DOES ANYONE REGRET BUYING A TAIKO EXTREME SERVER? ANYTHING BETTER?

[Audire]

IMO you have to hear it. Hearing it is what lead us finally to choosing the Aurender N30SA.

Some may consider the Extreme is best for their respective system (and it very well may be) and others another streamer. Who cares about what satisfies someone else. It’s your system. What sounds best to yoU?

 

[Zeotrope]

I agree. For me when I run into that situation where I can't demo something I am interested in buying, I just remove it from consideration. Over the years I have had plenty of gear I was looking to purchase that for one reason on another I couldn't. I just moved on to something else.

You can demo anything you want, it’s just about how hard you want to work to get the demo! So that’s not really a reason — any manufacturer will let you demo.

 

[gleeds]

Agree 100% with Joe. It's your money and your choice. If you are in the US there are more than a dozen Taiko dealers/listening locations across the country (see list below).

DEALER NETWORK – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

As a serious buyer, I see no reason why you cannot audition an Extreme in your system before deciding. Be sure to listen using Taiko's software as it is better sounding than Roon, and not by a little. There is also the latest version Taiko software now in development in alpha. While getting the user interface working well will take time, once it is ready for prime time based upon my recent audition of it it's yet another BIG leap forward in digital replay.

Nothing against Aurender, or any of the other industry players as they make excellent products. That said, I am of the view Emile's creations rule the roost and will continue to do so for many years to come. What more can one ask when spending this kind of money in an evolving medium like digital

 

[Zeotrope]

IMO you have to hear it. Hearing it is what lead us finally to choosing the Aurender N30SA.

Some may consider the Extreme is best for their respective system (and it very well may be) and others another streamer. Who cares about what satisfies someone else. It’s your system. What sounds best to yoU?

I haven’t heard anyone hear both the N30 and the Extreme and not prefer the Extreme. Even without XDMS (the new proprietary software for the Extreme), which takes it to another level.
But that makes sense, isn’t the N30 half the price? And one look inside and it’s obvious that the manic build quality and attention to detail is just not there (but again, half the price, so it makes sense).

 

[charles1dad]

Sorry but for me I could not come to that conclusion based on what others say. Not sure how someone can say what is better or worse or what they prefer without listening to it. Again this is just me and everyone is different.

Yes, that is true, we are all different. I can understand @Zeotrope and his rationale to purchase the Taiko Extreme.
Charles

 

[Audire]

I haven’t heard anyone hear both the N30 and the Extreme and not prefer the Extreme. Even without XDMS (the new proprietary software for the Extreme), which takes it to another level.
But that makes sense, isn’t the N30 half the price? And one look inside and it’s obvious that the manic build quality and attention to detail is just not there (but again, half the price, so it makes sense).

The N30 is 24k and the Extreme 32k or so. There is a member here that owned both and when it came to only one he choose the N30. This doesn’t mean that the N30 is better, but it is what the end user ultimately chose! It’s up to what you hear!

 

[Digital Buddha]

I haven’t heard anyone hear both the N30 and the Extreme and not prefer the Extreme. Even without XDMS (the new proprietary software for the Extreme), which takes it to another level.
But that makes sense, isn’t the N30 half the price? And one look inside and it’s obvious that the manic build quality and attention to detail is just not there (but again, half the price, so it makes sense).

n30 and extreme both start at 24k-25k. i personally know 3 people who chose the n30sa over the extreme. jaysaudiolab just posted a video about it in his members only section. there are 2 members here that i know of that have done the same test and chose the aurender. that said i think its totally system dependent. from what ive herd from my research is both are excellent, extreme is a little more focused , a little more detailed , a little hotter on the top end, top down type sound. the aurender is a little denser , a little better bass a little more midrange bloom, bottom up type sound. im planning to try both.

 

[bryans]

You can demo anything you want, it’s just about how hard you want to work to get the demo! So that’s not really a reason — any manufacturer will let you demo.

Not exactly true. Not all manufacturers offer shipping you a unit for you to demo in your setup.

 

[acg]

that said i think its totally system dependent

I think so too, and have met someone that prefered Antipodes K50 to the Extreme. I've not heard an Extreme because they are so expensive where I am in the world and cannot demo in my room, but I did demo Antipodes K50 and Oladra and purchased the Oladra. My dac (AC Kassandra) sounds better by AES than it does by USB, and the Extreme is only USB or ethernet so is sort of a non-starter for that reason. Antipodes gear is designed towards the synchronous outputs (I2S, AES, SPDIF) and I would almost wager that no matter how well the Extreme gets USB to sound, that the Oladra would be at least as capable into the Kassandra...probably better.

So, yes, system dependant, I agree.

 

[divertiti]

Do yourself a favor and try the Innuos Statement Next Gen before committing. I preferred it by a large matching to the Aurender N30, which many members here prefer to the Taiko. Source is so critical, it's worth auditioning all candidates in your own system.

 

[Taiko Audio]

The N30 is 24k and the Extreme 32k or so. There is a member here that owned both and when it came to only one he choose the N30. This doesn’t mean that the N30 is better, but it is what the end user ultimately chose! It’s up to what you hear!

The retail of the Extreme is EURO based so it varies with the exchange rate. When it launched in 2018 its retail was EURO 20.000 / USD 22.600, we raised it in 2019 to EURO 24.000 / USD 26.200, it currently sits at EURO 24.000 / USD 23.800. A change of EURO 4000 / USD 1.200 over a 4 year time period.

We are about to change the retail price to be USD based and this will go accompanied by a considerable increase.

 

[Taiko Audio]

My dac (AC Kassandra) sounds better by AES than it does by USB, and the Extreme is only USB or ethernet so is sort of a non-starter for that reason.

I'm pretty sure Stavros would not agree to that in case of an Extreme server (he does own one), but it is highly specialised on extracting maximum performance from USB where other manufacturers may focus more on AES / SPDIF / I2S performance. We do offer AES/EBU and SPDIF outputs as options.

 

[acg]

I'm pretty sure Stavros would not agree to that in case of an Extreme server (he does own one), but it is highly specialised on extracting maximum performance from USB where other manufacturers may focus more on AES / SPDIF / I2S performance. We do offer AES/EBU and SPDIF outputs as options.

I don't really know what Stavros uses but for some reason I thought it was a MacBook. Either way, the general consensus in my part of the world is that the AES input of the Kassandra sounds better than USB... it is not even close when using an Oladra... which obviously is optimised for synchronous as opposed to asynchronous outputs.

Was never aware of other output options for the Extreme so thanks for enlightening me. Would have been nice to demo one at least.

 

[Taiko Audio]

n30 and extreme both start at 24k-25k. i personally know 3 people who chose the n30sa over the extreme. jaysaudiolab just posted a video about it in his members only section. there are 2 members here that i know of that have done the same test and chose the aurender. that said i think its totally system dependent. from what ive herd from my research is both are excellent, extreme is a little more focused , a little more detailed , a little hotter on the top end, top down type sound. the aurender is a little denser , a little better bass a little more midrange bloom, bottom up type sound. im planning to try both.

From the customer feedback we have received on the subject, including from the people I'm pretty sure you are referring to, this boils down to a software preference. What has changed is evidently an increasing number of audiophiles are being unhappy with the direction Roon is taking. Roon has grown exponentially and is starting to enforce quality controls / certification programs to ensure their views on quality are enforced. Will this leave Roon based server vendors without a software player in the future? We don't know. We are now playing catchup there as we started out as a Roon only platform, where Aurender has had their Conductor software from the get go (but cannot run Roon). We have been working on our own player app for over 2 years, it's now available as an alpha version, but it will definitely take several more months to get it to be largely bug free and functioning as we envision it to.

 

[Audire]

The retail of the Extreme is EURO based so it varies with the exchange rate. When it launched in 2018 its retail was EURO 20.000 / USD 22.600, we raised it in 2019 to EURO 24.000 / USD 26.200, it currently sits at EURO 24.000 / USD 23.800. A change of EURO 4000 / USD 1.200 over a 4 year time period.

We are about to change the retail price to be USD based and this will go accompanied by a considerable increase.

Thanks for the clarification. When I was pricing it out I had every option, as that would have been the way I would have purchased it. I’m not sure how much €32,020.00 equals in U.S. dollars right now.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thanks for the clarification. When I was pricing it out I had every option, as that would have been the way I would have purchased it. I’m not sure how much €32,020.00 equals in U.S. dollars right now.

That includes 28TB of internal storage, you could even fit 64TB but the cost would be stellar.

 

[Digital Buddha]

Do yourself a favor and try the Innuos Statement Next Gen before committing. I preferred it by a large matching to the Aurender N30, which many members here prefer to the Taiko. Source is so critical, it's worth auditioning all candidates in your own system.

I had the 1st gen statement in my system a couple weeks ago it was very impressive.

 

[gleeds]

As an importer, one of the things I most appreciate about WBF is that it allows for a beneficial two way discourse between end users and manufacturers. This helping manufacturers learn what the market want in a product and affording them the opportunity to separate facts from fiction (perhaps not on sound quality which is a personal choice) on items such as best use cases, current and future developments and matters of a technical nature. This thread has been interesting as it seems clear the thirst for knowledge about end-game music server technology and the future of digital replay is on everyone's mind, most especially when spending for a machine at this price level.

 

[sbo6]

n30 and extreme both start at 24k-25k. i personally know 3 people who chose the n30sa over the extreme. jaysaudiolab just posted a video about it in his members only section. there are 2 members here that i know of that have done the same test and chose the aurender. that said i think its totally system dependent. from what ive herd from my research is both are excellent, extreme is a little more focused , a little more detailed , a little hotter on the top end, top down type sound. the aurender is a little denser , a little better bass a little more midrange bloom, bottom up type sound. im planning to try both.

Feedback I have heard corroborates your statements. Some like the taiko, some like the N30SA. How much sound delta is due to hardware or software is anyone's guess, probably a combination of both factors. However, the N30SA costs less so is a better bargain.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Feedback I have heard corroborates your statements. Some like the taiko, some like the N30SA. How much sound delta is due to hardware or software is anyone's guess, probably a combination of both factors. However, the N30SA costs less so is a better bargain.

There is a rather fundamental difference between the Extreme server and the others mentioned in the past few pages, which is a decisive factor which made the vast majority of our customers "jump onboard". The Extreme was designed from the get go to be an evolving project, it launched 4 years ago and is here to stay for many more. It is being regularly improved over the course of its lifespan and its owners have some degree of influence over the direction it takes. The next up mayor performance upgrade is launching at the end of this year and there are several more performance and functionality upgrades scheduled for the first quarter of next year. These upgrades have been developed for a large part using data collected from our customers.

We consider streaming to still be in its infancy stages, it evolves at an accelerated pace compared to vinyl and cd playback which can turn this type of product obsolete very fast. The Extreme, as it originally launched in 2018, would hardly be competitive anymore today while it was considered to be the absolute best back then, but it's still going strong, and about to reap the awards of several years of R&D. And it will improve again over that, when more R&D projects turn into retrofittable upgrades. For that, in this space, I could perhaps consider it a "bargain", even though I struggle with calling anything High End Audio a bargain.

Obviously this is not for everyone, there is something to be said for just buying a fixed performance appliance and replace it when something better is released, which is the more traditional model in high-end audio.