Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[cat6man]

we spend $50k-$150k+ on our digital signal paths.......so if there is low hanging fruit for comparative pennies......pick and eat the damn fruit.

+1

while i have a lot of spaghetti, time and LPS in my digital network, i have never been happy, as an engineer or audiophile, with our lack of understanding of what was going on with digital, hardware, switches, routers, LAN, cables and amazingly software.
it has been very clear to me that we didn't know what the hell was going on technically, but i was happy to make changes that were clearly audible advances in SQ, even as the "WTF" hypotheses were being formulated by the earliest experimenters/designers/DIYers. in my experience, the first person i ran across who proposed such heresy was someone on the Logitech forums (about 10 years ago?) who argued that software parameter changes to the Logitech Touch improved SQ (to the intense derision of almost everyone)

Emile et al give me hope that this can in fact be understood and optimized to a level previously unsuspected.
i trust, based on past performance, that the network will become increasingly less critical.
i'm on the bus!

by the way, i was talking to a friend who is both an audiophile and engineer and we were reminiscing about the day, about 25 years ago?, when we "solved" the digital problem on an airplane napkin--------read the data into a buffer and read it out with really clean clocking, problem solved! as i liked to tell my classes after proving something on the blackboard, "details are left as an exercize for the student"

 

[Steve Williams]

just ask Emile what he recommends for your network and do it. or have someone do it. these gains are in the realm of what TAS is doing that we all gush over.

I disagree Mike. I did the same as you. He told me what network to use and I did. No switches or froufrou.No fiber. Only ethernet

we spend $50k-$150k+ on our digital signal paths.......so if there is low hanging fruit for comparative pennies......pick and eat the damn fruit

Really!!!! Good for you Mike. It is here where you and I disagree. Have you tried removing all of your switches and listening to the beta version with the TAS driver ? You might be shocked. Sometimes with too much fruit on those low lying branches the branch just gets too heavy and breaks. And now you are reading that Emile is suggesting a switch(or switches) , even his own proprietary might just not be necessary

 

[Jpowell]

No issues playing DXD or DSD256 files to the Aqua here and no pops. (Buffer 4096) Definitely something amiss there.
Are you set DoP and using the ASIO driver.?

Interesting. I can play DSD files okay, but not my 24/192 flac files. I don't have DoP set, since the current Formula plays the DSD directly, as I understand it. But in any event, I wouldn't think that would affect the pcm files.
I'm assuming that I'm using the ASIO, though Ed set me up for the TAS beta so I didn't configure it directly. I certainly was with Roon.
I may have something else going on, obviously, with my system, but nothing else has changed other than the TAS beta being installed. Switching back to Roon eliminates the quirks. Quite open to suggestions, but I assume these will get ironed out with the TAS team 'off-line' eventually.
Thanks.

 

[Jpowell]

Interesting. I can play DSD files okay, but not my 24/192 flac files. I don't have DoP set, since the current Formula plays the DSD directly, as I understand it. But in any event, I wouldn't think that would affect the pcm files.
I'm assuming that I'm using the ASIO, though Ed set me up for the TAS beta so I didn't configure it directly. I certainly was with Roon.
I may have something else going on, obviously, with my system, but nothing else has changed other than the TAS beta being installed. Switching back to Roon eliminates the quirks. Quite open to suggestions, but I assume these will get ironed out with the TAS team 'off-line' eventually.
Thanks.

Hmm, I just happened to remote into the Extreme just now to check on the usb driver and saw a cmd.exe window pop-up:



I'll send this on to tech, obviously, but thought I should mention it here for completeness .

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I disagree Mike. I did the same as you. He told me what network to use and I did. No switches or froufrou.No fiber. Only ethernet



Really!!!! Good for you Mike. It is here where you and I disagree. Have you tried removing all of your switches and listening to the beta version with the TAS driver ? You might be shocked. Sometimes with too much fruit on those low lying branches the branch just gets too heavy and breaks. And now you are reading that Emile is suggesting a switch(or switches) , even his own proprietary might just not be necessary

i only use exactly what Emile has suggested to me. nothing more, nothing less. if/when he suggests to remove or change it i will. or if he wants me to change it and listen i can do that. i'm not invested figuratively or monetarily in my network gear.

if i mistakenly interpreted your 'no need' as 'don't care' then my bad. i think when you use those terms it could be taken either way. my take is that i don't worry about it, since i let Emile worry about it. but i don't say 'no need' to worry about it. someone needs to.

 

[Steve Williams]

I did as well Mike. Out of curiosity why don’t you remove those low lying fruits and listen again to TAS. You might find it shocking

 

[wil]

For the record, if you are asking us for advice, we recommend not to invest significantly in network “tweaks” unless money is no object and you don’t mind shelving them down the road.

Thank you for this Public Service Announcement!

 

[Taiko Audio]

"...recommend not to invest significantly in network “tweaks” unless money is no object and you don’t mind shelving them down the road."

Because the network tweaks become redundant or because they diminish the system/sound?

It looks like we may be able to address “the issue” in software.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I did as well Mike. Out of curiosity why don’t you remove those low lying fruits and listen again to TAS. You might find it shocking

when Emile suggests it i will. not sure i can just change things without other adjustments to maintain optimizations.

besides; mostly listening to vinyl these days.

 

[Taiko Audio]

I'll send this on to tech, obviously, but thought I should mention it here for completeness .

Try buffersize 2048.

 

[Taiko Audio]

when Emile suggests it i will. not sure i can just change things without other adjustments to maintain optimizations.

I did as well Mike. Out of curiosity why don’t you remove those low lying fruits and listen again to TAS. You might find it shocking

Different situations, different applications (wireless vs “long distance” wired). I stand behind my advice for both of your systems.

 

[Jpowell]

Try buffersize 2048.

Emile, I went back and tried 2048 again with no luck. I've tried it at all buffersizes, including auto, with no luck. And this last attempt regenerated that XDPlayer error message via cmd.exe on the Extreme, which I had deleted previously.

 

[Taiko Audio]

And purely for fun. First YouTube Roon, second TAS. Nothing else changed in the system. If you prefer the first that’s fine. The difference in harmonic texture is much greater in real life.

Interesting, clearly sounds different on airpods. I wasn’t expecting it to be audible to this extend on a video. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Emile, I went back and tried 2048 again with no luck. I've tried it at all buffersizes, including auto, with no luck. And this last attempt regenerated that XDPlayer error message via cmd.exe on the Extreme, which I had deleted previously.

Can you pick a free slot with me in the scheduler application you used for the BETA? Let me know if I need to resend the links.

 

[wil]

And purely for fun. First YouTube Roon, second TAS. Nothing else changed in the system. If you prefer the first that’s fine. The difference in harmonic texture is much greater in real life.

Thanks for posting this, Blue. I know it's YouTube via computer speakers, but my first impression is that this illustrates the difference I'm hearing between Roon and TAS. TAS is more mellifluous, warm, smooth, deeper soundstage.... but I still hear more bite -- more of a live, immediate feel -- in the Roon version. The drums, for instance. seem to have more transient attack.

All that being said, I'd still rather live with TAS.

 

[Jpowell]

Can you pick a free slot with me in the scheduler application you used for the BETA? Let me know if I need to resend the links.

If you could send links again, that would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[cat6man]

i just completed my beta installation with edward.
since i only received my extreme on friday, it needed basic setup as well as beta/TAS installation.

starting 24/7 burn in now, so i have no SQ feedback to give yet and since i have never had a roon account,
i won't be able to report on TAS vs. roon either.................just starting at the top is fine with me.

thanks again to edward for a great experience!

 

[Steve Williams]

i just completed my beta installation with edward.
since i only received my extreme on friday, it needed basic setup as well as beta/TAS installation.

starting 24/7 burn in now, so i have no SQ feedback to give yet and since i have never had a roon account,
i won't be able to report on TAS vs. roon either.................just starting at the top is fine with me.

thanks again to edward for a great experience!

It’s good right out of the box. It just keeps getting better

 

[Esotar]

SGM Extreme with TAS & Divin Noblesse

 

[plasmod3]

Nic

SGM Extreme with TAS & Divin Noblesse

Nice setup Esotar, the speakers are too close to the wall maybe?