Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[kennyb123]

my roon wants update my roon core on the extreme.

I hope you Extreme owners are impervious to whatever Roon throws your way, but on my Antipodes server, Roon's edge seems to have been restored with the new build. The update includes "major enhancement to our buffering/caching/fetching infrastructure for streaming media playback". Wonderful.

 

[ctydwn]

Just ran the update here. nothing exploded or jumped out from behind the rack. actually sounds good

 

[cat6man]

Just ran the update here. nothing exploded or jumped out from behind the rack. actually sounds good

good, as in 'same' or 'better'?

p.s. thanks for being our advanced scout (guinea pig)

 

[kswanson27]

Just ran the update here. nothing exploded or jumped out from behind the rack. actually sounds good

Same here, maybe not better but certainly as good.

 

[oldmustang]

I updated mine to build 911, no impact I can tell to sound quality. Mostly bug fixes and improving streaming, particularly from Tidal:

Roon says:

Changes for Build 911:​

• HQPlayer - updated API to support 4.0+ and Roon now requires HQPlayer desktop version 4.16.2+ or embedded 4.29.3+
• Major enhancement to our buffering/caching/fetching infrastructure for streaming media playback
• Improvements to scrolling and graphical performance on iOS and other platforms
• Stability improvements addressing various user interface glitches on all platforms, with a focus on iOS.
• Resolved an issue where Roon could crash after details page reload
• Resolved a crash triggered by TIDAL playlist deletion
• Resolved a crash that occasionally caused instability for the Roon API
• Resolved an issue where updating now playing images on macOS or Android could cause a crash in certain cases
• Resolved an issue where updating Daily mixes could fail in certain cases
• Resolved an issue that prevented us from discovering certain AirPlay devices.
• Resolved an issue where core was attempting to process .WebP files found in music folders.
• Resolved issues where invalid chars in windows’ folders file paths could cause folder watching to misbehave.
• Resolved an issue where tag links on album details were redirecting to the wrong tags
• Resolved a bug where uploaded profile image wasn’t updating
• Resolved an issue in which Roon could not list backups when the backup folder contained backup sets from multiple cores

Steve Z

 

[kennyb123]

I hope you Extreme owners are impervious to whatever Roon throws your way, but on my Antipodes server, Roon's edge seems to have been restored with the new build. The update includes "major enhancement to our buffering/caching/fetching infrastructure for streaming media playback". Wonderful.

Sorry this may have been a false alarm. Just after I reported that, my server became unreachable on my network. I traced it back to a Startech FMC I use far upstream. Bypassing this restored my network. I suspect the Jameco linear supply powering the FMC might be going south as I’ve had those fail on me. I still don’t think Roon sounds as good as it did yesterday, but tomorrow I will see if I can get that FMC working again so I get things back to the previous baseline.

 

[masmikel]

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[aLLeARS]

I ran the update last night. Roon sounds better than ever.

 

[Steve Williams]

so why is it to some the sound is no different, whereas to others it is better than ever?

Is this something system specific or something else. Can you be a little more specific when you said Roon sounded better than ever

 

[aLLeARS]

Between the OS update and the Roon updates in the last few months, Roon is sounding better than it ever did before. The most recent Roon update did not change that.

 

[microstrip]

Emile has been working in the background of my Extreme for a little - Jarret/Haden Last Dance suddenly stopped followed by many clicks ...

I have now just carried a quick listen to some more familiar material - Roon now seems to handle higher resolution microdymamics and cohesion, together with increased vividness. Impressive work of the Taiko team again!

 

[cat6man]

Emile has been working in the background of my Extreme for a little - Jarret/Haden Last Dance suddenly stopped followed by many clicks ...

I have now just carried a quick listen to some more familiar material - Roon now seems to handle higher resolution microdymamics and cohesion, together with increased vividness. Impressive work of the Taiko team again!

was this problem before or after the latest roon update? or unrelated?

 

[microstrip]

was this problem before or after the latest roon update? or unrelated?

No problem at all - I was listening when Emile started the upgrade by surprise, it is why the music suddenly stopped!

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...ha! Ghost in the machine.

 

[Johnny Moondog]

Wanted to share this story, just in case there’s someone else who might benefit.

For the OS update a week ago, and today’s installation of the Taiko USB Driver for SRC-DX ... Emile was not able to make a TeamViewer connection, and so we used AnyDesk instead.

During today’s session, Emile performed some detective work and discovered the source to the problem. I had installed a wrong version of TeamViewer onto the Extreme. So Emile removed it, and recreated the desktop shortcut to the Extreme’s resident TeamViewer.

I’m not sure how this happened. I have a vague memory of a notice for an update available, but even if that’s accurate, it does’t explain a wrong version being installed. And I've only launched TeamViewer three times: for TAS, OS update, and Taiko USB Driver. So it’s a mystery.

I know of one other person who was not able to connect with TeamViewer for the OS update, and perhaps this might explain what happened. I've attached screenshots to show the difference. The smaller interface is the correct version.

 

[Johnny Moondog]

A week ago I purchased some Blue Jeans CAT6 UTP, removed the audiophile switches SOtM sNH-10 and JCAT M12, both powered by JCAT OPTIMO 3 DUO power supply, and made a direct connection to the Extreme.

ARRIS Modem > Wi-Fi Router > 10m CAT6 > Extreme

This was very good, but I wasn’t a big fan of the sound, and figured perhaps the eero Pro is one of those notorious routers that don’t perform address segmentation. So I installed the simplest switch I owned, the EtherREGEN on A ports.

ARRIS Modem > Wi-Fi Router > 2m CAT6 > EtherREGEN > 10m CAT6 > Extreme

Now things were awesome again, and I listened to that configuration for the past week. Then yesterday Emile installed the Taiko USB Drivers for SRC-DX/DAVE combination. It was the end of Emile’s day in the office (is that a real thing?), and he was very patient with the previously described TeamViewer/AnyDesk hoops he had to jump through.

With that additional 25% in place, I was captivated last night while listening to the usual suspects in my go-to playlist for such occasions.

I know I’ll eventually try the SOtM and JCAT again, and out of curiosity one of those Cheap-ass™® Unmanaged Switches. But last night I was quite content to just cue up the next track, next album, next playlist. And of course, looking forward to the Taiko Network Card, Switch, XDMS, and Router!

 

[simorag]

A week ago I purchased some Blue Jeans CAT6 UTP, removed the audiophile switches SOtM sNH-10 and JCAT M12, both powered by JCAT OPTIMO 3 DUO power supply, and made a direct connection to the Extreme.

ARRIS Modem > Wi-Fi Router > 10m CAT6 > Extreme

This was very good, but I wasn’t a big fan of the sound, and figured perhaps the eero Pro is one of those notorious routers that don’t perform address segmentation. So I installed the simplest switch I owned, the EtherREGEN on A ports.

ARRIS Modem > Wi-Fi Router > 2m CAT6 > EtherREGEN > 10m CAT6 > Extreme

Now things were awesome again, and I listened to that configuration for the past week. Then yesterday Emile installed the Taiko USB Drivers for SRC-DX/DAVE combination. It was the end of Emile’s day in the office (is that a real thing?), and he was very patient with the previously described TeamViewer/AnyDesk hoops he had to jump through.

With that additional 25% in place, I was captivated last night while listening to the usual suspects in my go-to playlist for such occasions.

I know I’ll eventually try the SOtM and JCAT again, and out of curiosity one of those Cheap-ass™® Unmanaged Switches. But last night I was quite content to just cue up the next track, next album, next playlist. And of course, looking forward to the Taiko Switch, Network Card, XDMS, and Router!

Nice report, thank you!

Am I understanding it right, that you are using the A-side of the EtherREGEN for both input from router and output to Extreme, thus letting the supposedly "clean" B-side unused?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Nice report, thank you!

Am I understanding it right, that you are using the A-side of the EtherREGEN for both input from router and output to Extreme, thus letting the supposedly "clean" B-side unused?

The “clean” B-side operates at 100Mbit in stead of 1Gb and therefor deteriorates performance.

 

[M27HF]

For those experimenting with the 4 Taiko USB driver options for the SRC-DX/Dave/Roon playback/Cat 6 UTP (Blue Jean) cable connected directly from EdgeRouter X to Extreme, I experienced the following consistencies:
With Option 1,3,4 (didn't like #2 at all) changing from 32 bits to 24 bits the SQ was less warm/less body. When changing buffer from "no" to max setting again regardless of the bit selection the SQ lost warmth/body with each option 1,3,4. Option 1 set at 24 bit with max buffer size had appealing clarity/clean sound. #3 at 24 bit sounded off and not as good as 1 with same settings. For a while I liked option 1 but then I kept coming back to option 4 set at (Emile's suggested) 32 bit/no max buffer Roon setting and enjoyed the fuller sound for much longer listening sessions over the course of a few days. The #4 option still had excellent detail and imaging on a variety of Jazz, Classical and Rock selections. I'm interested to know if others have experienced the same trends I've listed above between options while knowing preferences may be different between systems. Thanks !

 

[alwayslearning]

For those experimenting with the 4 Taiko USB driver options for the SRC-DX/Dave/Roon playback/Cat 6 UTP (Blue Jean) cable connected directly from EdgeRouter X to Extreme, I experienced the following consistencies:
With Option 1,3,4 (didn't like #2 at all) changing from 32 bits to 24 bits the SQ was less warm/less body. When changing buffer from "no" to max setting again regardless of the bit selection the SQ lost warmth/body with each option 1,3,4. Option 1 set at 24 bit with max buffer size had appealing clarity/clean sound. #3 at 24 bit sounded off and not as good as 1 with same settings. For a while I liked option 1 but then I kept coming back to option 4 set at (Emile's suggested) 32 bit/no max buffer Roon setting and enjoyed the fuller sound for much longer listening sessions over the course of a few days. The #4 option still had excellent detail and imaging on a variety of Jazz, Classical and Rock selections. I'm interested to know if others have experienced the same trends I've listed above between options while knowing preferences may be different between systems. Thanks !

It seems you've arrived at what, at least for now, appears to be the consensus choice among SRC-DX/DAVE users -- USB4 at 32 bits. I covered my own impressions back in post #9767. I don't really hear significant differences in warm vs cool but we all hear differently. Thanks for these impressions.