Taiko Audio Extreme Music Server

[iaxel]

Dual Intel Xeon Scalable 10 core – 20 thread CPU
You can find more info here: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/taiko-audio-extreme-music-server.37789/

Thank you @Christiaan Punter!
Which generation is it based on?

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Thank you @Christiaan Punter!
Which generation is it based on?

Alas, I have no information on that.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thank you @Christiaan Punter!
Which generation is it based on?

2nd gen.

 

[iaxel]

2nd gen.

Thank you!
Any plans to upgrade?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thank you!
Any plans to upgrade?

Unfortunately, as great as the 1st and 2nd gen were, and still are, the goodness stops there.

 

[cat6man]

i'd like advice on adding external HDD to the Extreme. i assume the best solution is to add internal storage.
what is the best sounding solution if that is not an option? plugging an external hdd into one of the motherboard usb inputs?
running a NAS nearby, mapping the drive and streaming from the NAS?

i have only used the internal storage (w/WAV files) and am asking for a friend who is taiko-curious.

 

[Taiko Audio]

You can use a USB drive ofcourse, there’s some degradation but the caching mechanisms are pretty solid nowadays, for both Roon as XDMS. Assuming you have the USB card to connect to your DAC the “old” on board USB port labelled “DAC” performs reasonably well. It does help to use a drive which can be powered externally by a decent quality powersupply.

If you happen to own the router you can attach a drive to that aswell. Or even a NAS.

 

[cat6man]

Taiko Extreme, Router. Switch & cherry blossoms

 

[Steve Williams]

Taiko Extreme, Router. Switch & cherry blossoms

I’m in Japan now for the past 2 weeks. You haven’t seen cherry blossoms until you come here. I plan on starting a thread to show the beauty of what we have seen this week

 

[Steve Williams]

 

[Steve Williams]

Kingsrule​

• Today at 1:39 AM

What has this to do with Taiko??

It doesn’t have a thing to do with Taiko but rather cherry blossom time mentioned by cat6man. There is so much arguing now on the forum about silly petty things I thought some members (obviously not you) would appreciate a short distraction with some beauty seen at a very special time I will start a threaded on this when home so sorry to have upset you with such a minor distraction.

 

[cat6man]

ok, someone has to do it. while all the activity is on the olympus thread, this weekend's posts raise a interesting question.
if the u.3 memory (standard in the olympus) is so much less noisy than the memory we currently have in the extreme:

1. can we improve the sound quality (today) of the extreme by replacing our memory cards with u.3 (i.e. with pcie adapters) even though those are not optimized/shielded as well as i'm sure the olympus cards are? or is the lowered noise not as important unless all the other noise lowering improvements of the olympus are also there?
2. maybe we can hope for new lower noise u.3 cards on a taiko designed board in the (not near) future?

 

[cat6man]

Kingsrule​

• Today at 1:39 AM

What has this to do with Taiko??

It doesn’t have a thing to do with Taiko but rather cherry blossom time mentioned by cat6man. There is so much arguing now on the forum about silly petty things I thought some members (obviously not you) would appreciate a short distraction with some beauty seen at a very special time I will start a threaded on this when home so sorry to have upset you with such a minor distraction.

[non-taiko content warning]

please post a link here to those japan photos when you get back.
i lived in japan for 5 years and have been back on business trips a number of times, as well as with my youngest as her graduation present from college (yeah, right, the trip was really for her benefit.....)

[back to your regularly scheduled content]

 

[dminches]

ok, someone has to do it. while all the activity is on the olympus thread, this weekend's posts raise a interesting question.
if the u.3 memory (standard in the olympus) is so much less noisy than the memory we currently have in the extreme:

1. can we improve the sound quality (today) of the extreme by replacing our memory cards with u.3 (i.e. with pcie adapters) even though those are not optimized/shielded as well as i'm sure the olympus cards are? or is the lowered noise not as important unless all the other noise lowering improvements of the olympus are also there?
2. maybe we can hope for new lower noise u.3 cards on a taiko designed board in the (not near) future?

Or just get a low powered NAS since Emile seems to feel that sounds better than the internal drives (if you have the switch a router).

 

[Christiaan Punter]

ok, someone has to do it. while all the activity is on the olympus thread, this weekend's posts raise a interesting question.
if the u.3 memory (standard in the olympus) is so much less noisy than the memory we currently have in the extreme:

1. can we improve the sound quality (today) of the extreme by replacing our memory cards with u.3 (i.e. with pcie adapters) even though those are not optimized/shielded as well as i'm sure the olympus cards are? or is the lowered noise not as important unless all the other noise lowering improvements of the olympus are also there?
2. maybe we can hope for new lower noise u.3 cards on a taiko designed board in the (not near) future?

The unprecedented low noise levels of XDMI are the reason why we can hear the differences between drives. USB is a much higher-noise interface itself and the benefits of the lower noise incurred by the u.3 drives compared to m.2 would be drowned out by the USB interface's inherent self-noise.

 

[cat6man]

The unprecedented low noise levels of XDMI are the reason why we can hear the differences between drives. USB is a much higher-noise interface itself and the benefits of the lower noise incurred by the u.3 drives compared to m.2 would be drowned out by the USB interface's inherent self-noise.

i was afraid you were going to say that, but i had to ask!

 

[cat6man]

Or just get a low powered NAS since Emile seems to feel that sounds better than the internal drives (if you have the switch a router).

but only if usb noise doesn't dominate (see christian's response).
but also good question:
@taiko:
would an NAS on the router sound better than internal memory?
would removing internal hard drives plus NAS on router sound better?

 

[dminches]

but only if usb noise doesn't dominate (see christian's response).
but also good question: would an NAS on the router sound better than internal memory?

I am going to store my music on a NAS with the Olympus. I will be testing it with the Extreme first.

 

[Taiko Audio]

but only if usb noise doesn't dominate (see christian's response).
but also good question:
@taiko:
would an NAS on the router sound better than internal memory?
would removing internal hard drives plus NAS on router sound better?

I am going to store my music on a NAS with the Olympus. I will be testing it with the Extreme first.

Admittedly these results have been as much as a surprise to us as they may have been for you.

Although the Olympus design differs from the Extreme in many ways it’s possible this effect is caused by the Network card / DC distributor / Router / Switch combination. I have just never revisited the NAS versus local storage comparisons.

I plan to run some test with the Extreme myself but am unfortunately facing a significant to-do list.

Please do share your results if you are blessed with more time availability then I currently am and are willing to test this with the Extreme.

 

[cat6man]

I am going to store my music on a NAS with the Olympus. I will be testing it with the Extreme first.

sounds good. maybe you could test the NAS+extreme as currently configured and with the extreme memory card(s) removed, which should dramatically lower the current draw?