We are waiting for sufficient quantities of the Ethernet controller chip.
Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
We are waiting for sufficient quantities of the Ethernet controller chip.
So a 5mm x 20mm, that's what I needed to know . Curious about using a SR Purple Fuse
The Schurter parts that Emile posted are 5x20 in size.
+1 on this, as well. It's to the point that I really don't care if it's local or if it's streaming. With cat6man's observations, I plan to revisit this, too, just to see if I still feel the same way.
Some discussion about fuses for the Extreme quite a way back in this thread. A search in the thread might turn up the posts. I don't know if there has been further experimentation by Extreme owners since then -- I don't recall seeing anything discussed recently.
Steve Z
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I was testing over past 3 days everything I could and FOUND IT.
This is a news to EVRYONE to check in your systems.
I tested everythig I could and I was unable to find anything for 2 days. But 3rd day was a discovery day.
The reason for the noise and harshness in my system was grounding connection via USB cable !
I found it accidently by connecting to my Totaldac 24 the with old JPlay cable that has 2 legs (one for power, second for data only)
Wanted to connected it just to test if there is any noise getting via USB power or ground so I connected ONLY the data leg to the USB card in Takio .
I must say I permanently delteted that iritating noise and sound is so much more dense and calm now.
I suspect it was a severe ground loop running via this USB ground.
After that I decided to come back to the beloved intona ULTIMATE but as you know it has 4 cables inside ( 2 data and 2 permanent power line).
So I placed the black TAPE on both power line connectors (+and - on the USB A side of the cable) to again disconnect the ground and power.
I was amazed again.
That cable is a masterpiece now. I was not expecting it to be that big differense.
Please test in your systems and report here.
I am sure ALL Totaldac owners will find this useful and probably some others as well
Had JLSounds device here and tested , same positive effect but not as big as in TotalDAC.
Sidenote - Disconnecting the ground from TotalDAC menue was not effective.
To Emile,
As this above might be a true problem for some ( not for me ), I wanted to know if there is any way of disconnecting POWER OUT on the USB card ?
I am quite sure that some other cards ( Jplay ) had that option to turn off the USB power permanently.
Again to all others please report here if you see BIG benefit of disconnecting the power line from the USB cable.
Very interesting Kris!
Just to clarify,
Case 1:
you ran USB from the extreme to the input of your (first) reclocker, then aes/ebu to second reclocker and also on to the DAC?
Case 2:
Regarding the JLsounds, you ran USB from the extreme to the JLsounds, then spdif into the first reclocker?
In both cases, disconnecting USB power improved the sound, but more so for case 1?
Which case was ultimately superior, case 1 or case 2?
Edit:. Since Emile has a totaldac d1-12, it would be interesting to hear results from the home planet.
Anyone else who wants to try this, the contacts to tape over on the male USB A plug are the two outside pins.
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IN BOTH you are correct.
Case 1 was a bigger gain.
But I recommend testing it . It did a true magic in my system as I had some issues for very long time,
but you might already have your magic without doing the above .
Some of members might be using DATA only USB cables ( only 2 wires inside) and they should be already in great shape
I know Sablon evo has an excellent choice of selecing WITH or WITOUT power line in their USB cables.
let's call
subcase a: with usb power
subcase b: without usb power
case 1: usb to reclocker
case 2: usb to jlsounds to reclocker
how would you rank 1a, 1b, 2a and 2b?
interesting result.
i created a queue with 3 versions of the same track, Brokedown Palace on Henry Kaiser's Infinity Blue album, CD quality on all versions, local WAV, local FLAC(level 5) and Qobuz streamed FLAC (unknown level).
the local and streamed FLAC were very close in SQ with a small advantage to the local file.
however, the local WAV file wins hands down, as discussed above, so i conclude that WAV vs. FLAC is not transparent in my system (and never has been).
i had seen this consistently with many other streaming and playback configurations in the past, and i guess the delta in SQ is still there. fyi: previous results were with streaming WAV vs. streaming FLAC, both on NAS but not local on the streamers.
what say you all?
are there any qobuz files that are not lossless compressed that I could compare with WAV?
as Warren Zevon sang:
on the road to perfection
.....
i appreciate the best
but i''m settling for less
and I'm looking for the next best thing
("looking for the next best thing")
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Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
My guess is they are getting close and now getting the bugs out. Ed is one serious coder and he has quite a team under him which prompts the once per week conferences. I think asking for monthly updates can be somewhat problematic as you never know what lies around a corner such that a promise today could quickly be altered in their testing. I would cut them some slack. We know that whenever Taiko releases a product it is perfect and filled with kudos from we users. Such will also be the case with XDMS as the few graphics Ed has provided us, is IMO nothing short of sensational. So for me I'd rather be surprised knowing that they are very close. Ed has already said that this renewal of the Beta TAS app from Apple will almost certainly be the last meaning that XDMS is close at hand.imho, a monthly update is not an unreasonable ask.
I
@rau , I'm not sure what you're saying here? In the first sentence, you seem to say you're stunned how much better the CD sounds than the Taiko. But in the next sentence, you're saying the recording, not the source, is what matters most. Did you compare the same music on CD and local file/streaming?
Maybe I missed the explanation, but how does one disconnect the USB power line without mangling the cable ?
(assuming most here are not experienced at terminating and re-terminating usb cables)
And how does one know if their USB has a power line (without cutting it open) ?
