Hello Emile,
This Mini-Extreme is long overdue!!!
Big congratulations!
Keep up with your good work.
I have 200% confidence in you/Taiko Audio!
Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
This Mini-Extreme is long overdue!!!
Big congratulations!
Keep up with your good work.
I have 200% confidence in you/Taiko Audio!
Hello Emile,
This Mini-Extreme is long overdue!!!
Big congratulations!
Keep up with your good work.
I have 200% confidence in you/Taiko Audio!
I have heard a few of the test mules of the Mini, and there is a SQ gap between the mini and the Extreme.
However it blows away the units on the market at a similar price point
To achieve this Emile has developed custom components for the Mini and its RF emission pattern which is a different animal from the horses in the Extreme
What is very interesting is that different CPU families have their own family sound
2 years ago, I would have rolled my eyeballs, but now that we have actually heard it, we believe we have an understanding why and an insight to what's actually going on
Mini Extreme, wow fantastic news, once I get back to work hopefully in the 2nd half of the year I know what I will be looking to treat myself too.....I had seriously been hoping / wishing for a smaller version of the Extreme.
Keep safe everyone.
Keep safe everyone.
The EVO has a certain "family sound" it shares with the Extreme and the upcoming "mini". The CPU we used in that is the i7-7700K which was discontinued, unfortunately so as it was one of the "better sounding" CPUs. It's successors do not possess the combination of dynamic swing, midrange density, background blackness levels and associated colour contrast. The only CPU we have come across matching and even exceeding those particular traits is the Xeon scalable 10-core we use a pair of in the Extreme. I would describe the family sound of these CPUs as big, bold, dimensional and rich.
Now there are ways to extract something similar from other CPU offerings. We have a few AMD Epyc powered prototypes for example. AMD CPUs have higher noise floors in general. This does not translate in harshness/glare typically associated with digital, that is a function of jitter, but in lower background blackness levels and reduced midrange contrast. AMD CPUs possess an interesting combination of having a more lit up top end and thinner midrange while keeping a strong bass performance giving a (false) sense of increased detail while at the same time sounding silkier/softer. Very similar to the good old day loudness button. Equilibrium can be achieved by roughly tripling power supply filtering relative to Intel. My family sound description for AMD would therefor be, "detailed", lit up and silky.
A visual analogy on your television set would be:
-Intel Xeon scalable 10 core as a reference, controls to neutral
-AMD Epyc +1 on the brightness control -1 on contrast and +2 on white level or on backlight intensity on a LED screen
-AMD Threadripper +2 on the brightness control -1 on contrast and +2 on white level
-Intel Xeon scalable 12 core +1 on white level
-Intel Xeon scalable 8 core, controls to neutral, but reduced staging/dynamics
-Intel i7-7700K (EVO) +1 on brightness, +1 on white level, similar staging/dynamics to the Xeon 8 core
Interestingly this all is not as evident on our resident Focal Utopia speakers as it is with the Alsyvox Botticelli ribbons.
So will the "mini" outperform the EVO, I'd say overall yes, but it will not walk allover it to the degree the Extreme does.
Emile, I still think you should name the Mini instead as Extreme Junior.
A bit like a chip of the old block, like father like son.
A bit like a chip of the old block, like father like son.
We have not yet decided which of the prototypes we are going to go with and are still working on improving them (we are down to 3 right now). We are aiming for a 50-60% price level relative to the Extreme.
Fascinating observations. What i find especially intriguing is that if i wrote about the changes obtained by all the improvements I’ve made to my data stream, namely several levels of power supply improvement, cable screening, vibration control and DC cables, i would describe them in exactly the same terms...dynamic swing, midrange density, background blackness levels, colour contrast plus of course PRaT, frequency extremes, subtle information recovery (texture), micro dynamics, soundstage solidarity and focus, and 3 dimensionality. It would seem that maybe its the CPUs’ abilities to deal with or ‘tolerate’ the same ‘interferences’ (EMI, RFI, Jitter/phase noise) albeit in different ways.
Hi Emile,
this Xeon family sound mirrors exactly my preferences
I have two questions:
1.) Is the former mentioned concept of using one of the Xeon 10-core scalable for the Mini yet up-to-date?
2.) Is it possible to fully upgrade the Mini to an Extreme for a reasonable price?
Thank you
Matt
Maybe this was covered but getting dizzy trying to read over 3,200 posts.
Question. Have there been comparisons with putting music on the Extreme and comparing it to the same song on a transport with the same DAC?
The second question is how does the streaming services like Qobuz compare using the streaming of the extreme compared to a transport with a DAC. redbook.
Question. Have there been comparisons with putting music on the Extreme and comparing it to the same song on a transport with the same DAC?
The second question is how does the streaming services like Qobuz compare using the streaming of the extreme compared to a transport with a DAC. redbook.
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I stopped turning mine off when Emile said it takes 3 days for the Extreme to settle when you turn it on again
Actually I think he said 5 days....
And not talking about turning it off...talking about a reboot......
And not talking about turning it off...talking about a reboot......
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Hi Emile,
this Xeon family sound mirrors exactly my preferences
I have two questions:
1.) Is the former mentioned concept of using one of the Xeon 10-core scalable for the Mini yet up-to-date?
2.) Is it possible to fully upgrade the Mini to an Extreme for a reasonable price?
Thank you
Matt
1) No that is not up to date
2) Right now it looks like it's not going to share a significant enough amount of parts, most significant being the chassis to be upgradeable. There is just no way we can reach the desired price point in the same size chassis.
Yes several, let's keep it at both methods are able to lead to good sound. The actual source recording quality still dominates. A cd-rip an easily outperform a digital download for example just by being a "better master".
This is altogether an interesting topic.
A reboot induces high current surges which do have a lingering effect, it takes time for the capacitor bank to "return to equilibrium". A reboot induces a very slight tip up in tonal balance for quite a while which could manifest itself as an increase in clarity.
Once upon a time we had "leaky apps" increasing memory usage over time, I have not observed that phenomenon in the Extreme, even with up to a year of uptime. But Roon has had regular updates which could in theory induce memory leaks between versions. Also I don't have close to your library size which may very well make a difference. A reboot does reset the USB interface, something to try would be to reseat he USB cable which would do something similar and see if it has the same effect.
While on the subject something interesting I had going on was powering off my Totaldac for 20 minutes once a week made quite a difference. But I exchanged the powercords to my poweramps a few months ago and since then I have to power those off once a week to get the same effect. This is not a big deal for me, I just turn my pre / poweramps off when I leave the office for the weekend, turn them back on Monday morning and usually don't get around to listening till Tuesday/Wednesday giving me a stable window to Friday. I leave my Extreme and Totaldac powered on 24/7 (don't reboot either).
