As a Taiko Extreme novice, pardon me for sharing my amazement with what most of you already know to be true if you have ever listened to an Extreme on a highly resolving system. Put simply, I have never heard digital sound like it does in my system at this point. It is hard to tell what is/are the actual reason(s) for the substantial sonic gains that I am experiencing every day during the past week since the Extreme has been running, even with a painfully slow internet speed initially.
I in essence made three, possibly four changes at one time that made an immediate improvement, but continues to grow dramatically starting on the third day, but have already moved into a realm I did not know existed previously. My Extreme came with about a months worth of burn in and sounded amazing, by my former definition right out of the box. I also inserted a MasterBuilt Ultra UISB cable between my minimally used MSB Reference DAC, since I chose not to listen if I could not use the MB Ultra USB (because it makes that much difference in my system.) Unfortunately, the MB ultra usb would not work for more than 90 minutes, on one occasion, between my MSB DAC and Innuos Zenith SE.
I sent both the SE and the USB to Alma for them to experiment with the USB and the Innuos Statement, which seemed to work just fine, although I never heard the combo because Alma is in San Diego and I live in NJ. Steve Williams had just gotten his Extreme and could not speak about it in anything less than divine terms. The initial lack of effort of Innuos to resolve my SE/MB ultra USB problem did not leave a good impression for me and after all this is my Bucket List System and why should I "compromise" with the last piece, a key piece at that, since I was already four times over budget.
I then spoke to Mike Lavigne, who I have met and heard his system and shared a number of calls since to solicit his opinion.. I very much respect Mike's opinion, plus he has a MSB Select 2 DAC (mine on steroids with 8 ladders instead of 4 in my DAC a Fempto 33 clock instead of my 77 fempto clock) connected via USB (unknown brand and model to his Extreme.
Mike has always been very detailed with me in his opinions and reasons for his personal equipment selections, and thus I believe we have a number of similar listening tastes. It did not hurt that Mike had a Lampi GG 2 before getting the MSB, helping me reaffirm the correctness of choosing the MSB versus the Lampi Pacific because it has a sound/quality unlike any other DAC I have heard. For me that translates into the MSB removed so much of what I thought was part of "Digital" that it helps the sound become more "believable as real".
Back to Mike's opinion about the Extreme versus the Innuos Statement, and he said with a reverence I had never heard from him before, ----He said "the MSB Select 2 fempto 33 is amazing, but that I would be smart to spend the money I was considering to upgrade the MSB Reference to a Select 2 Fempto 33 (45K+), on the increased cost of the Extreme and not mess with the Statement. And then, Mike repeated himself, and said "the Extreme is just that good! Your Bucket List System which is very impressive deserves and Extreme!"
So I ordered the Extreme, still not even having seen one, let alone hear it,
The fourth change did not come into play until the day after I inserted the Extreme. That change was four Center Stage 1.5 footers even though Emile makes a product designed for the same purpose. I have dealt with CS footers since being one of the three beta testers and marveled at their essentially unbelievable contributions and the hassle of a 10-15 day break-in although totally worth it. Once you get use to their contributions, they become automatic add-ons.
I had already gone through 1.5 break-in when I put four of them under my VAC Statement Amp audio chassis and another 4 under the supply chassis. which was much faster 2-5 days than the .8" and 1" footers which take up to 2 weeks, but at least a week.
The improvement was instantaneous and increased with each additional footer and then the second day came and I could not really listen and thus despite my Extreme excitement, Roon played continually without amplification. Day 3 was great, day four even better, etc for about a week.
So what is making me so happy? Clearly it is a synergistic effect of my system and my audio biases.. Most of my system electronics are VAC, which have a sonic signature unlike any other tube audio product. My DAC is SS, but unlike any other I have heard and a perfect synergy with VAC equipment. I already had a full loom of MasterBuilt Ultra IC's, speaker wire and power cords and had a pretty good idea of their contributions, which are in a class by themselves, but the USB is special and took the rest of the loom to a level I did not believe existed,
Then there is the Extreme which is clearly in a realm by itself as any owner will tell you without any solicitation. I already agreed within in 60-90 seconds, but that was just the beginning and I have no idea of what stabilization will sound like or when it will occur (???1500 hours). Emile went through an exhaustive process eliminating any sonic colorations. In fact he focused on removing all non-essential components and operating system code. He then explored anything he could think of to remove and further purify the sound.
And that is what I hear, digital music without much of the sounds I thought were an unseparatable part of digital sound. This cleaned up sound s is so much more believable, my main objective with my Bucket List System. I turns out I have not yet heard a song that I does not sound better on the Extreme and many times, actually better than my Analog side (Bergmann Galder/Odin with ZYX optimum feed into a VAC phono pre).
Most important, I sit in my listening chair for hours at a time just listening to whatever I feel like for up to 5 hours straight thus far. While my speakers are VSA Ultra 9's the masters of emulating reality, thus far I have only heard the digital additions to my system through Endeavor 3 Mk2's made by VSA and designed by Leif Swanson who will when possible fly to my house to repair my damaged Ultra 9 from a weird current surge that took out the 1000 watt plate amp and 15" subwoofer of my right speaker. Earlier today Leif, ever the humble one, said that his network design uses the 15" sub as part of foundation of the entire sound of the speaker at all frequencies, and thus any problem in that part not the network (including drivers) impacts the total sound of the speaker to the point that the E3 Mk2's sound better than the last time I heard the 9's, which are in a totally different league.
I am almost there and will be totally there when Leif arrives when the Shelter In Place phase passes. I am already so far ahead of what I have dreamed about.
