Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[ctydwn]

Taiko switch sold out per their website.
Congrats to the team for going through this first batch so rapidly!

Speaks volumes about when Taiko/Emile put their stamp on something, people listen. Particularly given how few outside Taiko may have heard this not inexpensive device to date.

If the means are there, seems like an easy call. Preaching to the choir here of course. (Checking every day for availability in black. Can’t wait.)

And, looking fwd to hearing the lucky early order folks’ impressions once the shipping begins! take care

EDIT: Switch showing back in stock now as of 5:15 am CET on website. fantastic. taiko in command of supply chain

 

[steve williams]

If the means are there, seems like an easy call. Preaching to the choir here of course. (Checking every day for availability in black. Can’t wait.)

i felt the same re copper however I wasn’t going to wait months. The color does nothing to the sound and I really liked the chrome as well. Im not surprised the first run is done. What a tribute to Emile and Taiko

 

[Taiko Audio]

Production is in full swing in Oldenzaal running 24 hour (3*8) shifts. The first 100 scheduled to be finished end of this week!

 

[CKKeung]

Production is in full swing in Oldenzaal running 24 hour (3*8) shifts. The first 100 scheduled to be finished end of this week!

View attachment 103480

The copper chassis version looks magnificent!!!

 

[Blackmorec]

Production is in full swing in Oldenzaal running 24 hour (3*8) shifts. The first 100 scheduled to be finished end of this week!

View attachment 103480

Am I correct in assuming that these cases provide fully Faraday shield insulation?

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Your remark is very interesting - the way the "0"'s and "1"s - the bits - are stored in optical media (CD in this case) is fragile, intrinsically noisy and extremely variable - disks have different reflecting properties, plastics had very different transparency and pit boundaries are variable, but some people seem to prefer it to the more perfect way of doing things. IMO probably because CD can more easily emulate the kind of sound they have been used to along decades listening to vinyl and become their reference for sound reproduction.

If we look carefully we find that the more praised audiophile CD transports have poor jitter specification. Some companies introduced extremely low jitter transport/ DAC systems and were considered as mechanical sounding by many audiophiles.

Indeed, I found that CD transports can sound very different from one another, even if they supposedly output perfect data. Having done experiments in the field, I know that everything in a CD transport matters: power supply, regulation, demodulation, decoding, filtering, clocking, and digital output stage, and whether these building blocks are powered from a single regulator or individual ones, and which types, etc. All these steps leave their mark on the eventual sound. And with CD players (with DAC), the variables become basically infinite.

Whether or not some people like certain players due to their poor jitter performance or in spite of it is open for debate.

What I will say is that I personally do not like CD transports that have a messy output (a fuzzy eye-pattern and rounded square waves). This tends to translate to an ill-defined and blurry sound.

The beauty of the Extreme is that all the variables, be they large or small, that are responsible for good measurements, as well as good sound quality, are well-understood. Since the start, we have been actively working on reducing or removing the limitations and obstructions that stand in the way of achieving pure, convincing, full-blooded, realistic sound. The Switch, Network Card, and Router are the latest in a crop of products that, if I am to believe Emile's listening impressions (and I do), will be revelatory. I can't wait to hear these products for myself!

 

[Taiko Audio]

Am I correct in assuming that these cases provide fully Faraday shield insulation?

About as close as you can get for an electronic appliance.

 

[Di-fi]

Am I correct in assuming that these cases provide fully Faraday shield insulation?

Not very surprising it came to this since it is so much in Taiko's line of thinking. Already the Taiko Extreme & case are extremely heavy and shielded.

Posts #14 & #17 of this thread by EuroDriver (Taiko) almost 4 years ago in Feb 2019 (!) :

(...) The chassis is extremely heavy and expensive, but its RF emission characteristics and vibration signature were clearly audible as the first pre-production prototype was benchmarked against the testing mule.(...)

(...) 3 years ago Emile and I invested in acquiring quite a bit of RF detection and spectrum analysis gear (...)

(...) What we can observe is that the RF soup coming from all of the clocks and oscillators gets everywhere and is very difficult to dramatically attenuate. The RF noise is transmitted over the air and piggybacks on every cable, conductor and ground plane. We can also observe that CPU and RAM activity changes the observable RF emissions.

I would humbly propose that the sound quality differences we are hearing are being transmitted by RF noise emissions emanating from the myriad clocks and oscillators in digital equipment, and being detected by the analog components and cabling in the playback chain.

All of the hardware and software features which Emile has implemented deliver sonic differences that are easily perceivable and consistent with a mechanism of RF transmission of noise, both SQ enhancing, and SQ degrading. The design strategy is to shape the noise, minimizing the SQ degrading RF noise and to amplify the SQ enhancing RF noise.(...)

- - -

It also makes me wonder what the next gen. Taiko Audio Extreme will look like (full copper or non-ferrous metal and ....how much will it weigh)?
Unless the (...) numerous ventilation holes drilled on top (and bottom) of the Extreme that function as "waveguides" which, according to Emile, function also to shield EMI emissions (from both entering and leaving) (...) already give the best protection? Each component performs best with their specific shielding it seems.

Everything matters and ...how you execute it. Fascinating!

 

[steve williams]

Not very surprising it came to this since it is so much in Taiko's line of thinking. Already the Taiko Extreme & case are extremely heavy and shielded.

Posts #14 & #17 of this thread by EuroDriver (Taiko) almost 4 years ago in Feb 2019 (!) :

(...) The chassis is extremely heavy and expensive, but its RF emission characteristics and vibration signature were clearly audible as the first pre-production prototype was benchmarked against the testing mule.(...)

(...) 3 years ago Emile and I invested in acquiring quite a bit of RF detection and spectrum analysis gear (...)

(...) What we can observe is that the RF soup coming from all of the clocks and oscillators gets everywhere and is very difficult to dramatically attenuate. The RF noise is transmitted over the air and piggybacks on every cable, conductor and ground plane. We can also observe that CPU and RAM activity changes the observable RF emissions.

I would humbly propose that the sound quality differences we are hearing are being transmitted by RF noise emissions emanating from the myriad clocks and oscillators in digital equipment, and being detected by the analog components and cabling in the playback chain.

All of the hardware and software features which Emile has implemented deliver sonic differences that are easily perceivable and consistent with a mechanism of RF transmission of noise, both SQ enhancing, and SQ degrading. The design strategy is to shape the noise, minimizing the SQ degrading RF noise and to amplify the SQ enhancing RF noise.(...)

It also makes me wonder what the next gen. Taiko Audio Extreme will look like (full copper or non-ferrous metal and ....how much will it weigh)? Unless the (...) numerous ventilation holes drilled on top (and bottom) of the Extreme that function as "waveguides" which, according to Emile, function also to shield EMI emissions (from both entering and leaving) (...) allready give the best protection? Each device performs best with specific shielding it seems.

We all can’t wait for that next generation Extreme. Certainly the BPS is on my radar. The question for me and others is whether the new extreme will be one chassis or two OR give the user a choice for either. The possibility of a one box interests me as space is an issue. So the waiting game merely adds speculation until the facts become evident. Presently there is nothing to complain about IMO if you are an Extreme owner. I smile every time I listen to XDMS

 

[EuroDriver]

Not very surprising it came to this since it is so much in Taiko's line of thinking. Already the Taiko Extreme & case are extremely heavy and shielded.

Posts #14 & #17 of this thread by EuroDriver (Taiko) almost 4 years ago in Feb 2019 (!) :

(...) The chassis is extremely heavy and expensive, but its RF emission characteristics and vibration signature were clearly audible as the first pre-production prototype was benchmarked against the testing mule.(...)

(...) 3 years ago Emile and I invested in acquiring quite a bit of RF detection and spectrum analysis gear (...)

(...) What we can observe is that the RF soup coming from all of the clocks and oscillators gets everywhere and is very difficult to dramatically attenuate. The RF noise is transmitted over the air and piggybacks on every cable, conductor and ground plane. We can also observe that CPU and RAM activity changes the observable RF emissions.

I would humbly propose that the sound quality differences we are hearing are being transmitted by RF noise emissions emanating from the myriad clocks and oscillators in digital equipment, and being detected by the analog components and cabling in the playback chain.

All of the hardware and software features which Emile has implemented deliver sonic differences that are easily perceivable and consistent with a mechanism of RF transmission of noise, both SQ enhancing, and SQ degrading. The design strategy is to shape the noise, minimizing the SQ degrading RF noise and to amplify the SQ enhancing RF noise.(...)

It also makes me wonder what the next gen. Taiko Audio Extreme will look like (full copper or non-ferrous metal and ....how much will it weigh)? Unless the (...) numerous ventilation holes drilled on top (and bottom) of the Extreme that function as "waveguides" which, according to Emile, function also to shield EMI emissions (from both entering and leaving) (...) allready give the best protection? Each device performs best with specific shielding it seems.

How time flies, thanks for reminding

 

[Di-fi]

How time flies, thanks for reminding

Thank you (all) for sharing the developments @ Taiko with this community of owners and non-owners. I am part of the latter but how much do I enjoy reading here.

 

[nenon]

The first 100 scheduled to be finished end of this week!

Does that mean those will ship earlier than February, 28th?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Does that mean those will ship earlier than February, 28th?

Unfortunately not, that date is determined by assembled PCB ETA.

 

[Blackmorec]

Production is in full swing in Oldenzaal running 24 hour (3*8) shifts. The first 100 scheduled to be finished end of this week!

View attachment 103480

Looks like a page from a horological magazine. The lunatic fringe is a nice place to be!

 

[engadin]

What is the metal for the chromed versions?
Will there be sonic differences between copper and chrome versions?

 

[CKKeung]

#82 of

QSA LANEDRI Series

Hi Steven, Very glad yo see that there is a QSA Forum on WBF. Congratulations! https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/qsa-my-take-on-their-expensive-products.33833/ I think I wrote the first QSA review on WBF, back in 2012. :D...

www.whatsbestforum.com

I'm eagerly waiting for the report on the QSA-treated DAC cable!

 

[Kris]

#82 of

QSA LANEDRI Series

Hi Steven, Very glad yo see that there is a QSA Forum on WBF. Congratulations! https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/qsa-my-take-on-their-expensive-products.33833/ I think I wrote the first QSA review on WBF, back in 2012. :D...

www.whatsbestforum.com

I'm eagerly waiting for the report on the QSA-treated DAC cable!

Keep us posted with results.
DAC cable on its own without QSA is already very good.
With QSA it must be a top performer

 

[SwissTom]

What is the metal for the chromed versions?
Will there be sonic differences between copper and chrome versions?

Extreme Switch – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

Extreme Switch + Network Card (Bundle) – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

Everything is detailed on Taiko Audio's website


For the moment, there is only one finish: chrome.

Whatever the finish, the case is made from a solid copper block.

A lot of information can be found in three PDF files : post #14,362


Cheers,

Thomas

 

[onlychild]

Does that mean those will ship earlier than February, 28th?

Don’t get too excited, I’m planning on borrowing yours till the black one gets released. ; )

 

[Di-fi]

Extreme Switch – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

Extreme Switch + Network Card (Bundle) – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

Everything is detailed on Taiko Audio's website


For the moment, there is only one finish: chrome.

Whatever the finish, the case is made from a solid copper block.

A lot of information can be found in three PDF files : post #14,362


Cheers,

Thomas

Regarding taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020 ;
For the Taiko Audio Extreme Switch don't look under ''PRODUCTS'',
look under ''WHERE TO BUY'' instead ;-)