Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[paul79]

The D1 Direct could be an option. Vincent does offer trial. It is made specifically for those that want a simpler setup.

 

[Sablon Audio]

The D1 Direct could be an option. Vincent does offer trial. It is made specifically for those that want a simpler setup.

Am told that it needs the reclocker to deliver at Extreme levels Paul, so that is 3 boxes with the external psu.

 

[Kris]

Am told that it needs the reclocker to deliver at Extreme levels Paul, so that is 3 boxes with the external psu.

Why do you want one box solution for DAC ?
You are limiting youself very significant with this .
Just give yourself time to listen some of the multiple box solutions in your room.
I think the SQ is going to change your curren veiw .

 

[Sablon Audio]

Why do you want one box solution for DAC ?
You are limiting youself very significant with this .
Just give yourself time to listen some of the multiple box solutions in your room.
I think the SQ is going to change your curren veiw .

Is a question of domestic harmony (family living room) and only having one spare shelf on my rack Kris. We shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of the good - there are plenty of credible one box dacs out there which will give a great performance when driven by Extreme.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Mark, check out the one-box APL DSD-MR. Pricey, but the one review I've read considers it a bit of a game changer.

 

[Sablon Audio]

Mark, check out the one-box APL DSD-MR. Pricey, but the one review I've read considers it a bit of a game changer.

I did look at it Marc but wasn’t for me.

 

[Kris]

I did look at it Marc but wasn’t for me.

How about Lampizator ?
Golden Gate or Pacific ?
I know Lukasz and tried their products
Lukasz creates fantastic sounding DACs.
Also you can ask for whatever you need to get it all in one box .

 

[Sablon Audio]

How about Lampizator ?
Golden Gate or Pacific ?
I know Lukasz and tried their products
Lukasz creates fantastic sounding DACs.
Also you can ask for whatever you need to get it all in one box .

Kris, I was one of Lukasz’s first customers a decade ago and later became a dealer for a couple of years. Last had a GG about 4 years ago which was replaced by a T&A dac when I got my SGM server.

Funny story about that server. I sold it to a customer who is also a WBF member in July and he had it upgraded to Evo spec. Within 2 days of it being delivered, he liked it so much that he ordered an Extreme and another customer here bought it from him.

 

[paul79]

The reclocker is additive and never has done any harm to any digital source I have put in front of it. However, maybe someone here with an Extreme has tried with and without the reclocker? It is not a guarantee of better sound. I think it depends on the digital source in front of it. Maybe Vincent can help here with his knowledge on this.

 

[Sablon Audio]

Is best that Emile chimes in on this as he has a TD12 which comes with reclocker.

 

[Kris]

Is best that Emile chimes in on this as he has a TD12 which comes with reclocker.

impossible .
I had TD12 few years ago . Now TD 24.
And you have to have reclocker in TD12 because it acts as USB hub with FIFO and as AES sinal divider to 2 separate L and R chanel boxes.

Only wen you have D1 direct ( single box) with and without addonal reclocer box you can test the need of reclocker when extreme is used.

 

[Kris]

Kris, I was one of Lukasz’s first customers a decade ago and later became a dealer for a couple of years. Last had a GG about 4 years ago which was replaced by a T&A dac when I got my SGM server.

Funny story about that server. I sold it to a customer who is also a WBF member in July and he had it upgraded to Evo spec. Within 2 days of it being delivered, he liked it so much that he ordered an Extreme and another customer here bought it from him.

Now I understand why you have difficult time finding a better DAC .
You had few top class solutions already

MSB or TD 12 might solve your issues forever but they are not a single box.

 

[EuroDriver]

Korean comparison of Aurender W20SE and Taiko Extreme

Muscle Pain, a very patient and diligent Korean Audiophile (with quite a following in Korea), posted on Naver.com about the comparison audition which he and 15 audiophile friends held between the new Aurenda W20SE and the Taiko Extreme. The unedited translation is by Google Translate running on a Chrome browser

* Sound of the Aurender W20SE

The W20SE is a significant improvement over the W20 due to the improvements mentioned above. The propensity of the sound is similar, but the quality has improved considerably. There are improvements in almost every factor, including sound density and quietness resolution.

The sound level of the W20SE is better than that of the company's W20 or N10, but if you compare the sound levels with price tags, it is difficult to give a good rating to the W20SE when comparing the price. Considering the fact that the sound quality is improving and the cost is soaring with the best products, the initial launch price of W20SE (currently online search 28 million won) is too high. (It was searched at 24 million won at the beginning, but today I checked 28 million won.

I think the value of W20SE can be judged more concretely compared to other flagship music servers. The W20SE has spent more than a few ten hours working with SGM Extreme and Hearing from Digitus Labs. In my opinion, the difference is at least 10 million won. Extreme judges the sound better in almost all parts of the W20SE, especially the musical nuances of the three-dimensional and depth of the sound. There are about 15 audiophiles who came to my room and screamed together.

I think that the difference in sound level is that W20SE should drop below 15 million won. The current price of SGM Extreme is 24 million won (no discount / overseas price is over 30 million won) and W20SE is 28 million won (the actual purchase price is much lower). Whether Extreme is too low or the price of the W20SE is too high, I think it's the latter. Do you think increasing the list price is a way to increase the value of your product and benefit your business?

(The reason I don't mention the Memory Player is that I haven't heard the W20SE directly. I had previously heard the W20 and the Memory Player MP64-32. Is a bit lower than MP64-32)

Aurender W20 was a great piece a kit in its day. IMHO the W 20 family has been out run by the Extreme by because of 4 technolgies

- RF emission quieter storage units and data channel architecture
- Audiophile linear non-switching power supply best practices
- attention and tuning of vibration management to power supply, chassis and other subsystems
- low sonic foot print Windows LTSC based OS

 

[Esotar]

Muscle Pain has Aurender W20SE.

But he said Aurender must think their products are not compatible no more.

SGM Extreme is more expensive than W20SE, but to order Extreme is much wiser.

 

[LeBlanc]

Very interesting to hear the Taiko Server live for the first time today at the X-fi show in the Netherlands.

 

[EuroDriver]

Very interesting to hear the Taiko Server live for the first time today at the X-fi show in the Netherlands.

This Aqueo Audio room at the X-Fi show has been a very interesting set of datapoints for Emile, the Taiko crew and myself.

The Aqueo Ensis speakers, CAAS solid state power amps, Total DAC D1-12 Mk 2, and Taiko Extreme Server. Taiko cabling

Certainly a system with extreme frontend loading of the budget, but the system was fully Daiza'd with no less than 17 Daiza's, many of them double stacked and a Daiza's under each of the semi active speakers, a first for Taiko

Audio shows are always SQ challenging with foot traffic and building vibrations muddying the sound, so we were not sure how much the Daiza's would help.

At the first turn on late very late on Friday night, the sound was pretty disappointing.

It was significantly better by 2 pm on Saturday, but still, quite frankly, embarrassing.

However by 4pm on Saturday the system was exhibiting quite a bit of attractiveness. By 6pm the the system was singing.

Today's takeaway is that Daiza's do need break in and the difference is big. Daiza's can help modest electronics very significantly, bring them up to a surprising SQ level for their cost

Sunday is usually the best sounding day of any show, stay tuned and I will give you my impressions of tomorrow morning.

 

[EuroDriver]

XFi on Sunday

Today, was a day of continuous SQ improvement with a break through around 2 pm and getting better all the time until the show close. Our experience with Daiza’s has been always incremental. We never Daiza’ed a whole system in one go so the hourly SQ uplift over 36 hours was something we were not expecting.

My personal takeaways from this XFi Show

• Emile and I are significantly more critical about SQ than the show going public and audio journalists. Guess we have been spoilt by the demo room we have in Hengelo, and the Audionet electronics. Even on Saturday we were getting accolades, and by Sunday afternoon show goers were coming back 2 or 3 times, and staying for 2 to 3 songs
• The width ( 4 feet from each side of the speakers), depth, solidity and sizing of the soundstage was pretty amazing. The speakers pretty much completely disappeared. That these slim speakers could deliver such a sonic landscape almost beggared belief. IMHO, the very low distortion measurements of the speakers and the low noise floor of the Total DAC / TaikoExtreme combo allows the speakers to disappear over the full frequency spectrum
• The resolution and micro detail came on song at 2 pm, and shortly there after the rich tonality which we were expecting
• Besides electronic burn in which has been familiar to us, there seems to be a significant mechanical settling process going on as well

- the show was a very worthwhile effort, a lot of happy show goers, and plenty of data points for us to ponder and seek explanations for.

 

[bibo01]

XFi on Sunday

Today, was a day of continuous SQ improvement with a break through around 2 pm and getting better all the time until the show close. ...

Hi, there can be big fluctuation in the quality of electricity during the day at festivals due to the venue.
Have you actually tried to measure it throughout a day?

 

[EuroDriver]

Hi, there can be big fluctuation in the quality of electricity during the day at festivals due to the venue.
Have you actually tried to measure it throughout a day?

Hi bibo01,

We have used instruments and spectrum analysis to analyse power quality over the day and on weekends in Hengelo. The Taiko CNC machines are a big AC mains noise pollution offender when they are running !

This was our third show at the NH Conference center, so we had a good feel for the mains quality during the day and the middle of the night at this location.

The continuous and steady improvement to the degree observed late Saturday and throughout Sunday was something we have not witnessed before.

I was in the room at 10 am on Saturady, 2 pm on Saturady and then 10 am on Sunday. I left town and then Emile called be back to do a sound check to make sure that it was not Emile's ears ears becoming accustomed.

I walked in the room again at 3:30 pm, and I was frankly gob smacked / stunned by the improvement over 10 am SQ

 

[microstrip]

IMHO it is extremely difficult to separate effects due to mains quality from effects due to thermal or mechanical accommodation in such short period evaluation.

I think the mains quality influence is a very poorly studied subject, although it could be done in a systematic way using a battery re-generator similar to the StromTank and polluting the perfect mains signal with distortion and noise in a controlled way. Probably manufacturers of power conditioning devices have developed such devices, but I never read about such studies.