Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
HQPlayer is not bit-perfect, it converts everything to 32 bit. With upsampling disabled a 16/44.1 will still be converted to 32/44.1.
We have an experimental HQPlayer “bit-perfect” mode in TAS which adjusts the HQPlayer output bit depth to the source bit depth. It’s unlikely that will stay in later versions of TAS.
For 32/768 pre upsampled files HQPlayer is bit perfect, afaik anyway, this is also a scheme several Chord Dave users are experimenting with.
So yes there are people using TAS-HQP in bitperfect mode being Chord Dave owners.
In fact the only reason we have developed a TAS bridge for HQPlayer is because we have a group of customers owning a Chord Dave.
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“It's really allowing me to enjoy the music vs how it sound.”
Exactly Bob. Said perfectly and concisely!
At the end of 2020 I took the leap of faith to upgrade to the Lampizator Pacific based on a number of owners here that have enjoyed its pairing with the Extreme. More than reviews, I truly took confidence from this forum. Not surprisingly, I am very pleased to report that I am over the moon with the pairing and my listening experience has gone through the roof. I wanted to wait for the TAS Beta until I had fully listened to the Pacific's break-in over a two week stretch.
Pacific + Extreme
For me, the sound turned a major corner on day 6 of break-in of the Pacific. I'd say about a quarter of my test tracks sounded clearly better out of the box, and that turned to virtually all by the second week - increased substance in both time and space, greater enjoyment and saturation at lower volumes, timing fell into place, classical presentation separation wonderful whereas prior 6/7 instrument pieces smeared into each other, the cello has become intoxicating, seemingly a more truthful to the recording depth of performers, drinkable liquidity without loss in resolution, and large sound field. The bass grew deeper and more layered than I have ever experienced in my system and imaging improved as well over time.
Overall a more natural sound without any prior digititis (word?) or etchiness that I had previously heard. At one point playing Ana Moura, my wife exclaimed "wow, the music just washes over you". The dynamics are explosive and while I was concerned I may lose some compared to my prior SS DAC, I should not have worried. And, of course, it does not hurt that both pieces are so beautiful to look at.
Pacific + Extreme + TAS
Enter Beta TAS with the TAS driver this past Monday. Thank you Wilson for your patience and time! Wilson installed the XD TAS driver compatible with the I2s board in the Pacific. I have only listened to this driver and the app has been working flawlessly. I will send some suggestions/feedback through the app, but overall I find the app intuitive and easy to use on my Iphone. I enjoy its layout, visuals and have not experienced more than 4-5 second delay switching bw tracks. Amazing effort.
As for the sound, immediately noticeable additional clarity, substance and depth articulation. An incremental proverbial veil was lifted, mesmerizing in sum, and especially exciting as TAS is still early in its development. As others have mentioned I am getting equal enjoyment at lower volumes and high. With TAS, certain male vocalists, where before their deeper tones would reverberate or muddy, now held their shape. My center image in my system has had a degree or two lean to the left. Oddly, on a few tracks the image has actually shifted to the center (need to double check this as I can't fathom if/how that is possible). During the course of a conversation, my wife inquired about the cost of the software. For the first time ever, I got to say something was 'free', lol. She was impressed. More than ever, I cannot wait each day to turn the system up for a good listen. I look fwd to more critical a/b comparisons and I have never enjoyed music more.
Thank you to the community here and to the Taiko team for continuing the relentless effort to break down the sound barrier. I am in awe and grateful. And thanks to Rob and Lukasz at Lampizator for your patience, impeccable support and wonderful product. Take care everyone and stay safe.
Pacific + Extreme
For me, the sound turned a major corner on day 6 of break-in of the Pacific. I'd say about a quarter of my test tracks sounded clearly better out of the box, and that turned to virtually all by the second week - increased substance in both time and space, greater enjoyment and saturation at lower volumes, timing fell into place, classical presentation separation wonderful whereas prior 6/7 instrument pieces smeared into each other, the cello has become intoxicating, seemingly a more truthful to the recording depth of performers, drinkable liquidity without loss in resolution, and large sound field. The bass grew deeper and more layered than I have ever experienced in my system and imaging improved as well over time.
Overall a more natural sound without any prior digititis (word?) or etchiness that I had previously heard. At one point playing Ana Moura, my wife exclaimed "wow, the music just washes over you". The dynamics are explosive and while I was concerned I may lose some compared to my prior SS DAC, I should not have worried. And, of course, it does not hurt that both pieces are so beautiful to look at.
Pacific + Extreme + TAS
Enter Beta TAS with the TAS driver this past Monday. Thank you Wilson for your patience and time! Wilson installed the XD TAS driver compatible with the I2s board in the Pacific. I have only listened to this driver and the app has been working flawlessly. I will send some suggestions/feedback through the app, but overall I find the app intuitive and easy to use on my Iphone. I enjoy its layout, visuals and have not experienced more than 4-5 second delay switching bw tracks. Amazing effort.
As for the sound, immediately noticeable additional clarity, substance and depth articulation. An incremental proverbial veil was lifted, mesmerizing in sum, and especially exciting as TAS is still early in its development. As others have mentioned I am getting equal enjoyment at lower volumes and high. With TAS, certain male vocalists, where before their deeper tones would reverberate or muddy, now held their shape. My center image in my system has had a degree or two lean to the left. Oddly, on a few tracks the image has actually shifted to the center (need to double check this as I can't fathom if/how that is possible). During the course of a conversation, my wife inquired about the cost of the software. For the first time ever, I got to say something was 'free', lol. She was impressed. More than ever, I cannot wait each day to turn the system up for a good listen. I look fwd to more critical a/b comparisons and I have never enjoyed music more.
Thank you to the community here and to the Taiko team for continuing the relentless effort to break down the sound barrier. I am in awe and grateful. And thanks to Rob and Lukasz at Lampizator for your patience, impeccable support and wonderful product. Take care everyone and stay safe.
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does anyone with TAS use the CH Precision, which also upsamples to i think 768? and then HQP? specifically i wonder how a CHP mono dac 7 box set-up might do with TAS and HQP?
was very impressed with that digital at Elliot's place in So. Fla.
was very impressed with that digital at Elliot's place in So. Fla.
I would never buy that CH Precision 7 box DAC. Not enough boxes! What is CH thinking? Everyone knows that if it's not 10 boxes, it's probably not worth a damn.
OK, seriously, I think I heard it at Elliot's shortly after you did last year and liked it as well.I'm continuing to go through my long list of reference tracks comparing TAS to Roon. As someone who usually cringes at the thought of A/B listening, this has been fun -- partly because the switching is so easy.
It's impossible not to hear the difference, and in most cases I prefer TAS, but it's not a gob-smacking slam dunk to my ears, in my system. I actually think Roon has been sounding very, very good so I'm a little taken aback when I hear someone say it sounds like a transistor radio compared to TAS. (I wish!, lol).
So far, I've found a consistent sound character difference between the two: I perceive Roon to have a more incisive, tipped up tonality with more apparent texture, while TAS is smooth with a lower tonality. I don't necessarily hear more detail in TAS relative to Roon. Both give a transparent window into the recording. While I appreciate the sonorous quality of TAS, I find myself sometimes wanting more bite. It reminds me of what I loved (and didn't love) in my former Luxman 300b amp.
Given the choice, I'll happily pick TAS, because the sound is great and I know it will keep advancing. And of course all this is in the context of my system. If I still had the Avantgarde Horns, I might be ecstatic about the smoother character of TAS to balance the ultra resolution of those speakers. The Boenicke's are a different animal.
Is what we hear from TAS solely the result of eliminating network noise entering the signal path? Or, are there other algorithms which effect tonal balance?
It's impossible not to hear the difference, and in most cases I prefer TAS, but it's not a gob-smacking slam dunk to my ears, in my system. I actually think Roon has been sounding very, very good so I'm a little taken aback when I hear someone say it sounds like a transistor radio compared to TAS. (I wish!, lol).
So far, I've found a consistent sound character difference between the two: I perceive Roon to have a more incisive, tipped up tonality with more apparent texture, while TAS is smooth with a lower tonality. I don't necessarily hear more detail in TAS relative to Roon. Both give a transparent window into the recording. While I appreciate the sonorous quality of TAS, I find myself sometimes wanting more bite. It reminds me of what I loved (and didn't love) in my former Luxman 300b amp.
Given the choice, I'll happily pick TAS, because the sound is great and I know it will keep advancing. And of course all this is in the context of my system. If I still had the Avantgarde Horns, I might be ecstatic about the smoother character of TAS to balance the ultra resolution of those speakers. The Boenicke's are a different animal.
Is what we hear from TAS solely the result of eliminating network noise entering the signal path? Or, are there other algorithms which effect tonal balance?
My system always had a degree of left bias which I put down to my DIY amp build being a degree louder in output in the left channel and accepted this. But now, like yours, has a fully centred image locked into place. I don’t understand why there was a left shift in two totally different system, now resolved with TAS.At the end of 2020 I took the leap of faith to upgrade to the Lampizator Pacific based on a number of owners here that have enjoyed its pairing with the Extreme. More than reviews, I truly took confidence from this forum. Not surprisingly, I am very pleased to report that I am over the moon with the pairing and my listening experience has gone through the roof. I wanted to wait for the TAS Beta until I had fully listened to the Pacific's break-in over a two week stretch.
Pacific + Extreme
For me, the sound turned a major corner on day 6 of break-in of the Pacific. I'd say about a quarter of my test tracks sounded clearly better out of the box, and that turned to virtually all by the second week - increased substance in both time and space, greater enjoyment and saturation at lower volumes, timing fell into place, classical presentation separation wonderful whereas prior 6/7 instrument pieces smeared into each other, the cello has become intoxicating, seemingly a more truthful to the recording depth of performers, drinkable liquidity without loss in resolution, and large sound field. The bass grew deeper and more layered than I have ever experienced in my system and imaging improved as well over time.
Overall a more natural sound without any prior digititis (word?) or etchiness that I had previously heard. At one point playing Ana Moura, my wife exclaimed "wow, the music just washes over you". The dynamics are explosive and while I was concerned I may lose some compared to my prior SS DAC, I should not have worried. And, of course, it does not hurt that both pieces are so beautiful to look at.
Pacific + Extreme + TAS
Enter Beta TAS with the TAS driver this past Monday. Thank you Wilson for your patience and time! Wilson installed the XD TAS driver compatible with the I2s board in the Pacific. I have only listened to this driver and the app has been working flawlessly. I will send some suggestions/feedback through the app, but overall I find the app intuitive and easy to use on my Iphone. I enjoy its layout, visuals and have not experienced more than 4-5 second delay switching bw tracks. Amazing effort.
As for the sound, immediately noticeable additional clarity, substance and depth articulation. An incremental proverbial veil was lifted, mesmerizing in sum, and especially exciting as TAS is still early in its development. As others have mentioned I am getting equal enjoyment at lower volumes and high. With TAS, certain male vocalists, where before their deeper tones would reverberate or muddy, now held their shape. My center image in my system has had a degree or two lean to the left. Oddly, on a few tracks the image has actually shifted to the center (need to double check this as I can't fathom if/how that is possible). During the course of a conversation, my wife inquired about the cost of the software. For the first time ever, I got to say something was 'free', lol. She was impressed. More than ever, I cannot wait each day to turn the system up for a good listen. I look fwd to more critical a/b comparisons and I have never enjoyed music more.
Thank you to the community here and to the Taiko team for continuing the relentless effort to break down the sound barrier. I am in awe and grateful. And thanks to Rob and Lukasz at Lampizator for your patience, impeccable support and wonderful product. Take care everyone and stay safe.
There are actually 5 processing / transport strategies which are implemented in code which Emile can hear a difference. The honestly amazing performance of TAS has been constructed on Emile’s ability to tune and optimize the portfolio of sound signatures of the code objects running on the Extreme hardware modules and OS platform.
The influence of buffer size on the sound flavor has always been present, but now greatly magnified with TAS as Steve W and others have observed
Edward, I changed TAS server setting very many times and I changed mysqueezebox password.
After that, I can't log in that site.
XXXXX@my.taikoaudio.com
This is my email address, right?
How can I use this email address?
Taiko Audio web site has no sign up.
After that, I can't log in that site.
XXXXX@my.taikoaudio.com
This is my email address, right?
How can I use this email address?
Taiko Audio web site has no sign up.
Edward, Emile, Wilson
Not sure if you investigated this.
Please try to turn off all drivers in Roon . All of them you find In settings/audio.
You will be still able to play songs with TAS via ASIO .
I know this might make no sense because there should be no driver ,
but believe me it works And the SQ is amazing.
This clearly means Roon is NOT turning off the drives as is saying.
it probably blocks the connection to Roon only And drivers are still working on a side.
That is a reason for the phenomenon we identified long ago
that changing settings in the drivers we turned off in roon was still making a difference.
It is still a case now with TAS.
We might need to uninstall Roon core completely soon as we did with Jplay (that was holding resources for himself only) to get full potential of TAS that is already today amazing player.
Interesting
Does TAS sound even better when Roon is NOT installed on the Extreme?
Thanks
Matt
With high end systems, everything matters, but one needs to find the comfort / enjoyment zone with the a suitable balance between convenience and sonic performanceInteresting
Does TAS sound even better when Roon is NOT installed on the Extreme?
Thanks
Matt
whats nice about TAS is that the SQ headroom for musical enjoyment has become larger, and TAS users can be more relaxed about network infrastructure and other tweaks
Esotar
I PM'd you about how to handle this. Not posted here, because we don't want to encourage this kind of exploration ,
;-)
HI Wil,
I wish you could hear what I am hearing. Not sure why there is not a major difference with your set up. Of course each system and listener is different, but it surprises me that there is not that much of a difference. It's night and day in my system(s) and I've had a few people that have heard it and literally they just laugh when I switch it. It's not even close, it's a completely different experience.
Roon definitely does not sound "smoother" in my set ups. It's MUCH more 3 dimensional, greater layering on the soundstage, much more incisive harmonics, for instance is an acoustic guitar when chords are switched quickly and a full strum is used I can hear the chord change and the harmonics of each string as it played. It is very akin to vinyl in this respect.
The presentation of notes is "stretched out" so that you can clearly hear the amount of pressure from each finger of each key when a piano is being played and when a chord is played you can hear the distinct different notes that make up the sound of the chord.
I don't get these sensations and observations when listening to the same tracks in Roon. It is SO obvious in TAS.
There is a bigger difference in my set-ups between TAS and Roon than there is between MP3 radio stations and Roon ie, Radio Swiss Classic and Roon. It's very obvious and not to me but as I said a few people that have heard the differences.
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Not 7 boxes but i have 6 , the clock is a cybershaft rather than ch.The ch does very well with TAS - there is a performance boost there and again. can;t activate hqp on my tas though - ? not installed. maybe edward can help with that?
Wil,
I can't remember exactly but what is the size of your room? I don't know your speakers or your amp, but I think I remember that your space is fairly large. How far do you sit from your speakers? I'm just curious because if your space is really large and you sit a farther distance from your speakers then it would probably make sense that you are hearing a different presentation vs. say what I am hearing.
I am in a near field listening set up, with the speakers 10' out from the back wall and sitting about 8's from the speakers. It's like being in the soundstage. It's my personal listening preference and always has been, probably because I've played on stage in years gone by and played the piano and guitar forever so I like being very close to the presentation.
Just wondering why your experience is so different???
