Alrightttttty, some updates to share...just got my taiko usb board today and installed. I have 15 minutes to listen before some appointments and later today
@EuroDriver will be installing TAS on my server so I can move away from roon.
At this point you guys know I'm not prone to hyperbole and I've only played a few tracks off this new usb: it's scary good gents. Somehow more resolution and more soundstage width...ad libs in the back of tracks are easy to pick up and linger in a ghostly fashion. For $2k if you're already an extreme owner this is a great upgrade. It's giving me the out-of-the-box "wow!" that I was hoping for with the original extreme (don't get me wrong, i got it - just took some time as the caps needed to open up). I'm not getting any changes in sound stage height so curious to see if that opens up too.
Stay tuned for some more updates
Glad that you're still posting when you can. The Taiko USB card really is transformative. Good as the Extreme is, the USB card really brings its performance to a higher level. The neat part is, it has kept getting better the last three evenings as the break-in process continues for me.
I'm a terrible procrastinator, and I owe a more detailed post about what I am hearing, over at the other Extreme thread, but briefly I'd say the improvements I'm hearing so far are (not in ranked order) in dynamic range and pop, tonal saturation and low level detail, improvement in noise floor, allowing even better timing and phase accuracy -- depth, width and image precision being the primary beneficiaries, and the sensation of palpable presence -- the air in my living room seems energized, even at remarkably low volume levels.
I haven't heard a large improvement in image height, but in my room with tracks that support it (Yosi Horikawa's "Bubbles", etc) I was already getting believable imaging all the way up to the ceiling. I have the feeling that ceiling height along with driver height have the majority influence over apparent image height for most material.
Later, I'll share some of the music I've been, well listening seems too mild, devouring, luxuriating in, transported by, startled, even a little scared at times -- it's really been one "Wow" moment after another since receiving my USB card. And the Extreme was no wallflower in those areas before. But this is insane -- and fun!
Steve Z