Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

With respect to the Taiko Extreme how do you connect it to your DAC

  • USB

    Votes: 161 68.5%
  • Ethernet

    Votes: 44 18.7%
  • Both USB and Ethernet

    Votes: 18 7.7%
  • AES/EBU

    Votes: 21 8.9%
  • Dual AES/EBU

    Votes: 5 2.1%
  • Other

    Votes: 12 5.1%

  • Total voters
    235

wil

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2015
1,336
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I did that for last 2 years as I could not listen with wifi access point in any place in my system.
This works excellent.
but
I was able to bring down the noise to the hardwire connection level with use of 2 and recently 3 isolating switches And powering the AP with a battery.
I use a cable to my iPad. The WiFi signal to my audio room is weak so hopefully that makes the rf weak as well.

Kris, is your current set with WiFi and filtering switches sonically better than your prior Lan cable to iPad?
 

MOTU

Well-Known Member
Oct 17, 2019
21
38
93
42
Would lifting the ground (cutting off the shield) on one side of the DAC cable work?
 

Tuckia

Well-Known Member
Jun 3, 2019
420
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This is a example of WiFi RF directly causing noise in the signal domain. A Berning zotl circuit utilizes a carrier frequency of 250,000hz or 500,000hz within its circuits. In my system the WIFI AP in close proximity to my zotl preamp generated an audible beat frequency at the speakers. Moving the device 6 ft. away from the preamp reduced the “noise” below audible levels.

Others have written about the wifi RF interfering with digital devices, but it was uncertain whether in the analog or digital domain.

So, with every gain stage or device having an unknown resonance, every receiver operating with unknown parameters, etc. etc., any strong RF can mess with the signal, although system and device dependent.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Emile - quick side question regarding this @Taiko Audio. I'm getting solar installed right now and have ordered a whole bunch of ferrites for the installers to put around the cables from the solar panels right above my listening room coming from the DC-DC optimizers. Most of the literature online is about HAM radio interference at around 14 Mhz. I purchased ferrites optimized for absorption around there.

Sounds from your experiments that I should really focus on absorption centered below 3Mhz.

If people are interested, this is what I am considering for "low" range absorption:
Round Cable EMI Suppression Cores (2675821502) - Fair-Rite

vs this one for higher range absorption used by HAM radio operators with solar installations,
Round Cable EMI Suppression Cores (2631803802) - Fair-Rite

My understanding is that the inverters and optimizers use DSP high frequency switching to do their work which results in this EMI around 14-28 Mhz.
My house has been 100% solar for the past 5 years. I have none of the sound you are hearing or trying to avoid. My entire grid has a micro inverter for each panel. There just isn't the noise you say you want to stamp out. In fact I listen usually in the afternoons when all my house energy is solar generated and I just don't see the need fo adding ferrites. Further my satellite router which is in my sound room behind my amplifiers is by all accounts begging for reception problems and noise.....I have none. My main router is in a main floor bedroom and I transmit wifi from the router to the satellite in my sound room and I just don't have any of these issues running RJ45 from this satellite to my switch and then to the Extreme. In fact when people come for a listen and I tell them that what they are hearing is all solar power not one has mentioned hearing any extraneous RF noise
 
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seatrope

Well-Known Member
Mar 9, 2017
173
215
133
My house has been 100% solar for the past 5 years. I have none of the sound you are hearing or trying to avoid. My entire grid has a micro inverter for each panel. There just isn't the noise you say you want to stamp out. In fact I listen usually in the afternoons when all my house energy is solar generated and I just don't see the need fo adding ferrites. Further my satellite router which is in my sound room behind my amplifiers is by all accounts begging for reception problems and noise.....I have none. My main router is in a main floor bedroom and I transmit wifi from the router to the satellite in my sound room and I just don't have any of these issues running RJ45 from this satellite to my switch and then to the Extreme. In fact when people come for a listen and I tell them that what they are hearing is all solar power not one has mentioned hearing any extraneous RF noise

@Steve Williams yes, we discussed this on a separate thread. You have a different microinverter based system which is not available in my area. I am using Solaredge:
SolarEdge Solar Panel RFI Video - YouTube

as a side note i have reached out to at least 7 other audiophiles who have Solaredge systems and none of them discern a drop in SQ after solar either during day or night.
But to Emile's point, the interference with Solaredge inverters is 14Mhz and above so per his experiments these don't really interfere.
 
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Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
@Steve Williams yes, we discussed this on a separate thread. You have a different microinverter based system which is not available in my area. I am using Solaredge:
SolarEdge Solar Panel RFI Video - YouTube

as a side note i have reached out to at least 7 other audiophiles who have Solaredge systems and none of them discern a drop in SQ after solar either during day or night.
But to Emile's point, the interference with Solaredge inverters is 14Mhz and above so per his experiments these don't really interfere.
so you can forget the ferrites ;)
 

cat6man

Well-Known Member
Feb 6, 2013
847
901
405
west of NYC, east of SF
And your neighbors shut off their wifi radios too (unless you live in a remote location). I can "see" 3-4 of my neighbors' signals and I live in the suburbs. Hard to get away from it.
Only 3-4? I see 8-10 here :)
 
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Kris

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2019
846
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And your neighbors shut off their wifi radios too (unless you live in a remote location). I can "see" 3-4 of my neighbors' signals and I live in the suburbs. Hard to get away from it.

I am lucky having home quite far from a city and not many homes in my area.
I checked with wifi detector. None except of my own wifi.
But we share same power line .
Fortunatelly Emile will free my Extreme from this power line ….
 
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Kris

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2019
846
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Another aspect is earth loops, which is particularly hard to fix in our systems, cannot find an easy to read piece with a quick google but this picture visualises this particular issue.

View attachment 109072

Taken from here: https://www.smar.com/en/technical-article/tips-on-shielding-and-grounding-in-industrial-automation

I investigated it and solved few issues but was unable to fix it all .
what I do I disconnect grounds in all my supplys and disconnect connecting cables and check with multimeter each connection Being present or isolated.
I was able to eliminate few secondary grounding roads .
I must say it was very effective in reducing noise.

each and every device has to be grounded for ultimate performance
BUT only to one way to the ground .
this is hard to do.

the only thing that had one grounding way was Extreme , untill the DAC cable was used.
DAC was passing ground to switch and switch to the power supply and this one to common ground,

But I disconnected the Taiko switch power supply ground and this way it is grounded only via DAC cable to extreme ground. This worked very well.
 

Kris

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2019
846
831
183
I use a cable to my iPad. The WiFi signal to my audio room is weak so hopefully that makes the rf weak as well.

Kris, is your current set with WiFi and filtering switches sonically better than your prior Lan cable to iPad?
Similar in noise perception.
But sonically I prefer wire only as the latency is smaller for the signal , not passing via few switches.
For every day use I keep wifi as it is convinient for my family members and guests.
 
Last edited:
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pleroma

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2018
158
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Anyone consider doing a comparison of the Taiko switch and the Uptone EtherREGEN?
 
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simorag

Well-Known Member
Sep 14, 2017
128
393
170
Florence, Italy
Anyone consider doing a comparison of the Taiko switch with the Uptone EtherRegen?

If you mean Taiko vs. EtherREGEN, I made this very upgrade and there is no comparison, the Taiko Switch (+NIC) has made a significant improvement on every respect.

I briefly tried to let the ER in the chain, together with the Taiko switch, and to be honest I did not find any merit in it, so my ER is going on the classifieds soon.
 

pleroma

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2018
158
176
130
If you mean Taiko vs. EtherREGEN, I made this very upgrade and there is no comparison, the Taiko Switch (+NIC) has made a significant improvement on every respect.

I briefly tried to let the ER in the chain, together with the Taiko switch, and to be honest I did not find any merit in it, so my ER is going on the classifieds soon.

Thanks. I see you're in Florence. Love it! I was just there last month! My profile thumbnail is a sunset in Cortona.
 

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pleroma

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2018
158
176
130
Ed asked those of us involved with Alpha XDMS to freely post our impressions of the lastest release. Stunning! Detail. Transparency. Spicy winds and shimmering cymbal decays. My next in queue was a DSD64 release I hadn't heard yet, but this is the best I've heard this format sound: HRAudio.net - Debussy: Iberia, Ravel: Alborado del Gracioso, Valses Nobles et Sentimentales - Reiner.

As marvelous as XDMS sounds with small files, I hope we can have the ability to play larger files (2GB ±200K) soon. The more I play through my library, the more I find I can't play.
 

Kris

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2019
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183
Anyone consider doing a comparison of the Taiko switch and the Uptone EtherREGEN?
Did it 2 weeks ago,
Taiko switch is far superior in every way. I mean really far.

Uptone is great ( best) for the money you pay for it.
But now it acts as an Access point defense / isolator together with 2 Buffalo switches.
Ether Regen has very good isolating transformers on each wire connection . Well designed.

Also keep in mind they sold 3200 EtherRegens , so very big sucess
and they are working now on EtherRegen2
That will have 1G speed between A and B ports with 100 % isolation .
 

RUIN*ish

VIP/Donor
Nov 28, 2021
200
317
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Re: 1 lps for switch and router.

Will your "crazy enough" to build 200 dc cables person make available a Y dc cable?
 

gereric

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2018
18
12
83
Only 3-4? I see 8-10 here :)
My house has been 100% solar for the past 5 years. I have none of the sound you are hearing or trying to avoid. My entire grid has a micro inverter for each panel. There just isn't the noise you say you want to stamp out. In fact I listen usually in the afternoons when all my house energy is solar generated and I just don't see the need fo adding ferrites. Further my satellite router which is in my sound room behind my amplifiers is by all accounts begging for reception problems and noise.....I have none. My main router is in a main floor bedroom and I transmit wifi from the router to the satellite in my sound room and I just don't have any of these issues running RJ45 from this satellite to my switch and then to the Extreme. In fact when people come for a listen and I tell them that what they are hearing is all solar power not one has mentioned hearing any extraneous RF noise
Is this your solar provider?

 
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nonesup

VIP/Donor
Feb 15, 2017
1,005
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Spain
what length will they be?
 

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