Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[oldmustang]

Classical music woes

As someone almost exclusively listens to PGGB upsampled classical music, the number one feature I would like to see on XDMS (no - not gapless play) is the ability to play lengthy 705 kHz / 768 kHz upsampled files without issue. Currently, longer upsampled tracks (~8 minutes or more) can be played on XDMS but playback may abruptly stop mid-way. Some files longer than 10 minutes cannot be played at all. Ed mentioned that the RAM size of 4092 MB on the RAM Disk may not be sufficient to play longer PGGB upsampled tracks and suggested that I try increasing the RAM to 8192 MB.

Update: As suggested by Ed, I increased the RAM Disk (Z drive) size to 8192 MB. With a reboot I managed to play some upsampled files I could not play before at all. I will need to test with longer tracks. Some 16.5 minute PGGB upsampled tracks (the largest possible size of 4.21 GB per track) remain completely unplayable at all while others would come to an abrupt halt just short of 6 minutes of playback.

Hmmm, I hadn't run into this yet but so far I don't think I've played any tracks longer than 8-10 minutes and none of those at more than 24/384 resolution. But this limitation might make it problematical to get around the lack of gapless by removing track breaks in long pieces of music. I'll have to see what happens.

Steve Z

 

[austinpop]

If I was asked to pick one "quick" change, it will be to sort Qobuz Favorites by "Added Date" showing the most recently added albums first (instead of sorting by album name).

Second that. Even on TAS, rather than search Qobuz there, I do my searching on the Qobuz app or Roon, favorite it, and then boom, it's the first thing on the list in TAS.

 

[oldmustang]

Second that. Even on TAS, rather than search Qobuz there, I do my searching on the Qobuz app or Roon, favorite it, and then boom, it's the first thing on the list in TAS.

Yes, I'd love for that to be the default behavior of XDMS. I've been in the habit of checking in New Music under My Music in TAS for recent additions or to verify that something I've ripped and transferred to the Extreme has actually made it intact. Plus, I generally like to listen to the stuff I've just added right away and it makes it very easy to find.

Steve Z

 

[Taiko Audio]

Excellent report!

The music abruptly stopping mid-track for large PGGB files is something that has existed since TAS. Unfortunately there is no easy fix that I know of.

The minimum ramdisk size for files of that size (4Gb ?) is 9216. And that will only work for 1 track in the queue. The formula is something like (queue size *2 + 1). For files larger then 4Gb we are running into several issues. Since even the code behind a button affects SQ it’s not surprising the same applies to altering the ramdisk size. For that we will need to either include a file treatment bypass or code a different realtime implementation.

 

[Lojay]

Hi Emile, thank you for your response. For more courageous folk like us PGGB tinkerers, would it be possible as things stand for the user to manually set the ramdisk size to over 10GB when playing single long files, and reverting to 4GB for everything else? If all that needs to be done is set the RAM size on the RAM Disk software, without any change of the code in the config files, I think we can handle that without troubling Taiko's team. I tried doing this with Ed today with 4.21 GB files but since there were other files in the queue when I tried, it might explain why it did not work.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Hi Emile, thank you for your response. For more courageous folk like us PGGB tinkerers, would it be possible as things stand for the user to manually set the ramdisk size to over 10GB when playing single long files, and reverting to 4GB for everything else? If all that needs to be done is set the RAM size on the RAM Disk software, without any change of the code in the config files, I think we can handle that without troubling Taiko's team. I tried doing this with Ed today with 4.21 GB files but since there were other files in the queue when I tried, it might explain why it did not work.

Sure.

 

[Lojay]

Hi Emile, I still couldn't get this to work with 4GB files. I suppose there's more to it than just the ramdisk size...

 

[Taiko Audio]

Hi Emile, I still couldn't get this to work with 4GB files. I suppose there's more to it than just the ramdisk size...

Those are not larger then 4GB ?

 

[Lojay]

The files I tried without success are 4.21 GB and 3.81 GB wav files (24 bit 705.2 kHz, 15 - 16.5 minute songs), on a 9,647 MB ramdisk with only one track in queue (9,647 MB as I assumed the math would be ((4.21*2)+1)*1024).

The largest files I managed to play (with the default 4,096 MB ramdisk) are 2.21 GB wav files (but playback will be stopped towards the last 5% of the song).

 

[Taiko Audio]

The files I tried without success are 4.21 GB and 3.81 GB wav files (24 bit 705.2 kHz, 15 - 16.5 minute songs), on a 9,647 MB ramdisk with only one track in queue (9,647 MB as I assumed the math would be ((4.21*2)+1)*1024).

The largest files I managed to play (with the default 4,096 MB ramdisk) are 2.21 GB wav files (but playback will be stopped towards the last 5% of the song).

Can you send teamviewer codes to support@taikoaudio.com ?

 

[Christiaan Punter]

I'm wondering if there isn't something already out there that can remove track markers so that an album originally recorded without breaks can be "re-tracked" as one big track -- hence no gaps.

I'll have to take a look at what I have here -- I have some audio editing programs such as TEAC's Hi-Res Editor and KORG's AudioGate Studio that can insert track breaks. Maybe one of those or something similar can remove them, too.

Steve Z

For a true single continuous file, the tracks could be ripped as such. Making separate tracks continuous after ripping is of course possible (as mentioned in this thread) but not really a viable option for most. But rest assured that we will address this once we reach calmer waters.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Ed also got me up and running with XDMS today. Thank you, @EuroDriver!

Not much to add after all these excellent reports. Sound quality is a big step up from TAS and Roon. Much better clarity is the first thing I heard. Several curtains have been lifted between me and the musicians. Everything sounds more real and natural. Instruments are much more believable and a big step closer to a life performance in my room. Hard to reproduce instruments like piano or drums sound more real than ever.

@onlychild asked me if the sound quality delta from TAS to XDMS is bigger than the delta from Roon to TAS. That was a very good question, and so I spent some time switching between Roon, TAS, and XDMS. The answer for me is definitely YES. I hear bigger improvement from TAS to XDMS than Roon to TAS.

Functionality is still work in progress. If I was asked to pick one "quick" change, it will be to sort Qobuz Favorites by "Added Date" showing the most recently added albums first (instead of sorting by album name).

Qobuz Favorites by "Added Date" suggestion noted. (but don't ask if/when it will be implemented...)

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Is the gap situation similar for local vs. streaming?

With Qobuz streaming, there are also gaps.

Yes, I'd love for that to be the default behavior of XDMS. I've been in the habit of checking in New Music under My Music in TAS for recent additions or to verify that something I've ripped and transferred to the Extreme has actually made it intact. Plus, I generally like to listen to the stuff I've just added right away and it makes it very easy to find.

Steve Z

Noted

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Is the gap situation similar for local vs. streaming?

With Qobuz streaming, there are also gaps with approx the same length differences (shortest in Concert mode).

 

[wil]

Roy (Romaz) mentioned that TAS was a tad dry and Roon sounded bloated and smeared. I completely agree. XDMS is somewhere between the two in terms of body and richness, but in my view closer to the TAS end of the spectrum (i.e. "clean" as opposed to "full"). For those who crave ultimate lushness XDMS is probably not the right direction, but then one has the option of Roon if that were what one desires. However, I do think that XDMS sounds more "organic" and less "digital" than TAS, particularly in the way it resolves transients and decay. Instruments and voices sound more tangible with XDMS (if one can exchange that word with "body") but without the bloat. This is very much welcome no matter which end of the spectrum of tonality one prefers.

Interesting, I’ve always experienced the opposite— that is, Roon as having greater clarity and incisiveness compared to TAS.

TAS is more to the warmth and body end of the spectrum.

I don’t hear Roon as bloated or smeared at all. I’m surprised at how good it sounds. Maybe this is due to my steadfast refusal to update Roon for the last year or two.

Looking forward to xdms!

 

[steve williams]

Yes, I'd love for that to be the default behavior of XDMS. I've been in the habit of checking in New Music under My Music in TAS for recent additions or to verify that something I've ripped and transferred to the Extreme has actually made it intact. Plus, I generally like to listen to the stuff I've just added right away and it makes it very easy to find.

Steve Z

That is the one feature of TAS I miss......the New Music folder

 

[dminches]

Another request for a future release….

Can there be an option to sort the artists list based on last name?

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Interesting, I’ve always experienced the opposite— that is, Roon as having greater clarity and incisiveness compared to TAS.

TAS is more to the warmth and body end of the spectrum.

I don’t hear Roon as bloated or smeared at all. I’m surprised at how good it sounds. Maybe this is due to my steadfast refusal to update Roon for the last year or two.

Looking forward to xdms!

For me, Roon was always more voluptuous, lusher, and lower in pacing, but more free-flowing and organic. while TAS was always tighter, more upbeat, more impactful, and more expressive, albeit less organic. In terms of resolution per se, I'd say it was more or less a tie between the two. "Body", I guess is a bit interpretable. Some might say TAS has more body because it is more solid/robust while others may find Roon to have more body because it is warmer and smoother, fatter in the bass, and a little laidback in the midrange. It's been a few Roon update iterations ago that I tested this but the during the time that I tested, and across several Roon updates, the differences remained pretty constant.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Another request for a future release….

Can there be an option to sort the artists list based on last name?

Noted.

 

[steve williams]

am I missing it but in Qobuz, I no longer see under the album art cover Hi Res or DSD. That was present in TAS