Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[microstrip]

Lol, that's exactly what I said. Emile loves that kind of talk.

I was not aware of that. Fortunately his products are explained by classical physics ...

 

[Taiko Audio]

I was not aware of that. Fortunately his products are explained by classical physics ...

Pretty sure that was sarcasm

 

[RUIN*ish]

Yes, there are a few of us with a Taiko setup who have purchased the QSA-Lanedri Ultimatum speaker cables. At 4/0 AWG, these speaker cables are the most massive commercially available speaker cables I am aware of and most capably manifest the effects of QSA's treatment. Their impact is nothing short of mind blowing but this is not the place to have this discussion.

If you do a search on Sablon, they have been discussed roughly 201 times on this thread.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Sorry @Audire , I missed this question. No that won’t hurt. To clarify, the monitor is only useful to diagnose an actual hardware malfunction, it could then be used to identify the malfunctioning part allowing for just shipping a replacement part in stead of shipping the entire server back and forth. Although our failure rate is low, even after 5 years of the Extreme’s existence, failures can occur, and if your physical condition makes it difficult to handle a heavy piece of gear like the Extreme that’s most certainly a valid buying consideration. The N30SA is an excellent server and I understand you will be able to run Roon on it in the near future should the Conductor user interface be part of your consideration to switch servers.

AFAIK, Aurender has only announced that they will add Roon Ready functionality. This means that their components will be able to function as a Roon Zone / streaming endpoint. Just as with Melco servers, the Roon Core (the library) will still have to run somewhere else.

 

[tomas329]

Is there a preferred input for connecting to an MSB select? aes/toslink/usb etc? this thread is massively long and searching is not always the easiest.

 

[7ryder]

USB is currently the best connection.

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...I thought ProUSB/ISL was considered state-of-the-art for MSB? That is also the input path for the new DD configuration. Perhaps there is an "isolation vs. SQ" argument that is being made?

 

[Armsan]

USB definitely, wether being through ProUSB or Quadrate USB, direct to MSB DAC or with the DD between the Extreme and the DAC. The variant choice is a matter of sinergy with the rest of the system IMO.
My preference, in my system, is the Quadrate USB module installed in the DD.

 

[tomas329]

not to derail the thread, but i recently tried an antipodes oladra and found their connection over toslink with the word clock to be extremely enjoyable and in many songs better than their usb to the proisl connection. I'm not sure if this is from the server being designed to work better over toslnk/aes/is2 vs usb or not. Thus my question about which input is best suited for MSB with taiko. i also use the DD with my system fwiw

 

[7ryder]

not to derail the thread, but i recently tried an antipodes oladra and found their connection over toslink with the word clock to be extremely enjoyable and in many songs better than their usb to the proisl connection. I'm not sure if this is from the server being designed to work better over toslnk/aes/is2 vs usb or not. Thus my question about which input is best suited for MSB with taiko. i also use the DD with my system fwiw

Antipodes does not reclock the USB connection, which is why the I2S, AES, Toslink, etc. connections may sound better. That said, I think the USB out to my Premier via Pro USB sounds just fine.

 

[tomas329]

Antipodes does not reclock the USB connection, which is why the I2S, AES, Toslink, etc. connections may sound better. That said, I think the USB out to my Premier via Pro USB sounds just fine.

Thank you for the info. Does the taiko reclock their USB? what about aes, toslink etc also?

 

[microstrip]

Pretty sure that was sarcasm

Mechanics, thermodynamics and electromagnetism. What else in physics is needed to understand the Extreme? As far as I see you do not need quantum mechanics or relativity for your solid engineering developments.

 

[Dunc69]

Been trying to find more reviews on owners with dCS kit. Been looking on the dCS forum, and others, getting very mixed results.
I guess the only way is to try for myself, but before I go asking dealer for a home demo, can I ask vivaldi apex dac owners what exactly did they find inpoved once they went over to the extreme over the built in streamer in the upsampler, when streaming qobuz.

Because like I said I don't want to waste dealers time, as right now it looks about a 50/50 split on if they decided it was better, no difference or even worse.

Cheers once again for helping

 

[Dunc69]

Not interested in roon at all, as tried that twice now, and both times found it worse than qobuz when streaming the exact same track.

 

[SwissTom]

Not interested in roon at all, as tried that twice now, and both times found it worse than qobuz when streaming the exact same track.

You might end up reconsidering that

The Taiko Extreme may well be the best option available for Roon.

Roon's implementation in the Taiko Extreme is brilliant!
Emile could talk about it @Taiko Audio

It allows you to enjoy Roon in an Ultra High End context, if I may say so.

Add to it the switch + network card + router package, and you've probably got one of the best transports available today.

Cheers,

Thomas

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thank you for the info. Does the taiko reclock their USB? what about aes, toslink etc also?

USB is not “reclocked” because it works different to SPDIF, AES/EBU, toslink etc. The protocol is asynchronous USB, the data is “clocked” by the DAC itself, not by the source. That does not mean the clock for the USB controller is irrelevant but it’s unrelated to the clocking of the audio signal. As for the Extreme, we supply it with an USB card which does indeed have a “superclock” as audiophile companies like to refer to it.

Now there are external USB “reclockers” for sale which may add to the confusion surrounding USB clocking, but those are devices which generally provide a filtered or regenerated USB output signal with lower noise levels then generic USB interfaces.

To summarise:
-SPDIF / AES/EBU / Toslink is clocked by the source
-Asynchronous USB is clocked by the DAC

A lot of high-end DACs reclock SPDIF / AES/EBU / Toslink again btw, but generally both reclocking at the source and at the DAC can be beneficial.

The MSB Pro ISL interface is a bit more advanced as the clock clocking the source is provided by the DAC.

 

[Taiko Audio]

not to derail the thread, but i recently tried an antipodes oladra and found their connection over toslink with the word clock to be extremely enjoyable and in many songs better than their usb to the proisl connection. I'm not sure if this is from the server being designed to work better over toslnk/aes/is2 vs usb or not. Thus my question about which input is best suited for MSB with taiko. i also use the DD with my system fwiw

Indeed we have put most of our efforts into USB, we have designed an USB card, firmware, and have a driver which can be adjusted to provide the optimal format for by now around 80 individual DACs (I do believe we’re still unique in that but I don’t keep close track of what others are doing).

 

[John T]

You might end up reconsidering that ;-)

The Taiko Extreme may well be the best option available for Roon.

Although the choices made by the Taiko Audio team fall a little outside the Roon Labs recommendations (separate server and endpoint) Roon's implementation in the Taiko Extreme is brilliant! Emile could talk about it (@Taiko Audio).

It allows you to enjoy Roon in an Ultra High End context, if I may say so.

Add to that the switch + network card + router package, and you've probably got one of the best transports available today.

Cheers,

Thomas

Roon has never sounded this good in my system. I also think Roon can sound better in some systems. I also like XDMS. Listening is like tasting wine, no ears or taste buds are alike...Its not against the rules to like them both...

 

[oldmustang]

Been trying to find more reviews on owners with dCS kit. Been looking on the dCS forum, and others, getting very mixed results.
I guess the only way is to try for myself, but before I go asking dealer for a home demo, can I ask vivaldi apex dac owners what exactly did they find inpoved once they went over to the extreme over the built in streamer in the upsampler, when streaming qobuz.

Because like I said I don't want to waste dealers time, as right now it looks about a 50/50 split on if they decided it was better, no difference or even worse.

Cheers once again for helping

It's been a while since I compared dCS' Mosaic to the Extreme/Roon or Extreme/XDMS. Easy enough to do and I'll give it decent trial streaming from Qobuz this evening when I sit down to listen to music after dinner. I'll let you know what I hear.

Later,

Steve Z

 

[Steve Williams]

Roon does sound very good if used through Extreme