I compared all three of those brands.
The Taiko offered probably the liveliest sound. The Pink Faun was more analytical and excelled on acoustic music. The Lucas Audio was the best all-rounder and was a third of the price of the other two, so that's the one I bought.
There's an old joke that if you post on the internet that you love apples and are looking for the tastiest varieties, some clown will respond by saying, "You should be asking about oranges – they're much tastier!".
With that in mind, I would advise you to audition your preferred streamer(s)...
It makes a bit of a difference, in my experience. That's a very vague answer, and probably not very helpful, but it's a subjective judgement and will depend on how significant you generally find differences between components. For me, there's a clearly audible difference between some (but by no...
I tested an N20 when I was considering upgrading from my (much cheaper) Auralic Aries Femto. I couldn't hear any improvement (or indeed difference) whatever. However, my system is unusual (sources feed directly into BeoLab 90 active speakers), so your mileage may vary considerably.
I could hear...
The LDMS sells for between £6,900 and £14,500, depending on the specification and internal storage. It's more of a bespoke product than the Taiko or Pink Faun – Domansky discusses the customer's sonic preferences and then recommends a solution.
What were your impressions of the 2.16 Ultra when you heard it? Would you agree with my assessment that it delivers a more "technical", precise sound than the Taiko, which is generally richer and "warmer", or did you perceive it differently?
I have never heard the Antipodes or the Pachanko, but I have auditioned both the Taiko and the Pink Faun in my system – connected directly to BeoLab 90 speakers.
The Pink Faun is impressive on "audiophile" music (solo piano, acoustic stuff, etc.), with superb imaging and soundstaging, but is...
Shocking behaviour by the manufacturer. A three-year guarantee does not mean that the product has an expected lifespan of three years; it means that if it fails in the first three years you get a replacement, all your money back or a 100% credit towards something else in their range. Do not take...
Interesting! Antipodes was one of the three high-end models I didn't try, as I couldn't lay my hands on an example (the other two being the Pachanko Constellation Masterpiece and the Wadax Atlantis Reference Server). I know that somebody in Germany is using your SGM Extreme with a pair of BeoLab...
The three high-end servers I tested – yours, the Pink Faun Ultra and the Lucas Domansky LDMS, which is the one I bought – certainly did deliver an audible improvement. However, the testing mainly used local files (hi-res downloads and CD rips) rather than streaming services, as that is 99% of...
I've never tried Bluetooth streaming – all my connections are wired. (Well, almost all of them – the router is a long distance from the music server, so the latter is wired into a wifi extender. I may get round to putting in an Ethernet cable instead at some point.) As for iPhones, I use a...
No: it's none of my business how Taiko (or any other company in which I do not have a direct financial interest) choose to operate. I was simply answering @grandsoir's question why the SGM Extreme is the price it is. The truth is that there are almost certainly quite a number of different reasons.
As a fact? I don't, and am quite willing to be corrected by Emile or Christiaan. However, my first career was as an advertising copywriter, so my background is in marketing, meaning I'm aware that the vast majority of companies set their prices to maximise profitability – quite rightly too, as...
There are several reasons why the SGM Extreme is so expensive – and by that, I mean reasons over and above the fact that top-quality computer parts are very, very expensive and years of R&D don't come cheaply.
1 The magnificent case, to which pictures simply don't do justice: in the flesh, this...
I left it up to the respective dealers as to what equipment to bring, and the dealers who brought the Pink Faun and Taiko did not bring reclockers. Lucas did bring a reclocker with the LDMS, but it didn't make much difference and we decided not to use it as it had problems handshaking with the...
As an LDMS owner, I thought I'd post my impressions of different music servers, conducted through extensive in-home auditions. This content was previously posted on the LDMS Facebook page, but could well be of interest here.
All comparisons were against my previous transport, a fairly humble...