Living at the Extreme: I bought a Taiko Extreme and then this happened...
- Thread starter Skanda
- Start date
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Three-ish Weeks In: Things Are Getting Interesting
"They say my brain meltin'", The Weeknd croons as he has many time through all variants and evolutions of my system. While he is probably the biggest pop star since Michael Jackson, I've been following the journey of Abel Tesfaye since his early days when he was a drop out, living in a van with a friend and producing a new strain of RnB with ghostly production and dark overtones.
A far cry from the 90's RnB I grew up disliking. I absolutely abhorred RnB and back when we were mostly at the mercy of radio stations, it was an immediate cause for changing the channel. The Weeknd changed all that with his three initial works: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. Legendary underground releases that were then compiled into the incredible Trilogy. The Weeknd of yesteryear was a different artist than the more poppy stuff that gets radio plays today, but the dark themes and incredible vocal performance remained the same. While I prefer his older works, I would say I'm a superfan - a stan if you will and while his style has changed he said he was going to be as big as MJ and he's well on his way. I am happy for his success and deeply respect the mastery he has over his craft. For me The Weeknd was relatable (which is a hilarious statement if you know his catalogue - esp when he states "this aint nothing to relate to" on Kissland) but those are stories for another time and a different time. His works are filled with references to older tracks or tracks that are coming up, clever wordplay, debaucherous nights flowing into hazy mornings - his early albums and most recent ones (After Hours and My Dear Melancholy) weave intricate stories. The releases in between to keep the labels and powers that lack the story telling but deliver great singles that are natural streaming fodder. If you want a real treat at unfortunately low bit rates, check out his live acoustic session on BBC Radio One - it's on youtube and I can't find it anywhere else (or his track D.D on Trilogy/Echoes of Silence, a cover of MJ's Dirty Diana).
Trilogy is probably my favorite album of all time. I listen to it so regularly it's become a bit of a running joke amongst my friends. Especially as the seasons change to the darker, overcast fall days it becomes a regular weekly staple. With Isaias making its way up the east coast, NYC was set for the storm of the summer (so far..). The skies were overcast and at 10AM my listening area was dark so I took the opportunity to do some "night listening" without the pain of staying up too late. Emails can wait, calls can wait. I need to chill out. My brain, too, was melting and this can solely be placed on the Extreme.
But, first, some quick maths: I received my Extreme on July 15th and that would put in my possession for roughly 24 days. Of that, I was out of town and had to fully unplug my system for about 5 days. I would guesstimate that I've had the Extreme on (but not always playing) for roughly 19 days, putting it at 456 hours of run time. This is important because out of the box and for the first week or so, I was enjoying the sound but it wasn't wow-ing me as my older posts describe. However, it was clear from talking with Emile and from the helpful posts from other Extreme owners that around 200-300hours is the minimum burn in required to let the Mundorf caps open up and around 1200 hours is when it should settle in. I'm still a ways away from 1200hours but I feel like the 200-300hour mark has passed with notable changes. I also dialed down the gain on my soulution 721 pre to +6 from it's max of +9. This allows me to ride the volume control a little harder (comfortable sound at 35-40 vs. +9 which is comfortable at 25-30), and results in a bigger image. This is not a huge system change for me as I played around with the gain controls a ton last year and have a great feel for what it's doing in my system.
What am I hearing now: I've been stressing again and again that the detail and dynamics of the Extreme are ahead of what I was experiencing from the tremendous Rockna Wavedream. With an album like Trilogy, unfortunately the dynamic range is constrained so while there is dynamic range in his voice and in the way bass notes are delivered, there is not much to write home about. It sounds alive and present, for sure, but I've had a similar performance on that front from the Rockna - there is only so much magic that uber hardware can pull from a recording. Both pieces deliver an excellent vocal presentation with the Extreme being modestly better due to the presentation, which I'll discuss in more detail below. The details here are what make it interesting. The atmospheric production is one of the reasons this album is a favorite of mine. To that end the Rockna delivers a great performance where the inner details between vocal notes (synths in the back, dubbed vocals, smaller samples woven into the mix) are clear and placed behind and around the vocals as they should be. The Extreme, however, is able to dig deeper on this, especially on the dubbed vocals.
A few tracks later we have "The Zone", a classic dark, atmospheric, rnb track that The Weeknd put together with fellow Canadian crooner, Drake (these two have a long and entertaining history that's worth looking into for anyone interested). The vocalizing and harmonizing in the back sounds sharper and more one-note off the Rockna compared to the Extreme. With the Extreme, I'm able to clearly hear the modulations in the harmonizing (as well as some new samples I hadn't heard before - let that sink in, an album I will sometimes listen to 2x in a week, I'm hearing new things without strain). "I can't feeEEehhl a damn thing" echoes through the room. That modulation is new to me. It's subtle but it makes the delivery all that much more interesting. Sure, the Rockna doesn't get the deepest details but it got that modulation as well however the way it's presented is more flat and less layered, more "matter-of-fact" and less "artistic". This is an important distinction and one that I started to dig into more. The Extreme doesn't emphasize the leading edge of these notes (and I've talked about this difference between the two in earlier posts) and because of that, there is more body and ambiance to these sounds.
To my ears everything sounds more layered because there is that ambiance between the layers in the mix. Especially as this magic trick is produced throughout the spectrum, every note feels bigger. By placing my speakers on the long wall I made my deal with the audio devil years ago to gain soundstage width at the expense of depth. The Extreme isn't getting me that "short-wall" depth back but it's going a long ways.
I mentioned vocals and dynamics earlier: "Hope you see; it won't mean a thing to me" on The Birds pt. 1 is delivered in an explosive way. Damn, I am grooving now.
"They say my brain meltin'", The Weeknd croons as he has many time through all variants and evolutions of my system. While he is probably the biggest pop star since Michael Jackson, I've been following the journey of Abel Tesfaye since his early days when he was a drop out, living in a van with a friend and producing a new strain of RnB with ghostly production and dark overtones.
A far cry from the 90's RnB I grew up disliking. I absolutely abhorred RnB and back when we were mostly at the mercy of radio stations, it was an immediate cause for changing the channel. The Weeknd changed all that with his three initial works: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. Legendary underground releases that were then compiled into the incredible Trilogy. The Weeknd of yesteryear was a different artist than the more poppy stuff that gets radio plays today, but the dark themes and incredible vocal performance remained the same. While I prefer his older works, I would say I'm a superfan - a stan if you will and while his style has changed he said he was going to be as big as MJ and he's well on his way. I am happy for his success and deeply respect the mastery he has over his craft. For me The Weeknd was relatable (which is a hilarious statement if you know his catalogue - esp when he states "this aint nothing to relate to" on Kissland) but those are stories for another time and a different time. His works are filled with references to older tracks or tracks that are coming up, clever wordplay, debaucherous nights flowing into hazy mornings - his early albums and most recent ones (After Hours and My Dear Melancholy) weave intricate stories. The releases in between to keep the labels and powers that lack the story telling but deliver great singles that are natural streaming fodder. If you want a real treat at unfortunately low bit rates, check out his live acoustic session on BBC Radio One - it's on youtube and I can't find it anywhere else (or his track D.D on Trilogy/Echoes of Silence, a cover of MJ's Dirty Diana).
Trilogy is probably my favorite album of all time. I listen to it so regularly it's become a bit of a running joke amongst my friends. Especially as the seasons change to the darker, overcast fall days it becomes a regular weekly staple. With Isaias making its way up the east coast, NYC was set for the storm of the summer (so far..). The skies were overcast and at 10AM my listening area was dark so I took the opportunity to do some "night listening" without the pain of staying up too late. Emails can wait, calls can wait. I need to chill out. My brain, too, was melting and this can solely be placed on the Extreme.
But, first, some quick maths: I received my Extreme on July 15th and that would put in my possession for roughly 24 days. Of that, I was out of town and had to fully unplug my system for about 5 days. I would guesstimate that I've had the Extreme on (but not always playing) for roughly 19 days, putting it at 456 hours of run time. This is important because out of the box and for the first week or so, I was enjoying the sound but it wasn't wow-ing me as my older posts describe. However, it was clear from talking with Emile and from the helpful posts from other Extreme owners that around 200-300hours is the minimum burn in required to let the Mundorf caps open up and around 1200 hours is when it should settle in. I'm still a ways away from 1200hours but I feel like the 200-300hour mark has passed with notable changes. I also dialed down the gain on my soulution 721 pre to +6 from it's max of +9. This allows me to ride the volume control a little harder (comfortable sound at 35-40 vs. +9 which is comfortable at 25-30), and results in a bigger image. This is not a huge system change for me as I played around with the gain controls a ton last year and have a great feel for what it's doing in my system.
What am I hearing now: I've been stressing again and again that the detail and dynamics of the Extreme are ahead of what I was experiencing from the tremendous Rockna Wavedream. With an album like Trilogy, unfortunately the dynamic range is constrained so while there is dynamic range in his voice and in the way bass notes are delivered, there is not much to write home about. It sounds alive and present, for sure, but I've had a similar performance on that front from the Rockna - there is only so much magic that uber hardware can pull from a recording. Both pieces deliver an excellent vocal presentation with the Extreme being modestly better due to the presentation, which I'll discuss in more detail below. The details here are what make it interesting. The atmospheric production is one of the reasons this album is a favorite of mine. To that end the Rockna delivers a great performance where the inner details between vocal notes (synths in the back, dubbed vocals, smaller samples woven into the mix) are clear and placed behind and around the vocals as they should be. The Extreme, however, is able to dig deeper on this, especially on the dubbed vocals.
A few tracks later we have "The Zone", a classic dark, atmospheric, rnb track that The Weeknd put together with fellow Canadian crooner, Drake (these two have a long and entertaining history that's worth looking into for anyone interested). The vocalizing and harmonizing in the back sounds sharper and more one-note off the Rockna compared to the Extreme. With the Extreme, I'm able to clearly hear the modulations in the harmonizing (as well as some new samples I hadn't heard before - let that sink in, an album I will sometimes listen to 2x in a week, I'm hearing new things without strain). "I can't feeEEehhl a damn thing" echoes through the room. That modulation is new to me. It's subtle but it makes the delivery all that much more interesting. Sure, the Rockna doesn't get the deepest details but it got that modulation as well however the way it's presented is more flat and less layered, more "matter-of-fact" and less "artistic". This is an important distinction and one that I started to dig into more. The Extreme doesn't emphasize the leading edge of these notes (and I've talked about this difference between the two in earlier posts) and because of that, there is more body and ambiance to these sounds.
To my ears everything sounds more layered because there is that ambiance between the layers in the mix. Especially as this magic trick is produced throughout the spectrum, every note feels bigger. By placing my speakers on the long wall I made my deal with the audio devil years ago to gain soundstage width at the expense of depth. The Extreme isn't getting me that "short-wall" depth back but it's going a long ways.
I mentioned vocals and dynamics earlier: "Hope you see; it won't mean a thing to me" on The Birds pt. 1 is delivered in an explosive way. Damn, I am grooving now.
What else: Now, to be honest, if this was the only difference between the two I would be pretty disappointed. That kind of change is tonal and one that can be found via different cables, dac settings, especially a pre (the soulution is ruthlessly revealing especially in how it places sounds on the stage). I like sharply defined images and the Extreme is able to maintain that sharp delineation without the presentation sounding flat. The Rockna is not flat - it's a comparison thing. Where the Extreme is currently pulling away from the rockna in large strides is soundstage width and height.
For width, to give an example, if the rockna is placing sounds 3 feet to the left and right of the speaker, on the Extreme it sounds like 5 feet + air. That air is the important part because the same effect I was describing in the section above is happening at the fringes of the sound stage allowing everything to sound bigger. I'm getting lots of moments of that wrap around soundstage and the occasional sample so far out of the stage that it causes you to look around the room. The Rockna's finely defined soundstage edges sound more constrained in comparison but easy best any other server I've heard so color me impressed. Could this possibly boil down to preference? Is this a tonal preference? I'm really not sure and I don't have a good answer but it's a good question. I have a bias towards enjoying soundstage width and, to me, this difference in width is something I experienced when I plopped my Kraft into my system so for my ears the Extreme is building on this synergy. Earlier, I had mentioned the gain change. One of the reasons I preferred +9 is I felt it was more explosive and dynamic. The Extreme is allowing me to play on +6 with similar, if not the same, dynamics. So I'm getting a bigger image with no real loss in dynamics.
The height of the stage is truly mind melting. I haven't heard this in my room before. The magico s5mk2's are tall speakers and this makes them sound like they are twice the height. One thing I've noticed that you get with the large reference speakers is that sound stage height. I've had the pleasure of listening to the Raidho D5.1 and that was probably the tallest speaker I've heard and where I first noticed how much spatial information regarding height is lost in less tall speakers. One day I'd love to pop by Audio Arts to listen to the Zellaton Statements. They are tall (far too tall for my room and far out of my budget) but I would really like to hear what a tall zellaton can do, but I digress. The Extreme is able to construct a solid soundstage on that axis and the effect is gorgeous. I've had the wrap around effect before from width but never from height so I'm pretty chuffed with this. The height of the sound stage does not impact the vocals/mids creating a 10-foot head situation - it all sounds proportionally correct but like a scene out of CSI, someone said "enhance" on the image the Rockna created. To that end, the Rockna's height would be two feet or so above the speaker and the Extreme is currently running all the way to the ceiling (~6ft above the speaker). Interestingly, that air that I mentioned with the soundstage width, is not there with the height. The fringes of the soundstage on the height side are more sharply defined compared to the width. This has been very entertaining and, simply, eye-opening. So far, this is the part of the performance that I can be hyperbolic and flowery about without feeling like I'm copying text off a product brochure and passing it off as an honest review.
Next steps: I'm still getting some inconsistent performance. Some days the sound is rapturous and other days its merely good. I think this can be chalked up to many things including burn in and time of day (I live in an apt building and with everyone working from home I'm sure that has changed the electric demand vs. time curve). I'm not really concerned, just looking forward to everything settling in.
I really really need to transfer some local files onto the extreme but I have legitimately not been this busy since my college days. I'm at a startup currently so there is tons of work to go around making any non-work task feel like a herculean effort. I'm sure you guys know where I'm coming from and can relate. I've also been looking into cables more seriously. VooDoo AC cables seem to have that 6AWG at a reasonable cost so my interest is piqued. I've found some other interesting cables at 10AWG but, messaging with Emile, he mentioned that 8 or 6 would be a very fruitful adventure for me. Much like any other spec we can't judge an AC cable purely on AWG but it was a helpful start as I refine further.
Oh, and I finally got my Light Dims in the mail. I can't believe I was living without these and voluntarily blinding myself with that damned blue LED on the torus. Ths has been a great buy and since it came with a few pieces I'll probably stick a couple on the router to dim that light too. I would highly rec this to anyone else looking to drown out some unwanted light in their system or elsewhere.
For width, to give an example, if the rockna is placing sounds 3 feet to the left and right of the speaker, on the Extreme it sounds like 5 feet + air. That air is the important part because the same effect I was describing in the section above is happening at the fringes of the sound stage allowing everything to sound bigger. I'm getting lots of moments of that wrap around soundstage and the occasional sample so far out of the stage that it causes you to look around the room. The Rockna's finely defined soundstage edges sound more constrained in comparison but easy best any other server I've heard so color me impressed. Could this possibly boil down to preference? Is this a tonal preference? I'm really not sure and I don't have a good answer but it's a good question. I have a bias towards enjoying soundstage width and, to me, this difference in width is something I experienced when I plopped my Kraft into my system so for my ears the Extreme is building on this synergy. Earlier, I had mentioned the gain change. One of the reasons I preferred +9 is I felt it was more explosive and dynamic. The Extreme is allowing me to play on +6 with similar, if not the same, dynamics. So I'm getting a bigger image with no real loss in dynamics.
The height of the stage is truly mind melting. I haven't heard this in my room before. The magico s5mk2's are tall speakers and this makes them sound like they are twice the height. One thing I've noticed that you get with the large reference speakers is that sound stage height. I've had the pleasure of listening to the Raidho D5.1 and that was probably the tallest speaker I've heard and where I first noticed how much spatial information regarding height is lost in less tall speakers. One day I'd love to pop by Audio Arts to listen to the Zellaton Statements. They are tall (far too tall for my room and far out of my budget) but I would really like to hear what a tall zellaton can do, but I digress. The Extreme is able to construct a solid soundstage on that axis and the effect is gorgeous. I've had the wrap around effect before from width but never from height so I'm pretty chuffed with this. The height of the sound stage does not impact the vocals/mids creating a 10-foot head situation - it all sounds proportionally correct but like a scene out of CSI, someone said "enhance" on the image the Rockna created. To that end, the Rockna's height would be two feet or so above the speaker and the Extreme is currently running all the way to the ceiling (~6ft above the speaker). Interestingly, that air that I mentioned with the soundstage width, is not there with the height. The fringes of the soundstage on the height side are more sharply defined compared to the width. This has been very entertaining and, simply, eye-opening. So far, this is the part of the performance that I can be hyperbolic and flowery about without feeling like I'm copying text off a product brochure and passing it off as an honest review.
Next steps: I'm still getting some inconsistent performance. Some days the sound is rapturous and other days its merely good. I think this can be chalked up to many things including burn in and time of day (I live in an apt building and with everyone working from home I'm sure that has changed the electric demand vs. time curve). I'm not really concerned, just looking forward to everything settling in.
I really really need to transfer some local files onto the extreme but I have legitimately not been this busy since my college days. I'm at a startup currently so there is tons of work to go around making any non-work task feel like a herculean effort. I'm sure you guys know where I'm coming from and can relate. I've also been looking into cables more seriously. VooDoo AC cables seem to have that 6AWG at a reasonable cost so my interest is piqued. I've found some other interesting cables at 10AWG but, messaging with Emile, he mentioned that 8 or 6 would be a very fruitful adventure for me. Much like any other spec we can't judge an AC cable purely on AWG but it was a helpful start as I refine further.
Oh, and I finally got my Light Dims in the mail. I can't believe I was living without these and voluntarily blinding myself with that damned blue LED on the torus. Ths has been a great buy and since it came with a few pieces I'll probably stick a couple on the router to dim that light too. I would highly rec this to anyone else looking to drown out some unwanted light in their system or elsewhere.
Here's an even better idea, and cheaper. It's called electrical tape. Cut a 1cm square and put them over all your pilot lights. I have no idea why audiophiles love looking at pilot lights. They are a total distraction when listening to music, at least for me. Cover them completely. You'll be surprised at how much better things things sound. Seriously.
sure, the light dims were suggested earlier in the thread. I think I paid $10 or so. Electrical tape will certainly work - even cheaper to just close your eyes haha
I prefer the light dims to electrical tape, which I've used for 50 years. The light dims are silver and I like the look of them better on silver pieces of equipment, ie, the silver Extreme vs. a piece of black electrical tape, although I know you can get different colors of electrical tap as well. I also find that electrical tape leave a sticky residue (yes you can clean it off) and the light dims don't when/if you remove them.
I never heard of the light dims prior to on this thread and really enjoy them since I received them a few weeks ago.
I really like the way you identify specific tracks and describe what you hear with certain phrases to illustrate what you are hearing. You really have a flair for writing.
I took the liberty of quoting some key phrases of your own above, because they very much agree with what I hear from my Extreme. One of the terms I use to describe some of the Extreme's musical presentation is "immersive". Certainly, if the recording supports it -- and I've found most of the modern R&B music I've listening to since adding the Extreme does indeed have quite a bit of spatial information -- the sound-field is wider, deeper and taller than any other digital source I've heard. If you want to really explore the height phenomenon more, and blow some minds in the process, try Yosi Horikawa's "Bubbles" from his Wandering album. Not only do the beads and balls sound as if they're dropping from my 10' ceiling, they extend from wall to wall and from well behind the plane of the speakers forward to directly above my head. It's an amazing sculpting of soundscape by Horikawa and one that I never get tired of hearing.
You touch on dynamics and I agree with you completely. The Extreme allows me to do two seemingly contradictory things with volume setting. I can listen a lower levels without losing tonal saturation and dynamic jump, yet when I want to I can crank the level much more than I could before without having music become in my face or strident and fatiguing. Wait until you add a high-quality large-gauge power cord -- something like a Shunyata Research Sigma XC or a Sablon Prince. The dynamics will flat-out startle you. I've l literally had my "jump" reflex kick in more time than I can count listening to tracks both familiar and new when a transient sound or a voice or instrument makes a startling appearance in the listening room.
Thanks again for sharing your journey of discovery with your Extreme. It's a lot of fun to read and very much mirrors my own experience getting to know the Extreme.
Steve Z
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
the extreme was turned off 2+weeks ago so it's been only for about 12 days since then, iirc.
@oldmustang, thanks man! I still have to check out that album, totally skipped my mind but it sounds like it would be right up my alley. I appreciate the kind words, but really, you've hit the nail on the head with "immersive". Which pc did you choose between the two?
@oldmustang - listening to some Yosi Horikawa this morning. It's hard to focus...the experience is so immersive. On the track bubbles it's like the room has disappeared and theres sounds above me and around me with a gentle bass note keeping me anchored to the ground. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a binaural recording but, regardless, I am very impressed with the mastering and production. Stepping away from that, the song itself is just beautiful. There are so many sounds going on that it could easily become eclectic and, to my ears, lacking rythm but that little raindrop synth contextualizes everything and brings it together so nicely. I'm reminded of just a few weeks ago, standing at my window watching a summer thunderstorm with some raindrops hitting the glass hard while others strike it more softly.
I would highly encourage everyone to have a go at Yosi Horikawa's EP "Wandering". If you love hearing what your system can do with staging, it's a real treat.
I would highly encourage everyone to have a go at Yosi Horikawa's EP "Wandering". If you love hearing what your system can do with staging, it's a real treat.
You're very welcome.
I went back and forth between the Shunyata Sigma XC and Sablon Prince and in the end I bought the Sablon. I thought it dug just a little deeper in the bass regions than the Shunyata. It was interesting in that for all the rest of my equipment I prefer the Shunyata NR v2 series power cords. However, I feel confident of what I heard with the Sablon on the Extreme and am very happy with its performance.
I'm very happy you enjoy the Yosi Horikawa track from Wandering. From my reading I learned he is sometimes referred to as a "sound designer" or "sound sculptor". Given what I hear from the best of his tracks I infer he is skilled not just in sound placement by means of amplitude manipulation but also inter-channel phase relation. Not everything I've heard from him is as extreme in effect as "Bubbles" but it's all interesting.
Best regards,
Steve Z
Are there going to be any more installments in this thread? I check back almost daily.
This was such a fun read.
How do things sound now. How do you feel.
Thank you
This was such a fun read.
How do things sound now. How do you feel.
Thank you
@Rhapsody is right, I have certainly been enjoying it. However, I have been really under water with work so it's limited the time I've had to compile notes and clean them up. So far, nothing much in the sound has changed - I would stick by my older description of dynamics, details, and staging. The sound is an order of magnitude bigger and bolder, but somehow, the speakers sound more relaxed then they ever have before. But it's hard to point to one factor that really is the extreme's powerhouse...it's the interplay between the improved dynamics, lower noise floor, larger staging, and more detail that come together to create a really immersive sound. I am really happy with this piece in my system.
I plan on updating this thread if I have something really new to add. One thing I have still been meaning to do is buy power cables for my taiko and sl kraft and try out a couple different USB cables. I intended to get to this earlier and the past 2 months have been some of the busiest ever for me so I had to step back from my plans. The time to research and compile a list of cables and make the order has been feeling more like a chore and less like something I'm excited to do so I'll wait till I get the gear itch again and I'll spring for the cables.
Also, thank you for taking the time to read through my posts and respond, I really appreciate it. Even though I don't have much to share yet, not only do I plan to add to this thread as I learn more, but I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the extreme or my set up as a whole.
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
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
Just wait until you hear it with TAS after the card has 100 hours on itAlrightttttty, 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
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