Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[Taiko Audio]

I would think the Taiko Switch will come with a nice power supply. I doubt Taiko will ship it with a cheap supply, unless it doesn’t matter, which is highly unlikely. So I would not worry about upgrading the power supply

We are in fact shipping without a "nice" power supply, we can supply a standard wall wart which actually still works fine, though not optimal. We'd recommend powering it with a battery power supply but we cannot supply that before around May 2023.

 

[Zeotrope]

We are in fact shipping without a "nice" power supply, we can supply a standard wall wart which actually still works fine, though not optimal. We'd recommend powering it with a battery power supply but we cannot supply that before around May 2023.

I see, thanks. I will be ordering a Teddy Pardo linear supply in that case. I have a few of them, powering various devices (Kaleidescape, Lumagen, Sony D555 CD Walkman!).
Can we also ask what the polarity of the barrel connector is - we don’t want to get that wrong! The voltage and current? Maybe too early.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Can we also ask what the polarity of the barrel connector is - we don’t want to get that wrong! The voltage and current? Maybe too early.

Around 500mA @ 12V.

It has a pretty wide range 12V-19V DC input by means of standard DC barrel jack. We will not be able to supply an audiophile grade external power supply with it in the same timeframe and at these quantities but can supply a standard 12V wall wart (still sounds great with that).

Standard DC barrel polarity.

As for your earlier question:

Why did we end up designing both a switch and a router?

I'm attempting to write this in as non technical language as I can but please let me know if it still reads like total gibberish (as in understandable, not gibberish as in you don't believe any of this has anything to do with sound quality).

First off all, after years of trying and experimenting we have not found a single solution leading to full immunization to the influence of networking on sound quality. This network is an active components in your home. A perhaps shocking discovery is that your home network can even influence your analogue playback chain. Every component of your network exerts a degree of influence, ranging from very minor to mayor. What this simply means is that when you introduce any type of streaming digital source into your system (and even when you don't) and you care about sound quality, you should absolutely look at the whole picture, including every single component and piece of wire, not identical to but similar as to how you look at for example your power utility setup, where the utility breaker box, fuses and all bits of wire make a difference.

A router is like the airport / main distribution center of your network, it performs customs clearance on international packages, checks for illegal content, sorts and transports all packages to where they should arrive in a timely and organised fashion. It should have plenty of capacity to ensure everything runs smooth and in a timely fashion, good management and quality control departments.

A switch is like your local post office / distribution center, it needs a well maintained road system and a fleet of delivery trucks with good suspension so packages arrive undamaged at their final destination even when encountering a few bumps in the road and last but not least well mannered delivery guys.

In audiophile language, using the earlier mentioned power utility setup analogy your house mains utility distribution box would be the router, your in-wall wiring would be the ethernet cable running from the router, your local system power strip or power conditioner would be the switch and your power cord would be your ethernet cable. Perhaps unsurprisingly their respective degrees of influence on sound quality are very similar. The router being the mains utility distribution box in this example can furthermore be enhanced with things like power regeneration, cleaning, stabilization etc.

From this point on it's going to get unavoidably more technical as I'm now going to share a photo of a 3D print of the switch PCB which will reveal that the switch employs 2 SFP ports exclusively. Small form-factor pluggable, or SFP, devices enable the switch to connect to fiber and Ethernet cables of different types and speeds by using SFP modules which are available in both copper, RJ45 and fiber versions.

View attachment 101140

For clarity / comparative reasons a repost of the router PCB photo:

View attachment 101141

And a photo of a fiber and a copper SFP module:

View attachment 101142

and:

Why did we end up going for the SFP interface in stead of the usual RJ45?

The ethernet cabling system we use in our homes is designed to transport large amounts of data at high speeds over an as economical as possible cabling system. For this to work it uses block coding and error correction to enable data to pass through a cheap (economical) cable and connector system without error. The block encoding requires reading the data block into the transmitter, running a mathematical function on the data, and sending the encoded data over the link. The opposite happens at the receiving end and error correction is applied.

A graphical display of error correction:
View attachment 101143

To give you an indication of the processing overhead, this is standardized to take 2.6 microseconds where the actual data transfer latency is 0.1 microseconds for fiber and 0.3 microseconds for copper (or times 8.6 for copper and times 26 for fiber). But more important is the increase in power consumption which is between 5 and 25 times higher for RJ45 over SFP (for EACH port).

At a first glance SFP fiber appears to be the ideal solution, unfortunately it is not as straight forward as that as a SFP fiber module, which converts an electrical into an optical signal, uses a substantial amount of power. A single fiber SFP module consumes more power then our entire final switch design, the additional noise this generates is multiple times higher then that of the switch itself.

So our soup of today consists of an accumulation of several types of noise:
-Processing noise
-Noise generated by power consumption (and associated heat)
-Interface noise

We have managed to achieve the absolute lowest possible noise by minimizing these 3 by designing a network card and switch for producing the lowest possible noise, consuming the lowest possible power, with the least possible processing overhead around using a so called DAC SFP cable between Network card and Switch, which looks like this:

View attachment 101148

View attachment 101149


Now we already had a SFP card fitted in the Extreme in that position, however that was not a design with the lowest possible noise in mind and it does not support the not yet mentioned software enhancements which is a story for another day as I have a nice Lampizator Horizon tube rolling session scheduled for the remainder of this afternoon

and:

So our recommendation (if you want the lowest possible noise) is:

-RJ45 from router to switch as it still uses less power then dual fiber SFP modules (for which you need a SFP RJ45 module (which we intend to supply with the package)
-SFP DAC twinax copper cable from switch to Extreme (which we intend to supply with the package)

The following search only displays my posts in this thread so you can catch up relatively quickly:

 

[2ndLiner]

Standard DC barrel polarity.

As for your earlier question:



and:



and:



The following search only displays my posts in this thread so you can catch up relatively quickly:

View attachment 101328

Thanks for that search tip, Emile, now we know how to find your prodigious wisdom in one easy to access place!

 

[nonesup]

What measurement is 2.1mm? Is that the output of the Hynes? That doesn't matter for the Taiko switch. You just need a cable which works the Hynes LPs and is terminated with a 2.5mm on the other end.

Ghent Audio makes very nice cables that are not too expensive.

2.5mm is the connector diameter that Emile has said the Extreme will have. Therefore, the Jack in the cable connector must be of that diameter

 

[nonesup]

Various types of Jack

 

[Sablon Audio]

For Oyaide dc plug users - possibly the best option - they use a colour coding of red for 2.5mm and black for 2.1mm.

 

[dminches]

2.5mm is the connector diameter that Emile has said the Extreme will have. Therefore, the Jack in the cable connector must be of that diameter

I get that. I thought you said there was an issue with your Paul Hynes LPS. Maybe this is obvious but the connector size doesn’t have to be the same on both ends.

 

[John T]

Wouldn’t a product like the Shunyata Altaira grounding system eliminate the need for a complex in-ground grounding solution?

I have no idea? Maybe the combo of both would be better? Its really not that complex, I realize it sounds like it is, but its not. Living in a rural area augers, back hoes, farm equipment, are not uncommon. Nor are well drillers. Ground rods have a life expectancy. They become scaled and less effective. Most people don't know if they have galvanized or copper or if its grounded to the water line pipe. Older homes that are not on a well, it was quite common to ground to the water line. Consistent is more important than low ohm numbers. If you can get to 5 or lower all the time, you are golden. Your better off having a consistent number than fluctuation, this is why Enhancement material is more beneficial.

 

[marty]

Power Barrel Connector Jack 2.50mm ID (0.098"), 5.50mm OD (0.217")

2.5 mm to 2.1 mm adapters are readily available.

 

[nonesup]

2.5 mm to 2.1 mm adapters are readily available.

I'm afraid that an adapter is not the best for sound. I remember reading Caelin Gabriel from Shunyata saying that although they have a current C15 to C19 AC adapter, there really is a loss of quality with it.

 

[Steve williams]

Various types of Jack

Most LPS come with several sized adapters. Mine includes 2.5mm OD and 2.1mm ID

 

[dminches]

I'm afraid that an adapter is not the best for sound. I remember reading Caelin Gabriel from Shunyata saying that although they have a current C15 to C19 AC adapter, there really is a loss of quality with it.

What is the connector on the Paul Hynes LPS side?

 

[nonesup]

Although my Paul Hynes is not this model, it is an SR7, it does have the connector, which is seen in the picture.

 

[MarkusBarkus]

@nonesup I think where some folks are going is: get a new cable with 2.5mm fixture on the Taiko end, and whatever is required on the PH side. Alternatively, you (or a skilled pal) could change the fixture/connector, swapping a 2.5 on the existing cable. Excuse me if I am pointing out something you already know.

 

[dminches]

Although my Paul Hynes is not this model, it is an SR7, it does have the connector, which is seen in the picture.

I would get this cable from Ghent Audio to power the Taiko switch with your LPS

 

[nonesup]

@nonesup I think where some folks are going is: get a new cable with 2.5mm fixture on the Taiko end, and whatever is required on the PH side. Alternatively, you (or a skilled pal) could change the fixture/connector, swapping a 2.5 on the existing cable. Excuse me if I am pointing out something you already know.

Yes, of course, I would have to find someone who is really skilled with a soldering iron, which is why I said that the fact that the Taiko Switch had a 2.5 mm jack was a "small" problem.

 

[nonesup]

I would get this cable from Ghent Audio to power the Taiko switch with your LPS

It is also another option. Well I really don't want to give too much importance to this little inconvenience. My comment was simply because I remembered that when I bought my Farad Super3 with which I power my ISP Router, the cable came with a 2.1 mm connector and when I went to connect it I realized that the connector on the Router was 2.5 mm. New shipment of the cable to the Netherlands and wait another 15 days. I remember thinking, is it really that important that there are 2.1mm and 2.5mm connectors?

 

[oldmustang]

Various types of Jack

Actually, those are plugs, Franciso. They, ahem, "plug" into jacks. . .

Steve Z

 

[oldmustang]

Wouldn’t a product like the Shunyata Altaira grounding system eliminate the need for a complex in-ground grounding solution?

The Altaira doesn't eliminate the need for a good, low-resistance ground in your electrical system. The Altaira boxes are designed to connect to a ground, be it on an audiophile power distribution device such as a Shunyata Everest, Denali or Trition v3 which themselves are grounded via their power cord, or if that is not available, by means of a plug into a nearby unused wall receptacle ground. There has to be a very low resistance to "sink" the stray equipment ground plane currents.

Steve Z