Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[Kingsrule]

One drive

 

[steve williams]

Only if that’s how the drives are configured in the Exteme. It doesn’t “have” to be that way.

My mantra with the Extreme has been the KISS method……” keep it simple, stupid”

 

[dminches]

One drive

If that’s the case then I don’t understand what other information you are looking for.

 

[Taiko Audio]

One drive

If it’s one volume it spans across all drives, you don’t have to worry about individual drive occupancy.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Yes his is different as a result of replacing 2TB with 8TB drives versus how much time we wanted to invest into storage migrations. Where before we had machines with 12 2TB drives for 24TB (4 or 8TB drives were not available in the first years of the Extremes life), we now more often have machines with 4 or 8TB drives for 32 or 64TB of internal storage (using 8 drives).

Did we migrate everything into one single volume?

 

[Kingsrule]

Did we migrate everything into one single volume?

Yes D: Music
I'm not sure what u did to move the data over to the 2x 8TB drives but I remember it was taking longer than u anticipated. ( I think u had dinner and put the kids to bed as it was going on!!)

 

[steve williams]

Yes D: Music
I'm not sure what u did to move the data over to the 2x 8TB drives but I remember it was taking longer than u anticipated. ( I think u had dinner and put the kids to bed as it was going on!!)

I might be mistaken but when I set out to transfer my files from my NAS to the music folder on the Extreme and it was very slow using my laptop which transfers at 100 MPs. Emile visited me shortly after I started the transfer but Emile did something that used the Extreme to do the transfer which was very quick. IIRC I thought Emile said it transfers at 1 gps He transferred overnight the entire balance of my files.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Gl

Ed is tied up, but Christiaan has got me going in the right direction. Music is loading with more to come. There is NO WAY I could have done what Christiaan did. Blood would having been flowing from my ear canals, and I would have soiled myself! Steve Z was spot on! I was up at 4am with one thing in mind!! Thanks to all of you for the input...John

Glad to have been of help, John!

 

[Christiaan Punter]

i know this is not optimum for SQ, but is there any reason i can't put a usb hub on the Extreme's usb output,
then a cable to the DAC and another cable to somewhere else?

this is a temporary configuration so i'm not concerned about the 'best' sound, just that it works.

This is probably more something for Emile to answer but here are my 2 cents. I don't have a USB hub at hand to try but even if it would work, sonic degradation aside, you'd still only be able to connect to one DAC at a time.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Christiaan,

I agree that not having Roon do any processing is a best practice for top sound quality. Can you speak to how TAS -- and maybe Ed, to XDMS -- address DoP?

Thanks!

Steve Z

DoP or Native is a matter of DAC- or Converter compatibility and the player software adapting to what is needed. As in Roon, TAS allows the user to specify DoP if required. XDMS will also offer the functionality to choose between DoP or Native.

The preliminary XDMS DAC settings panel is shown below, note that it could still change.

 

[Nils]

DoP or Native is a matter of DAC- or Converter compatibility and the player software adapting to what is needed. As in Roon, TAS allows the user to specify DoP if required. XDMS will also offer the functionality to choose between DoP or Native.

The preliminary XDMS DAC settings panel is shown below, note that it could still change.

View attachment 95901

@Christiaan Punter I assume that the XDMS UI is declarative, i.e. that I the EndUser only selects his/her DAC from the drop-down and that rest of the settings (USB profile, data bit depth, DSD mode) are populated by XDMS?

If I may suggest (low priority) there may be value in having an Advanced Mode where the (curious) EndUser as an alternative is allowed to select all values manually, i.e. override the recommended values set by XDMS.

The level of Technical ability varies a lot across EndUsers - vast majority will prefer to just select the Dac from a drop-down list and delegate to XDMS to set all relevant values. This also should reduce the support-burden for team Taiko over time.

Other (minor) feedback is that the action-button label "Execute Script" is too low-level and exposes current implementation - maybe it could be re-labelled into "Confirm settings (Extreme will restart)" or similar.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

@Christiaan Punter I assume that the XDMS UI is declarative, i.e. that I the EndUser only selects his/her DAC from the drop-down and that rest of the settings (USB profile, data bit depth, DSD mode) are populated by XDMS?

If I may suggest (low priority) there may be value in having an Advanced Mode where the (curious) EndUser as an alternative is allowed to select all values manually, i.e. override the recommended values set by XDMS.

The level of Technical ability varies a lot across EndUsers - vast majority will prefer to just select the Dac from a drop-down list and delegate to XDMS to set all relevant values. This also should reduce the support-burden for team Taiko over time.

?

Shown on the screen above are two pull-down menus: DAC (normally automatically selected) and USB profile. Then, there is a toggle switch for DoP/Native, similar to what we already have in TAS. The two displayed values are indeed declarative.

Note that this is a preliminary screen, potentially for the initial release of XDMS. Please regard it as illustrative, it is not the end station. There will also be settings for Max DSD rate, Max PCM rate, and max Bit Depth.

I'm not sure if automatic selection of DoP/Native and DSD rate according to DAC is possible or desirable but I will put it on the list to look at later. Same for potential splitting these settings into simple/advanced modes.

 

[steve williams]

Shown on the screen above are two pull-down menus: DAC (normally automatically selected) and USB profile. Then, there is a toggle switch for DoP/Native, similar to what we already have in TAS. The two displayed values are indeed declarative.

Note that this is a preliminary screen, potentially for the initial release of XDMS. Please regard it as illustrative, it is not the end station. There will also be settings for Max DSD rate, Max PCM rate, and max Bit Depth.

I'm not sure if automatic selection of DoP/Native and DSD rate according to DAC is possible or desirable but I will put it on the list to look at later. Same for potential splitting these settings into simple/advanced modes.

I’m in the camp that says “ set it and forget it“. Tell me where to set mine and I’m done. KISS technique

 

[Christiaan Punter]

I’m in the camp that says “ set it and forget it“. Tell me where to set mine and I’m done. KISS technique

Noted!

 

[John T]

Steve Williams said:
I’m in the camp that says “ set it and forget it“. Tell me where to set mine and I’m done. KISS technique

I'm beginning to see the value in the "KISS TECHNIQUE" not to mention the stress level drops markedly...

 

[John T]

With the Extreme: Any words of wisdom in regards to on and off? Do some leave it on? Or, On and Off as you use it? Forgot to ask Christiaan. I average 4-6 hours a day listening....John

 

[steve williams]

Mine is always on. I’ve perhaps restarted it 3x since I’ve had it. Many say restarting it weekly improves SQ

 

[Christiaan Punter]

With the Extreme: Any words of wisdom in regards to on and off? Do some leave it on? Or, On and Off as you use it? Forgot to ask Christiaan. I average 4-6 hours a day listening....John

Hi John, you can simply always leave it on, it’s best for the sound quality, and it does no harm. As Steve mentioned, it’s been reported that restarting can be beneficial but I personally always leave all servers always on, unless I need to restart. Do note it’s best not to fully switch off the Extreme, if allowed to cool off, it will need a few hours to fully recover.

 

[wil]

I’m in the camp that says “ set it and forget it“. Tell me where to set mine and I’m done. KISS technique

I'm there too. I'm hoping XDMS can be a lean, mean, music playing machine. I don't know what the ultimate plans are for the player, but I hope that ambitions of developing an equivalent in functionality to Roon, and the miles of code and maintenance that comes with it, can be relegated to future developments -- after the more basic player is released. IMHO

 

[Zeotrope]

Has anyone grounded the chassis of the Extreme to a Shunyata Everest/Denali? I know it’s not recommended to do by Taiko; but since I have a Denali 6000v2 sitting right beside the Extreme for other components, and have now connected the Extreme to it, should I also ground the chassis to the Shunyata’s “GP-NR” ground system?
Has anyone done so and what were the sonic improvements?
And how did you connect it, as the Extreme does not have an obvious ground terminal.
Thanks!