Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[Taiko Audio]

Interesting
Maybe what I'm observing is attributable to the Pro USB Module being restarted when I reboot the Extreme

Could be, I'm definitely interested in your observations, it's an interesting subject in general. I have spend some time trying to diagnose the exact cause of my experiences outlined above but did not find a cure. Going off a change of the equipment needing power cycling by replacing power cords, I did play around with various grounding schemes assuming a type of static build up, but I don't think that's what's actually going on. HOWEVER, since the lockdown here on the 15th, with most companies in our area either closed or running at reduced capacity, our system performance has taken a quantum leap upwards, I have had the complete system powered on since the 15th and do not notice system performance degradation. It is quite obvious as normally after around 5 days a certain amount of veiling starts setting in. But now performance just keeps increasing the longer everything is powered on. Sure has me scratching my head about the MOA!

 

[Blackmorec]

Just to add to the picture....when I’m running in a component what seems to ‘precipitate‘ the most significant chang is to switch off the device, to the point the electronics ‘cool’, for example overnight, then switch back on. For example, i can leave something running for say 200 hours without it reaching significantly improved performance...but if i then switch it off, leave it to cool for 24 hours or so then power up again I usually hear a significant, stepwise improvement. At first i thought it was because I’d grown familiar with the sound and the break just ‘refreshed’ my brain, but since I’ve paid attention to the phenomena I’ve realised that it is the sound that actually changes. I’ve also noticed that if the running in process isn’t finished the sound may make a stepwise change but in the wrong direction

 

[Kris]

Observation:

My Extreme sounds best if I reboot it once a week or so...
Anyone else observe this?

Reboot every day , before st@rting the session.
The longer you keep it running the more audiable effect once you reboot.

 

[Kris]

Do not turn the swich with power off on the back.
it taks few days to get beck to that level.
I think Emile is right . It migth be the USB port that gets the restart.
or the refresh of memory chips.

 

[Blackmorec]

Before I switched to iOS i ran a windows PC and used to get a formal reminder that the system hadn’t been rebooted for 7 days. I doubt Microsoft would hard code such a routine if there wasn’t a good reason for regularly ’refreshing‘ the OS

 

[Taiko Audio]

Reboot every day , before st@rting the session.
The longer you keep it running the more audiable effect once you reboot.

The obvious question here being if you like it to be fully stabilised or not. Regarding tweaking/voicing, you may make different choices after a fresh reboot relative to after it has fully settled

I prefer to leave it on and feel it sounds better the longer it’s on. But have zero objections to a daily, or even more frequent reboot.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Before I switched to iOS i ran a windows PC and used to get a formal reminder that the system hadn’t been rebooted for 7 days. I doubt Microsoft would hard code such a routine if there wasn’t a good reason for regularly ’refreshing‘ the OS

Well yes, for sure the consumer editions of windows can benefit from that after running a lot of applications, especially back in the age of memory leaks being common occurrences.

The windows version we are using (IOT) is meant to be able to run 24/7/365, it is very similar to, though more lightweight then the windows server versions.

 

[Kingsrule]

As an FYI, my entire system, including amplifiers is on 24/7.....

 

[Taiko Audio]

Ok, if someone else would like to try rebooting and evaluate sonic differences it would be much appreciated.

 

[Steve Williams]

My Extreme has been on 24/7 ever since Emile posted that turning it off and then on, resulted in a 3 day settle in I presume it must be related to the caps but nonetheless mine has been on ever since.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

As an FYI, my entire system, including amplifiers is on 24/7.....

my digital, including the Extreme, is on 24/7. it seems like about every 10 days for one reason or another i do switch the Extreme and MSB Select off/on. but rarely the actual power switch of the Extreme on the rear. typically it gets hung up for some reason. a recycle fixes it.

my amps goes into idle when i'm out of the room.

my preamp is battery powered so i put it into standby/charging mode when not there.

 

[ctydwn]

I too keep my system and the Extreme going 24/7. Similar to Mike, I have had a couple occasions in the past 2 months of having to reboot (front button) the Extreme. One of the occasions was yesterday as my Qobuz account was not being recognized through Roon.

The reboot fixed that connection issue immediately. Interestingly, I felt I lost a bit of the 'magic' in the sound after the reboot that I heard the previous evening. I am very curious to listen tonight to see how things sound after 24 hours of rebooting. My Extreme has now been fully run-in....

 

[Alrainbow]

I can’t say why but our stuff needs to be 24/7. digital from server to dac is a must min 24 hours to get ok but still far off. As I use a tube dac I find I let it be on no tubes being burned
It’s the digital and psu that’s causing it.
a reboot is good and I do feel it’s better but gets into the weeds. I do feel at times I need to and it seems to help my brain why I can’t say.
My amps have a stand by as well. It lets them stay warm and this is for bias and it does matter. If on standby it’s 2 hours to get nice many more to there. Same as my tape deck.
Pre always on and phono.
the other day I had the phono pre off wow was it bad and took 5 hours to get just ok.
I blame the psu caps and bias as well. It is the most obvious good reason to leave it all on.

 

[howiebrou]

I leave my extreme on and playing 24/7 as it is presumably still burning in. But just now i had to reboot as Roon had stopped playing and there was some kind of blue Knight Rider-esque light moving back and forth along the play bar. It's happened a few times but normally mends with a reboot. Anyone have any idea what it may be? It almost seems as though it's trying to play but it can't find the song.

 

[nuway]

I leave my extreme on and playing 24/7 as it is presumably still burning in. But just now i had to reboot as Roon had stopped playing and there was some kind of blue Knight Rider-esque light moving back and forth along the play bar. It's happened a few times but normally mends with a reboot. Anyone have any idea what it may be? It almost seems as though it's trying to play but it can't find the song.

It's has happened to me time to time. Restart just Roon in the Extreme fixes it! : right click on the Roon icon closes the program, then re open Roon from Desktop.

 

[Taiko Audio]

You can have very long uptimes by not using Jplay and sign out of Qobuz/Tidal, but the majority of us is not willing to go there Around 75% of our Extreme customer base prefers using Jplay and I can think of only 1 or 2 who don't use online streaming services.

I did power down the Extreme I use as a reference during Christmas/New Year, it's been up for 92 days, not using Jplay, signed into Qobuz but not Tidal. I have rebooted it just now to refresh my memory on the audibility of such an event, will report back.

 

[christoph]

I leave my extreme on and playing 24/7 as it is presumably still burning in. But just now i had to reboot as Roon had stopped playing and there was some kind of blue Knight Rider-esque light moving back and forth along the play bar. It's happened a few times but normally mends with a reboot. Anyone have any idea what it may be? It almost seems as though it's trying to play but it can't find the song.

I had the same experience with roon yesterday
Funny enough, I was able to play live radio via roon in a different roon zone and when I switched to roon live radio over to the main zone, I could after that also play "normal" music on the main system for a song or two, then again the "Knight Rider".
A re-boot fixed all of this.

But I think we need to differentiate between re-boot and power-off, those are completely different scenarios

 

[Taiko Audio]

I had the same experience with roon yesterday

The Lampi Superkomputer runs Linux I think? Just asking so we can rule out the OS as a factor.

But I think we need to differentiate between re-boot and power-off, thos are completely different scenarios

I'd have to agree, it seems to be pretty much on song after 4-5 tracks here, call it 98% there, just missing out on a slight bit of ultimate air, delicacy and 3-dimensionality. A full power cycle is definitely more obtrusive.

 

[christoph]

The Lampi Superkomputer runs Linux I think? Just asking so we can rule out the OS as a factor.

Yes, the SK runs on Linux, that is correct.
I didn't want to intrude here
I only wanted to answer to the phenomenon Howie observed and find out if others also experienced this and maybe get to know how this can be resolved.

I'd have to agree, it seems to be pretty much on song after 4-5 tracks here, call it 98% there, just missing out on a slight bit of ultimate air, delicacy and 3-dimensionality. A full power cycle is definitely more obtrusive.

I guess I need to find out how to kill the roon server process (when roon is acting out) under Linux and then manually restart roon server, WITHOUT re-booting the SK to see if a re-boot was necessary in the first place.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Yes, the SK runs on Linux, that is correct.
I didn't want to intrude here

Useful and on topic

I guess I need to find out how to kill the roon server process (when roon is acting out) under Linux and then manually restart roon server, WITHOUT re-booting the SK to see if a re-boot was necessary in the first place.

"killall RoonAppliance" should do the trick. The RoonServer process should automatically restart it.