to know . Curious about using a SR Purple Fuse

Some discussion about fuses for the Extreme quite a way back in this thread. A search in the thread might turn up the posts. I don't know if there has been further experimentation by Extreme owners since then -- I don't recall seeing anything discussed recently.

Steve Z

 

[rau]

I picked up a nice CDT and connected to DAC , and I was stunned. The Taiko is way more convenient for sure , but it all comes down to the recordings just as much as the source . It's nice to have a verity

 

[dminches]

We are on weekly XDMS software builds ending each Friday.

Lastnights and today's testing of the latest build, makes me expect that we will hand install a few Extremes with XDMS in about 4 weeks from now.

As always there are surprises along the way, but we always figure out a good solution

Ed, does this still look like a possibility?

 

[Steve Williams]

Ed, does this still look like a possibility?

Don't rock the apple cart

 

[Kris]

I wish I could have that .
unfotunate there must be something here that adds a lot of bad noise when wifi is in use,
I am willing to test everything.

one thing that came to my mind is the grounding that is gigantic structure in my backyard
and I remember you mentioned it might pick everything as an anthenna.
other think is the power that is very poor in my area with everyday turn off for a second or two,
Stromtank was not inmproving the SQ , but balanced trafos do improve SQ.
I know you have excellent commercial power lines . I dont.
I will list potential issues and test them ,
thats the only way I believe.

I was testing over past 3 days everything I could and FOUND IT.
This is a news to EVRYONE to check in your systems.

I tested everythig I could and I was unable to find anything for 2 days. But 3rd day was a discovery day.
The reason for the noise and harshness in my system was grounding connection via USB cable !
I found it accidently by connecting to my Totaldac 24 the with old JPlay cable that has 2 legs (one for power, second for data only)
Wanted to connected it just to test if there is any noise getting via USB power or ground so I connected ONLY the data leg to the USB card in Takio .

I must say I permanently delteted that iritating noise and sound is so much more dense and calm now.
I suspect it was a severe ground loop running via this USB ground.

After that I decided to come back to the beloved intona ULTIMATE but as you know it has 4 cables inside ( 2 data and 2 permanent power line).
So I placed the black TAPE on both power line connectors (+and - on the USB A side of the cable) to again disconnect the ground and power.
I was amazed again.
That cable is a masterpiece now. I was not expecting it to be that big differense.

Please test in your systems and report here.
I am sure ALL Totaldac owners will find this useful and probably some others as well
Had JLSounds device here and tested , same positive effect but not as big as in TotalDAC.
Sidenote - Disconnecting the ground from TotalDAC menue was not effective.

To Emile,
As this above might be a true problem for some ( not for me ), I wanted to know if there is any way of disconnecting POWER OUT on the USB card ?
I am quite sure that some other cards ( Jplay ) had that option to turn off the USB power permanently.

Again to all others please report here if you see BIG benefit of disconnecting the power line from the USB cable.

 

[cat6man]

I was testing over past 3 days everything I could and FOUND IT.
This is a news to EVRYONE to check in your systems.

I tested everythig I could and I was unable to find anything for 2 days. But 3rd day was a discovery day.
The reason for the noise and harshness in my system was grounding connection via USB cable !
I found it accidently by connecting to my Totaldac 24 the with old JPlay cable that has 2 legs (one for power, second for data only)
Wanted to connected it just to test if there is any noise getting via USB power or ground so I connected ONLY the data leg to the USB card in Takio .

I must say I permanently delteted that iritating noise and sound is so much more dense and calm now.
I suspect it was a severe ground loop running via this USB ground.

After that I decided to come back to the beloved intona ULTIMATE but as you know it has 4 cables inside ( 2 data and 2 permanent power line).
So I placed the black TAPE on both power line connectors (+and - on the USB A side of the cable) to again disconnect the ground and power.
I was amazed again.
That cable is a masterpiece now. I was not expecting it to be that big differense.

Please test in your systems and report here.
I am sure ALL Totaldac owners will find this useful and probably some others as well
Had JLSounds device here and tested , same positive effect but not as big as in TotalDAC.
Sidenote - Disconnecting the ground from TotalDAC menue was not effective.

To Emile,
As this above might be a true problem for some ( not for me ), I wanted to know if there is any way of disconnecting POWER OUT on the USB card ?
I am quite sure that some other cards ( Jplay ) had that option to turn off the USB power permanently.

Again to all others please report here if you see BIG benefit of disconnecting the power line from the USB cable.

Very interesting Kris!

Just to clarify,

Case 1:
you ran USB from the extreme to the input of your (first) reclocker, then aes/ebu to second reclocker and also on to the DAC?

Case 2:
Regarding the JLsounds, you ran USB from the extreme to the JLsounds, then spdif into the first reclocker?

In both cases, disconnecting USB power improved the sound, but more so for case 1?

Which case was ultimately superior, case 1 or case 2?

Edit:. Since Emile has a totaldac d1-12, it would be interesting to hear results from the home planet.

Anyone else who wants to try this, the contacts to tape over on the male USB A plug are the two outside pins.

 

[Kris]

Very interesting Kris!

Just to clarify,

Case 1:
you ran USB from the extreme to the input of your (first) reclocker, then aes/ebu to second reclocker and also on to the DAC?

Case 2:
Regarding the JLsounds, you ran USB from the extreme to the JLsounds, then spdif into the first reclocker?

In both cases, disconnecting USB power improved the sound, but more so for case 1?

Which case was ultimately superior, case 1 or case 2?

IN BOTH you are correct.
Case 1 was a bigger gain.

But I recommend testing it . It did a true magic in my system as I had some issues for very long time,
but you might already have your magic without doing the above .

Some of members might be using DATA only USB cables ( only 2 wires inside) and they should be already in great shape
I know Sablon evo has an excellent choice of selecing WITH or WITOUT power line in their USB cables.

 

[cat6man]

IN BOTH you are correct.
Case 1 was a bigger gain.

But I recommend testing it . It did a true magic in my system as I had some issues for very long time,
but you might already have your magic without doing the above .

Some of members might be using DATA only USB cables ( only 2 wires inside) and they should be already in great shape
I know Sablon evo has an excellent choice of selecing WITH or WITOUT power line in their USB cables.

let's call
subcase a: with usb power
subcase b: without usb power
case 1: usb to reclocker
case 2: usb to jlsounds to reclocker

how would you rank 1a, 1b, 2a and 2b?

 

[cat6man]

Let's talk streaming.

I know this may all be moot when xdms arrives (got an update for us Ed?), but I wonder if my streaming results align with others here.

Some friends have been equipment shopping for DACs and speakers, respectively, and I've gone hunting with them on occasion. It occurred to me that I could create my own qobuz list of the reference tracks I use at home.
Today I tried that for the first time, comparing local WAV files with streamed FLAC files from qobuz.

I was surprised by how much better the local versions sounded, better isolation and detail on instruments, wider soundstage, leading edges. Given a choice, I doubt I would ever listen to the streamed versions if I was given the local file option.

I'm using TAS and have the USB card. Listening was done with a stax sr009 and totaldac d1-direct. The two test tracks were Brokedown Palace on Eternity Blue by Henry Kaiser and It's All Over Now Baby Blue from Joan Baez' album of Dylan songs.

So, do others also hear a significant difference between local and streaming with TAS?

My next tests here will be to compare local WAV and FLAC. In the past (pre-Taiko), there was such a significant difference here that I stopped using FLAC completely.

Thoughts?

Edit:. Does anyone know what the compression level is for FLAC streaming on Qobuz?

interesting result.

i created a queue with 3 versions of the same track, Brokedown Palace on Henry Kaiser's Infinity Blue album, CD quality on all versions, local WAV, local FLAC(level 5) and Qobuz streamed FLAC (unknown level).

the local and streamed FLAC were very close in SQ with a small advantage to the local file.
however, the local WAV file wins hands down, as discussed above, so i conclude that WAV vs. FLAC is not transparent in my system (and never has been).
i had seen this consistently with many other streaming and playback configurations in the past, and i guess the delta in SQ is still there. fyi: previous results were with streaming WAV vs. streaming FLAC, both on NAS but not local on the streamers.

what say you all?

are there any qobuz files that are not lossless compressed that I could compare with WAV?

as Warren Zevon sang:

on the road to perfection
.....
i appreciate the best
but i''m settling for less
and I'm looking for the next best thing

("looking for the next best thing")

 

[cat6man]

Don't rock the apple cart

imho, a monthly update is not an unreasonable ask.

 

[Steve Williams]

imho, a monthly update is not an unreasonable ask.

My guess is they are getting close and now getting the bugs out. Ed is one serious coder and he has quite a team under him which prompts the once per week conferences. I think asking for monthly updates can be somewhat problematic as you never know what lies around a corner such that a promise today could quickly be altered in their testing. I would cut them some slack. We know that whenever Taiko releases a product it is perfect and filled with kudos from we users. Such will also be the case with XDMS as the few graphics Ed has provided us, is IMO nothing short of sensational. So for me I'd rather be surprised knowing that they are very close. Ed has already said that this renewal of the Beta TAS app from Apple will almost certainly be the last meaning that XDMS is close at hand.

 

[wil]

IDK if this was asked but is the extreme fuse a 5x20 mm I know is 4 amp slo blow

I

I picked up a nice CDT and connected to DAC , and I was stunned. The Taiko is way more convenient for sure , but it all comes down to the recordings just as much as the source . It's nice to have a verity

@rau , I'm not sure what you're saying here? In the first sentence, you seem to say you're stunned how much better the CD sounds than the Taiko. But in the next sentence, you're saying the recording, not the source, is what matters most. Did you compare the same music on CD and local file/streaming?

 

[wil]

interesting result.

i created a queue with 3 versions of the same track, Brokedown Palace on Henry Kaiser's Infinity Blue album, CD quality on all versions, local WAV, local FLAC(level 5) and Qobuz streamed FLAC (unknown level).

the local and streamed FLAC were very close in SQ with a small advantage to the local file.
however, the local WAV file wins hands down, as discussed above, so i conclude that WAV vs. FLAC is not transparent in my system (and never has been).
i had seen this consistently with many other streaming and playback configurations in the past, and i guess the delta in SQ is still there. fyi: previous results were with streaming WAV vs. streaming FLAC, both on NAS but not local on the streamers.

what say you all?

are there any qobuz files that are not lossless compressed that I could compare with WAV?

as Warren Zevon sang:

on the road to perfection
.....
i appreciate the best
but i''m settling for less
and I'm looking for the next best thing

("looking for the next best thing")

Does Qobuz offer WAV downloads, or only FLAC?

 

[wil]

IN BOTH you are correct.
Case 1 was a bigger gain.

But I recommend testing it . It did a true magic in my system as I had some issues for very long time,
but you might already have your magic without doing the above .

Some of members might be using DATA only USB cables ( only 2 wires inside) and they should be already in great shape
I know Sablon evo has an excellent choice of selecing WITH or WITOUT power line in their USB cables.

I was testing over past 3 days everything I could and FOUND IT.
This is a news to EVRYONE to check in your systems.

I tested everythig I could and I was unable to find anything for 2 days. But 3rd day was a discovery day.
The reason for the noise and harshness in my system was grounding connection via USB cable !
I found it accidently by connecting to my Totaldac 24 the with old JPlay cable that has 2 legs (one for power, second for data only)
Wanted to connected it just to test if there is any noise getting via USB power or ground so I connected ONLY the data leg to the USB card in Takio .

I must say I permanently delteted that iritating noise and sound is so much more dense and calm now.
I suspect it was a severe ground loop running via this USB ground.

After that I decided to come back to the beloved intona ULTIMATE but as you know it has 4 cables inside ( 2 data and 2 permanent power line).
So I placed the black TAPE on both power line connectors (+and - on the USB A side of the cable) to again disconnect the ground and power.
I was amazed again.
That cable is a masterpiece now. I was not expecting it to be that big differense.

Please test in your systems and report here.
I am sure ALL Totaldac owners will find this useful and probably some others as well
Had JLSounds device here and tested , same positive effect but not as big as in TotalDAC.
Sidenote - Disconnecting the ground from TotalDAC menue was not effective.

To Emile,
As this above might be a true problem for some ( not for me ), I wanted to know if there is any way of disconnecting POWER OUT on the USB card ?
I am quite sure that some other cards ( Jplay ) had that option to turn off the USB power permanently.

Again to all others please report here if you see BIG benefit of disconnecting the power line from the USB cable.

Maybe I missed the explanation, but how does one disconnect the USB power line without mangling the cable ?
(assuming most here are not experienced at terminating and re-terminating usb cables)

And how does one know if their USB has a power line (without cutting it open) ?

 

[Steve Williams]

Maybe I missed the explanation, but how does one disconnect the USB power line without mangling the cable ?
(assuming most here are not experienced at terminating and re-terminating usb cables)

And how does one know if their USB has a power line (without cutting it open) ?

i’d say “if there ain’t any problems why try fixing them?”