Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

Here’s my two cents on the USB board. I installed it Monday morning (2 days ago) and simply let it play. Sat down for a listen after a few hours and walked away intentionally. (Nothing relevant ever really comes from listening to any new piece of gear with less than 24 hours on it!). Listened seriously last night. All I can say is WOWZA. I was just mesmerized. The difference the USB board makes is nothing short of phenomenal. It's like you thought you knew what good digital sounded like before, only to have the rules entirely re-written. Really stunning. Here are 3 things that seemed noteworthy to me:

1) The degree of improvement in definition is remarkable throughout the frequency range. There is newfound reproduction clarity regardless of source material. It's more than just removing the proverbial window pane. A new level of transparency is obvious.

2) Improved signal/noise results in quieter backgrounds. I have no idea how this happens with processing 1’s and 0’s , but the results are obvious. I think this is what largely underpins the improved perception of soundstage features such as increased depth, width, etc.

3) Perhaps the most profound change for me is an apparent improvement in dynamic range. There are moments on some material that I know well, particularly on some warp 9 recording, that always get to a point at which the system tends to collapse. The sound just seems to say “I’m running out of steam” so just go home. The surprise is that this compression now seems it's not just about power. This concept is now being revisited and re-evaluated more so than I would have expected just from a change in a digital input board. What I'm hearing is that through the new USB board, the overall distortion product is simply lower and perhaps this is what allows the dynamics to have greater reach and realism than I have appreciated previously? It seems to me like there's an analogy to cartridge mistracking here. No amount of power can save you from the distortion that occurs when a cartridge mistracks. Well, with digital, something seems to occur at the fff range that facilitates a similarly annoying collapse of the soundfield. Obviously it's not the same as cartridge mistracking but perhaps is some sort of analogous digital distortion or grunge (digital mistracking? other?) that occurs as a function of gain that thwarts dynamics at the upper end? I have no idea, but moreover, never really appreciated its contribution as much previously because it was always there so I assumed it was part of the territory. Well, whatever it is, the USB board certainly reduces it tremendously.

If my guess is correct some more time on the board will be sonically beneficial as others have noted. I’m looking forward to it. And to think- I haven't even explored TAS fully! However, in all honesty, Roon is so impressive that I have to find a reason NOT to use it.
 
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Do most people already have a card in slot 5 or is that mainly for people with tons of onboard storage?
 
For those using Roon/ HQP instead of TAS- on a TAS loaded machine (my case, since I cannot play my non-latin Chinese songs), do you get a situation where you HQP crashes if you come back to the machine after like 10 mins without playing anything?
 
My USB should arrive soon. Thank you Emile fo your kind express service and prority shipement !
Just noticed I have all PCI slots occupied including No 5 . This is due to the very large internal memory.

I understand I should take the one at slot 5 out and place somwere else.
USB gets to no 5 .
Also 2 questions:
Should I take the Startech Network card out if not using it ?
Should I take the graphic card out if not using it al all ?
 
It seems to me like there's an analogy to cartridge mistracking here. No amount of power can save you from the distortion that occurs when a cartridge mistracks. Well, with digital, something seems to occur at the ffff range that facilitates a similarly annoying collapse of the soundfield.

That is not a bad analogy at all.
 
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My USB should arrive soon. Thank you Emile fo your kind express service and prority shipement !
Just noticed I have all PCI slots occupied including No 5 . This is due to the very large internal memory.

I understand I should take the one at slot 5 out and place somwere else.
USB gets to no 5 .
Also 2 questions:
Should I take the Startech Network card out if not using it ?
Should I take the graphic card out if not using it al all ?

Slot 4 is the second best option. Contact me by e-mail for options.
 
Do most people already have a card in slot 5 or is that mainly for people with tons of onboard storage?

Mainly tons of onboard storage. Slots 1,3,5,7 support storage cards. Slot 3 is normally occupied by the Optane OS drive. Slot 2 is currently the best place for the fiber card.
 
And to think- I haven't even explored TAS fully! However, in all honesty, Roon is so impressive that I have to find a reason NOT to use it.
you do. It’s called TAS :cool:
 
Mine was not occupied but I only have 8TB storage.
Mine was definitely occupied since I had maxed out my Extreme storage when I ordered it. Initially I swapped the NVMe card from slot 5 to 4, not realizing that slot 4 doesn't support NVMe. When I first started playing music with the new USB card I was listening to streamed music for quite a while before attempting to play something from on-board storage. It was then I discovered that something was up -- the selection, and everything else from my library wouldn't play. A little digging with VNC Viewer and I found my D: drive on the Extreme, the music drive, had disappeared.

Emile to the rescue as always. Yesterday he spent quite a bit of time getting files transferred around so that I could continue to use the USB in slot 5 and still access my stored files from the D: drive. As I and others have said, Emile's level of service and customer support is unparalleled in my experience in any field, not just audio equipment. It is a true pleasure to chat with Emile and watch the master at work.

And yes, two days in and my music experience with the Taiko USB, TAS and Taiko USB driver continues to improve -- absolutely captivating, and I hope to be able to post more of my impressions -- and some of the music selections I've been listening to -- later this evening.

Until then, kudos to Emile and his staff!

Steve Z
 
Mine was not occupied but I only have 8TB storage.

Mainly tons of onboard storage. Slots 1,3,5,7 support storage cards. Slot 3 is normally occupied by the Optane OS drive. Slot 2 is currently the best place for the fiber card.
I have slots 2,3,5,7 in use.
What should I move where?
 

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Recap:

In case you have 2 storage cards installed, this is the optimal configuration:

slot1: storage card (slot nearest to the CPUs)
slot2: fiber card
slot3: optane OS drive
slot4: empty
slot5: USB card
slot6: empty
slot7: storage card (slot nearest to the panzerholz embedded transformer)

In case you have 1 storage card, install in slot 7 or slot 1, doesn’t matter

In case you have 3 storage cards, contact us to discuss options.
 

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