Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[vassils]

Thks for the reply, it confort me.
Listening now to jay s, i can t think how this can be bettered

It's really hard to beat the Jay. That's an amazing transport. And your DAC does an amazing job with SPDIF.
But there are two things that transports have a hard time with - 1. completely isolating the vibration from the spinning CD; and 2. extracting every single bit from CDs with a lot of microscratches on them and doing it with extremely low latency. Yes, buffers help a little but introduce latency.
A good server has a huge advantage in both of these areas (and many disadvantages if not done right) since it does not spin CDs and extracts the data in realtime. You can see the attention to details in the Extreme where they even take care of the vibration from the transformer. And the clocking of the signal is a lot better. So yes, I am pretty confident it would sound better than the Jay, although I don't have both of them to compare.
Isn't it always like this, though? When we hear something better in our systems, we always think "i can t think how this can be bettered"... until the next big improvement

 

[Esotar]

Hi guys,
I m warmtching this thread with lot of interest, assuming confidently that extreme is the best streamer now, thus introducing a question bothering me too much these days.I m in a search of a top streamer to my kassandra ref2 dac .
I ve tested so far ( by order of preference):
Dcs nb, n10,sotm 200 neo+sp500,auralic g2,my macbook pro.
Roon is a must.
Lately i discovered that my cheap denon transport connected via coax to my dac outperformed all of the above except dcs nb.
Yesterday my friend loaned me his cdt2 jay s transport ( he s selling it) and tried it on my system.
What i can say? I didnt sleep hole night!
It is by far margin better than all of the above.
So the question, is an evo sgm or extreme can better a top cd transport?
I m bothered cause i m more into convenience of the streamer, but my top priority is sound quality.
The jay s is ages better than everything i heard so far!!
Please enlighten me and sorry to still the thread!
Regards

I compared EVO to Metronome T8 CDT.

Visitors were ten, and all said EVO is better than T8.

I want to compare EVO to Kalista new CDT, but I can't borrow it.

This is just Korean opinions.

 

[Samsoum]

It's really hard to beat the Jay. That's an amazing transport. And your DAC does an amazing job with SPDIF.
But there are two things that transports have a hard time with - 1. completely isolating the vibration from the spinning CD; and 2. extracting every single bit from CDs with a lot of microscratches on them and doing it with extremely low latency. Yes, buffers help a little but introduce latency.
A good server has a huge advantage in both of these areas (and many disadvantages if not done right) since it does not spin CDs and extracts the data in realtime. You can see the attention to details in the Extreme where they even take care of the vibration from the transformer. And the clocking of the signal is a lot better. So yes, I am pretty confident it would sound better than the Jay, although I don't have both of them to compare.
Isn't it always like this, though? When we hear something better in our systems, we always think "i can t think how this can be bettered"... until the next big improvement

True !
I think the jay is

I compared EVO to Metronome T8 CDT.

Visitors were ten, and all said EVO is better than T8.

I want to compare EVO to Kalista new CDT, but I can't borrow it.

This is just Korean opinions.

waouw! This is amazing then!

 

[Samsoum]

It's really hard to beat the Jay. That's an amazing transport. And your DAC does an amazing job with SPDIF.
But there are two things that transports have a hard time with - 1. completely isolating the vibration from the spinning CD; and 2. extracting every single bit from CDs with a lot of microscratches on them and doing it with extremely low latency. Yes, buffers help a little but introduce latency.
A good server has a huge advantage in both of these areas (and many disadvantages if not done right) since it does not spin CDs and extracts the data in realtime. You can see the attention to details in the Extreme where they even take care of the vibration from the transformer. And the clocking of the signal is a lot better. So yes, I am pretty confident it would sound better than the Jay, although I don't have both of them to compare.
Isn't it always like this, though? When we hear something better in our systems, we always think "i can t think how this can be bettered"... until the next big improvement

True !!
And still my best input in the kassandra is the usb, another reason for going streamer with usb out.
But the jay is a killer for the price!
Never heard jack johnson singing with this beautiful voice, and the colors on instruments are jaw dropping!
Another sleepness night insight!hhhhhhh

 

[vassils]

I compared EVO to Metronome T8 CDT.

Visitors were ten, and all said EVO is better than T8.

I want to compare EVO to Kalista new CDT, but I can't borrow it.

This is just Korean opinions.

Did you use the SPDIF output from the Extreme during your comparison? If you used the USB output, then you are not comparing apples to apples.

 

[Esotar]

Did you use the SPDIF output from the Extreme during your comparison? If you used the USB output, then you are not comparing apples to apples.

Yes, I have Entreq Atlantis AES/EBU digital cable, Atlantis Eartha, and Olympus Ten.

The result is EVO is better than T8.

And in case of Light Harmonic [Light Speed 20G DE USB] with Extreme,

difference is much more than T8.

 

[Esotar]

Here are two movie trials.

Sound is small, so you have to up your system's volume by 10.



Formula xHD

Terminator

 

[Cellindo]

Hi guys,
I m warmtching this thread with lot of interest, assuming confidently that extreme is the best streamer now, thus introducing a question bothering me too much these days.I m in a search of a top streamer to my kassandra ref2 dac .
I ve tested so far ( by order of preference):
Dcs nb, n10,sotm 200 neo+sp500,auralic g2,my macbook pro.
Roon is a must.
Lately i discovered that my cheap denon transport connected via coax to my dac outperformed all of the above except dcs nb.
Yesterday my friend loaned me his cdt2 jay s transport ( he s selling it) and tried it on my system.
What i can say? I didnt sleep hole night!
It is by far margin better than all of the above.
So the question, is an evo sgm or extreme can better a top cd transport?
I m bothered cause i m more into convenience of the streamer, but my top priority is sound quality.
The jay s is ages better than everything i heard so far!!
Please enlighten me and sorry to still the thread!
Regards

Hi Samsoum,

As an owner of the dCS Network Bridge, I can affirm that it should be used with an external clocking system (I do use the Vivaldi's output clock as a reference into the Network Bridge).

This is not to say that it could then be equal to a solution using a top-notch server like the Taiko Extreme. However, it's just an indication and advice that you are, currently, not getting the very best performance out of your dCS N.B.

Also, try to experiment with AES/EBU cable instead of SPDIF, if not done already. Maybe the AIRES CERAT Kassendra 2 DAC will like it even better.

Cheers.

 

[wespruett]

I received the Plixir power supply a few days and connected it to the Intona usb 3.0 isolater. I didn't think I would be able to tell much of a difference. Wrong. It was a significant uptick in dynamics (macro and micro) and presence. Items way back in the soundstage had much more presense and each flute or small instrument were individually more full-bodied sounding.

I had been playing my preamp volume usually at 20, I moved it down to 18 with the Plixir connected.

Sort of strange that the Intona isolator is $400ish and the PS is $900ish, but in my set up I would consider the Plixir mandatory when using the Intona 3.0 usb isolator.

The Intona Ultimate USB is probably one of the most significant upgrades I've ever made to my system. Night and day. I once was blind but now I see. LOL

 

[Kris]

Did anyone compared intona 3.0 to uptone iso regen ?

 

[Kris]

What swich model is recommended from Cisco 2960 .
There are few different.
Not sure if for example 2960 c would be best ?

Emile what is your current king of swiches to work with Extreme ?

 

[Taiko Audio]

I have just received a pair of the new Qnap QSW-308S 10G switches. They are passively cooled and have a DC input. Looks promising.

 

[Kris]

Fantastic !
What is the DC voltage for the supply ?
If it is 12v this could be easy upgrated with linnear power supply.
Also please let us know how this performs versus the other swiches you tried ?
Thank you Emile for doing it for us !

 

[Taiko Audio]

12V 3A

 

[Kris]

12V 3A

Gerat news
Almost everyone of us has 12v LPS to power swich or NAS .

Please be so kind to test it with original Supply and LPS .

I hope this works great with Extreme, but after the NightHawk disaster no one can be 100 % sure about that.

Do you have to swich the pci express network card in Extreme from original 1G to 10G to get the optical network

Cant wait for the info from Emile about how this performs.

Good luck with testing !

 

[Esotar]

I'll make two movies.

My camcorder is very cheap, so sound is too bad.



SGM Extreme

Light Speed 20G DE Silver Signature USB

Trinity DAC


Please try it~!!!



John Williams [The Imperial March]

Harold Faltermeyer [Top Gun Anthem]

 

[Esotar]

This time, I tried to use very small speakers.

This product is Kiso Acoustics [HB-X1].

HB-X1 size is Height(313mm) x Width(148mm) x Depth(224mm)

Very small~!

In case of other music servers, HB-X1 sound is rough, lacking bass though it is very good speakers.

But SGM Extreme makes it more soft and fuller sound.

Please check it~!


Part 1. POP

 

[Esotar]

Part 2. O.S.T & Classic

 

[Kris]

The one thing that I have experienced is the dac differences become less in my systems once I started using the Extreme. It's almost hard for me to pinpoint the differences regarding which dac I connect to the Extreme. Each dac/system produces excellent sound and none of the systems with different dacs jump to another level just by changing the dacs.

This is very interesting point.
What are the DACs you tested ?
What connection you used for them ?
Spidf , AES, USB ?
Do you see still significant difference with much more expensive DACs ?

 

[Rhapsody]

This is very interesting point.
What are the DACs you tested ?
What connection you used for them ?
Spidf , AES, USB ?
Do you see still significant difference with much more expensive DACs ?

First of all I don't have one set system that I insert one component for another. My systems are changing daily. The Dacs that I use are Aqua Formula xHD, Rockna Wavedream, Jadis, CEC and Goldmund. I had the MSB Select II for six months but it was prior to the Extreme's arrival.

My point was that since I received the Extreme a few months ago, I never try to pick a certain DAC to make the sound better. Whatever DAC happens to be connected is what I leave connected and they ALL make great music when running Roon Core on the Extreme/Intona isolator and Ultimate usb interface. I use usb from the Extreme through the Intona to connect to all of the DACs. I've not connected the Extreme with anything other than USB.

All of the DACs mentioned are <$20K. With changing systems (speakers, preamps/amplifiers, vinyl, Roon, R2R) on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis I am not one to give an opinion on this vs. that in a single system stable enviroment, other than what I have said - via the Extreme I never change a DAC anymore if one is already connected to the Extreme, I just hit play.