Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[steve williams]

If anyone wants to consider what I feel to be the best USB cable have an audition of the MasterBuilt Ultra USB. It doesn’t come cheap but the delta compared to any other cable I’ve used is significant

 

[Blackmorec]

Hi Malcng, for what it’s worth I had the Intona Ultimate on demo and found it to be very neutral to the point of being cold, boring and uninvolving. The Sablon is, in my system, transparent, balanced, great presence and supremely musical as are all Sablon cables. I would definitely try to audition one against your other choices.

cheers
Blue58

Hi Blue 58,
I’d just like to point out in a very friendly way that if something is completely neutral then it neither adds nor subtracts. Well recorded music should be anything but cold, boring and uninvolving, indeed the opposite, so a neutral cable should be warm, highly engaging and involving if that’s how the music is recorded.

A cable that sounds cold, boring and uninvolving is subtracting a great deal from the music…..assuming that a replacement cable sounds as good music should, so wouldn’t fit the description of neutral.
With a neutral cable, you should hear only improvements when placing multiple cables in a loom series, with no ‘identity’ emerging beyond any improvements coming from replacing an inferior or less well matched cable.

`My reason for posting this is simply to point out that neutral is exactly that and not a synonym for cold, boring and uninvolving, even in extreme. Again, posted with a

 

[Kris]

If anyone wants to consider what I feel to be the best USB cable have an audition of the MasterBuilt Ultra USB. It doesn’t come cheap but the delta compared to any other cable I’ve used is significant

Steve
Could you share your findings in comparison to Intona ultimate and sablon evo ?

 

[ctydwn]

Fwiw, I did do some a/b/a/b between the Sinope, new Sablon Evo and Nordost Valhalla 2. Extreme to Lampizator Pacific.

In my comparisons, the Sinope and Valhalla 2 sounded virtually identical. Which says alot about the Sinope at a ~third the price.

Re: the Sablon Evo, so it was a close call for me, in my system. If I didn’t already own the valhalla 2 usb 2 meter and having just heard the Sinope, I would have gladly gone w the Evo. After a few 2 hour sessions, I listened to a variety of guitar/violla/cello tracks. a/b/a. While the evo gave a bit of additional weight. It softened the leading edges. Everyone has their own preferences, for me I really like that initial attack and thrill of hand/bow across the strings.

On the flip side, the Evo packed a bit more punch in the lower frequencies and maybe filled out vocals in a more natural way. But again, splitting hairs again my system, I lost some of the bass texture in a few songs that I love. I wish I could have spent another week to really understand the sonic characteristics across different times of the day, moods, etc. But it was a graciously free demo cable that understandably needed to move on.

So for me, especially perhaps as a counterfoil to the tube Pacific DAC, I like the Nordost leading edge better (similar to the Sinope).

Hope that is helpful. They're all great. Will have to check out the Masterbuilt, Omega and Intona at some point soon. Wish I still had them all for when the Horizon arrives this week.

 

[steve williams]

Steve
Could you share your findings in comparison to Intona ultimate and sablon evo ?

Hi Will

Like ctydwn I did not a/b the MB Ultra against those two USB cables. In fact the Sinope IIRC was not even available when I auditioned the MB Ultra. What I can say is that the amount of detail that you hear with the MB Ultra is much greater than the others I auditioned, so much so that I even started a thread about the sound of USB cables

Why Do Different USB Cables Sound Different

I have seen threads here on different ethernet cables sound different and now we read here that USB cables sound different. How is this possible when all that is being transmitted are 0's and 1's. I am far from a skeptic because my listening experiences do suggest there is an audible difference...

whatsbestforum.com

 

[QuantumWave]

Just to add to this, I found the Sablon EVO to be a fantastic pairing for Chord Dave. The EVO shines for ‘naturalness’ , an attribute that you wouldn’t want to remove from the Dave as its core strength. It also emphasizes the lower end a hair, which balances out the Dave being sometimes lean on that end of the spectrum. Both are a match made in heaven

 

[QuantumWave]

on the topic of shielding mentioned above, I think it is a tricky topic. Most Faraday cages will be inefficient for screening magnetic interferences at low frequencies, below radio or EM. You can screen EM mostly by screening the electrical component, not so easy when its mainly magnetic signal. Some materials like mu-metal or permalloy are efficient at this, but their cost is very high. Until I can buy a mu-metal cage, I found the Dave wrap of audiowise to help Chord Dave who is very sensitive to this. A mu-metal chassis for Extreme , ‘too’ extreme?

 

[Ultrafast69]

If anyone wants to consider what I feel to be the best USB cable have an audition of the MasterBuilt Ultra USB. It doesn’t come cheap but the delta compared to any other cable I’ve used is significant

Not familiar with MasterBuilt, do you know what the build design is?

 

[steve williams]

Not familiar with MasterBuilt, do you know what the build design is?

PRODUCTS | masterbuiltaudio

www.masterbuiltaudio.com

 

[Taiko Audio]

A mu-metal chassis for Extreme , ‘too’ extreme?

Never say never, but it would be definitely be extremely expensive

 

[Tubeman66]

"A mu-metal chassis for Extreme , ‘too’ extreme?
or aPanzerholz

 

[Kris]

Never say never, but it would be definitely be extremely expensive

I have some mumetal sheets in my older server .
I purchesed that 5 years ago as an experiment,
I glued them to the chassis .
This is very effective but must be careful as it might decrease amount of detail
( this is what I noticed with DIY sever)
can test it but not sure were to use them on extreme
just around chassis or other place ?

 

[Kris]

Mumetal in DIY server

 

[MarcelNL]

there are a few very interesting materials to shield EMI and and whatnot, all need to be applied with care as too much or incorrect application makes them counterproductive for SQ.

 

[Taiko Audio]

I have some mumetal sheets in my older server .
I purchesed that 5 years ago as an experiment,
I glued them to the chassis .
This is very effective but must be careful as it might decrease amount of detail
( this is what I noticed with DIY sever)
can test it but not sure were to use them on extreme
just around chassis or other place ?

Well Aluminum is not very effective at LF shielding, both copper and mumetal do a better job there. Using mumetal to improve shielding from the internal power transformer is sonically a mixed bag though with a certain “lifeless” quality, possibly due to interfering with the torodial transformer magnetic field but admittedly that is just guessing om my part.

 

[Ultrafast69]

PRODUCTS | masterbuiltaudio

www.masterbuiltaudio.com

Thanks! I went to their site and read through it, they do a great job explaining things, something I don't see often.

 

[MarcelNL]

Easy to test, chuck the toroid from the chassis, listen to that starting point and play with your shielding, seprately shielding the toroid and other main components is my prefered method.

 

[2ndLiner]

Easy to test, chuck the toroid from the chassis, listen to that starting point and play with your shielding, seprately shielding the toroid and other main components is my prefered method.

Man, Emile and the folks at Taiko have enough on their more-than-full research/production plate without adding this project!

 

[MarcelNL]

Man, Emile and the folks at Taiko have enough on their more-than-full research/production plate without adding this project!

nobody HAS to try this, yet given how large the impact of well thought out shielding plan can be I'd say the effort is well worth the experiment at the level they are playing ;-)

 

[Zeotrope]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum - I am not generally a forum poster, so go easy on me.

I ordered an Extreme 12 weeks ago and am very keenly awaiting it’s arrival. It has been built and is on its way, but nothing is straightforward with shipping these days. I was very lucky to have one to audition at home for about a month and, having got used to having it, going without is very hard. But absence makes the heart grow fonder, I hope.

Having re-jigged my rack, I am going to need a longer (1.5m) USB cable. Is there any consensus now as to which ones pair well with the Extreme USB card, or is it also DAC dependent? I noted that Emile recommended Intona Ultimate at one point, but then seemed to withdraw/qualify that. The reason I’ll need a longer cable is that I have accepted the logic of placing the Extreme on one of two bottom shelves in my system and that actually suits me better as well now, apart from having to purchase a new USB cable. I have noticed though that some people have it on a top shelf, which is what I used to do. Does it make much difference regarding noise/sound quality?

Hope you don’t mind all the questions, but I am keen and eager to get back the best sound that I have ever had in my home.

Edit - looks like it is arriving Monday.

Welcome! You won’t be disappointed.
I have a longer USB too, Shunyata Omega 2.5m, as recommended by Taiko.
Where you place the Extreme does make a small difference to audio quality. Generally, the lower the better. Higher up will amplify vibrations (think of a mast and how much vibrations at the base amplify as you move up the mast). This is in the owner’s manual as well.
I have mine on the floor. You can use feet, like Stillpoints.