Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

ctydwn

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Aug 23, 2019
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Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I assume there is some context/backstory for the comment above? Care to share?
Nothing to share. I have always felt that a question should be simply asked and let your expert talk. Nothing more
 

dminches

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Oct 22, 2011
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Nothing to share. I have always felt that a question should be simply asked and let your expert talk. Nothing more

That’s what made Johnny Carson so great. He set the table for his guests to succeed and then stepped back to let them.
 

ctydwn

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Aug 23, 2019
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Got it. But Jay is banned from WBF for some unknown reason. So I assume there is additional context for such a resounding remark on his work. (interview style aside). I believe there are many including some members of wbf that have appreciated his efforts and insights.
 
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Taiko Audio

Industry Expert
Feb 10, 2017
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One or two more question please Emile/Taiko Team.

- Should I rip SACD as DSD64 or upsample it to DSD128? I upsampled all my SACD to DSD128 but knowing from you and my own experience after following your advice that redbook CD sounded better by leaving it as it is now I am starting to wonder if I should do the same to SACD? If so, I have a lot of deleting and re burning to do this week…LOL!! It’s still fun and I am still enjoying it so very much, I just hate deleting and overwriting the SSD, I thought “virgin” SSD should be the best.

- Should I stop music playing through Taiko when burning for absolute optimum result? Or burning while playing music is fine?

I would do native where possible. I’ve never compared ripping while playing music to not playing music :)
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
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For practical reasons I had to move my Extreme from the corner of the room to the top of my media console. Thankfully I had a 500lb hydraulic lift to help ;)

For home tranquility reasons, I’m now researching racks to replace the media console ;)

View attachment 86778
at lunch time i bought one, thank you!

this will come in handy, not getting any younger.
 

pjwd

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Jun 22, 2015
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at lunch time i bought one, thank you!

this will come in handy, not getting any younger.
True Mike
Sadly age seems to directly correlate with heavier gear
I have often fantasized about a mini forklift to deal with that sideways lift onto the rack .. perhaps its time for an audiophile model with a bit of high end sheen
This is a good option in the meantime :)
Phil
 
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K3RMIT

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Sep 4, 2020
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has it gotten to the point that what internal magic happens inside a dac makes it good or not ?
how can we ever know what is going on inside ? Even if there is a white paper I still listen to judge I’m not a fan of up sampling but there are times I have listened and it was better. the best was in two ways for me. one is to offline convert then play
second and in someways first is if it’s done inside the dac itself. At one time MSB did this very well.
the little I do know is it’s very complex just playing back music so in the end we each judge Alone.
The server is important and if a lesser dac is used even more so. but to me if it’s a better higher level dac less over all. now having said this the taiko is a top level machine so anyone benefits.
one of best features of taiko is it does not let us make changes they don’t allow and test. So end results is a closed system to a point. like filters and the like in many ways trust the maker is best.
 
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ShawnZH

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Sep 20, 2020
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I have the Taiko extreme demo at home yesterday. I smoothly set up Roon, and add Qobuz and Tidal services. Strangely, I can stream Tidal but anything I tried to play through Qobuz, there’s an error message reminding me there’s a network issue.

Since I have a Wadax server too, when I used Wadax Server as the core, SGME as the NAA (bridge), USB from SGME to my DAC, I can stream Quboz successfully.

This occurs to me there’s something needs to be done on the SGME core to enable Quboz?

@Emile, could you help?
 

ShawnZH

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Sep 20, 2020
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I self answer this point. I rebooted the SGME and guess the system re-loaded the Roon and Qobuz and it worked. Not a surprise that anything wrong with a Windows, wind it up and re-open it :cool:
I have the Taiko extreme demo at home yesterday. I smoothly set up Roon, and add Qobuz and Tidal services. Strangely, I can stream Tidal but anything I tried to play through Qobuz, there’s an error message reminding me there’s a network issue.

Since I have a Wadax server too, when I used Wadax Server as the core, SGME as the NAA (bridge), USB from SGME to my DAC, I can stream Quboz successfully.

This occurs to me there’s something needs to be done on the SGME core to enable Quboz?

@Emile, could you help?
 

speakerlust

Well-Known Member
Mar 26, 2011
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Not sure if you are in the US. But if so Harbor Freight is the place:

If you have large floor tiles with grouting, large thresholds or areas to traverse that may be bumpy or jarring, suggest considering getting some grey non-marking pneumatic wheels to replace the hard castor wheels. It is a much quieter and significantly softer ride for equipment.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
So an interesting thing happened today. As you all know I have not been on Roon for almost 2 years and because of the recent comments by Roon users that the new update brought the SQ to the same or maybe better than TAS. I was listening to music today so I decided to take a chance. I was in TAS. Got into the control panel and turned TAS off and ROON running. I couldn’t figure out why there was no player. Texted Emile who immediately replied even though it was 9 hours later. I had totally forgotten that I had to turn on Roon through the app. DUH

Once I did the update and sat back and listened from my last recollection there was indeed a big improvement. I thought especially the decay, timbre and tonal balance sounded pretty darn good. I spent about 2 hours listening to ROON ( it was good to see my old playlists :) when I then played one of my demo lists which I also had on TAS.

To switch from Roon to TAS took a minute and some more time to load into memory. There were no changes whatsoever in the gain. It remained constant. The last two songs I played in Roon were immediately queued up on TAS and played. To my ears I can say that TAS remains superior. Interesting the same song on TAS sounded louder and to my ears had better tonality and layering. I also thought that the lower registers in TAS were better than the even bettered Roon

so yes there has been an uptick to Roon. Where I see things (or hear things) is that this reminds me of the Roon I remember when I first got my Extreme and after a few updates Roon suddenly lost its magic. This is where I think Roon is now. Roon seems to be now where I remember it right before that fatal update. As I stated it’s been close to 2 years since I’ve used Roon. The magic is back without question. The interface looks the same but many changes since I used it last. I prefer TAS but you can’t deny the Roon improvement

so I know that all of us TAS users are hoping XDMS shows up soon. There is no question that Roon interface is seductive but SQ is the goal for me. My bet is XDMS will be better even still with a much better interface that will evolve with our input to Emile and his team. I will as before continue to use only TAS
 

oldmustang

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Dec 1, 2012
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Getting the native file will always give us peace of mind - we are closer to the source - but as you say sound quality preference depends on the implementation of the DAC being used and system.
One nice thing of the Vivaldi upsampler is that it can convert any format in any format - if we get the native file we can listen in any format in the DAC! I usually listed DSD native and upample any PCM to the respective DXD (352 or 384).
That is what I am doing as well. It seems to sound best that way. Using the Vivaldi Upsampler, that is.

Steve Z
 
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Esotar

VIP/Donor
Mar 27, 2016
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www.digituslabs.kr
SGM Extreme users,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year~!!!!
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
SGM Extreme users,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year~!!!!
we re all hoping that a Santa with a Dutch accent finds his way to the Christmas trees of all we Extreme users who salivate when they hear XDMS mentioned. Sometimes Christmas happens in January for things like XDMS but we are wondering if that Dutch Santa has us all on his naughty list until January;)
 

EuroDriver

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Sep 16, 2015
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we re all hoping that a Santa with a Dutch accent finds his way to the Christmas trees of all we Extreme users who salivate when they hear XDMS mentioned. Sometimes Christmas happens in January for things like XDMS but we are wondering if that Dutch Santa has us all on his naughty list until January;)
Wilson delivered his Christmas present, the first integrated build of XDMS.

There is still a lot of coding to finish but I can’t foresee anything that can sandbag the build out XDMS.

For JRiver custom field fans, XDMS will have 4 user defined field for tagging etc

Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to all

Edward
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
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Wilson delivered his Christmas present, the first integrated build of XDMS.

There is still a lot of coding to finish but I can’t foresee anything that can sandbag the build out XDMS.

For JRiver custom field fans, XDMS will have 4 user defined field for tagging etc

Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to all

Edward
three cheers for Wilson!!! :)
 

dminches

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2011
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Wilson delivered his Christmas present, the first integrated build of XDMS.

There is still a lot of coding to finish but I can’t foresee anything that can sandbag the build out XDMS.

For JRiver custom field fans, XDMS will have 4 user defined field for tagging etc

Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to all

Edward

Let me know if you need another alpha tester. My Christmas to New Year's week is wide open!

JRiver is a coder's delight. So much flexibility with those fields.
 
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oldmustang

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Dec 1, 2012
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SGM Extreme users,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year~!!!!
The same to you and all my WBF and Taiko friends!

Steve Z
 

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