Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
I believe it has to rescan the music files. I noticed a lot of activity on my NAS when this happened.
Its possible it really rebuilds the database by scanning your whole NAS based library, I just don’t know. 6 hours is really long though.
That is probably 800p or M10. Mounted on the motherboard it will run through the chipset, will roughly be half the speed. But yes your 6 hours is most likely from scanning your NAS.
Ben Lau of Volent HK, the official dealer of Taiko Audio is still burning-in the Extreme and fine-tuning it to match his showroom components.
I luckily got a glimpse of its interior.
I was shocked. The interior is completely different from all audiophile servers/streamers in the market. It's neat & tidy and well-built to the extreme! No wonder it's named Extreme.
I had a brief audition too.
Even though it's unboiled and not yet fine-tuned, I have 100% confidence that it will remain on its throne for at least the coming 4 to 5 years.
It's simply too difficult for the other brands to catch up!
Please stay tuned.
I shall go back to have another audition in a week's time and update all of you on WBF.
The chance of a digital product remaining on its "Throne" for the next 4 or 5 years is zero. Just look at history. No electronics hold such a position. Indeed most are discontinued within such a timeframe. Even with loudspeakers it is difficult to sustain a leading position for such a period. It happened in the days of the original Quad Electrostatic but I doubt it has happened since.
NO!
I want to chose if/when I'm going to update.
I guess its a mute point this go round.....
Well excellent article Emile, which however opens up possible marital conflicts. When my wife is at home, she spends a lot of time in her office connected to the internet answering mail from clients, sending budgets ...... Let's see how I tell her to leave the internet calm, that it is degrading the sound.
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Although the concept of "throne" in the high-end is too vague - the high-end is mostly republican
- some top digital products have a time-span larger than 5 years - see the DCS Vivaldi that was introduced in 2012.
Hi Ian,
I give you my 2 cents
1) The Extreme data processing strategy is reducing CPU activity to the minimum and spreading the data processing activity over multiple cores. As the prices of Xeon processors drop, then plugging in a processor with more cores will be an easy upgrade to the existing motherboard. So the Extreme is definitely not going to become obsolete from not having enough CPU cores. CPU's are becoming less power hungry with each generation, and the Extreme motherboard will be able to fit those as well.
When the data processing strategy is heavy DSP, then the Music Server will benefit from faster CPU's and GPU's and you will be riding the processing power arms race and obsolescence will be a given
2) The noise signature of OS has a huge influence over the sound that comes out from the system. Windows LTSC is the clear leader in Emile's testing, and the gap between the latest from Microsoft and the different flavors of Linux can only be expected to increase in the future. When Microsoft delivers a better kernal and scheduler, Emile for sure will build an updated OS from these new components. So the OS is absolutely future obsolescence proof for many years to come
3) The noise signature of Roon has taken a big step forward in the 1.7 version, for sure there will be more improvements to come, and every Roon server will be able to take advantage of these improvements
4) The influence of chassis and vibration control is huge, that is not going to become obsolete
5) The influence of the power supply is huge. For sure Emile will have upgrades as even better components become available , but they will be easily retrofitted to the existing fleet of Extremes should their owners wish
IMHO CK's take that the Extreme platform is future proof for at least 4 years is correct
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I had some time to evaluate Roon 1.7 this morning. I am overall pleased with this release. The interface responds better / faster. Functional improvements I like are improved scrolling capability on small devices like an iPhone and access to more features from those, for collections consisting of multiple albums you now have the option to list all tracks on one page, the live radio feature allows browsing radio stations, though I'm not likely to use that personally, new track discovery /exploration (valence) is interesting, the suggestions of what to play / suits your taste are better.
The sound quality is a big plus. The Roon announcement includes this:
Now streaming from Qobuz and Tidal has indeed improved, but local storage file playback has improved even more. There is just a touch of relative more warmth to Qobuz and Tidal due to a stronger upper bass section. It makes it very slightly less neutral then local storage playback. The delta for transparency and fine detail rendering is bigger for local storage then it is for Qobuz and Tidal. Now don't consider this a negative thing as overall the sound quality is up for all sources.
My notes regarding overall sound quality improvements:
There is a big plus for dynamic differentiation, both macro and micro dynamics have improved and the transitions in ramping up/down are smoother. The music flows better, sounds more continuous. There is an overall increase of suppleness / agility which, combined with increases in air, transparency, texture rendering quality and micro detail, creates a more natural / believable experience. Sound staging is better, more 3 dimensional, more holographic, better focus and decay is rendered better. Clarity and transparency are up. Altogether it sounds more alive, it is better at expressing mood or conveying feeling, it is just more musically engaging.
The sound quality is a big plus. The Roon announcement includes this:
Now streaming from Qobuz and Tidal has indeed improved, but local storage file playback has improved even more. There is just a touch of relative more warmth to Qobuz and Tidal due to a stronger upper bass section. It makes it very slightly less neutral then local storage playback. The delta for transparency and fine detail rendering is bigger for local storage then it is for Qobuz and Tidal. Now don't consider this a negative thing as overall the sound quality is up for all sources.
My notes regarding overall sound quality improvements:
There is a big plus for dynamic differentiation, both macro and micro dynamics have improved and the transitions in ramping up/down are smoother. The music flows better, sounds more continuous. There is an overall increase of suppleness / agility which, combined with increases in air, transparency, texture rendering quality and micro detail, creates a more natural / believable experience. Sound staging is better, more 3 dimensional, more holographic, better focus and decay is rendered better. Clarity and transparency are up. Altogether it sounds more alive, it is better at expressing mood or conveying feeling, it is just more musically engaging.
Emile,
how is (with Qobuz) SQ of upsampling with Roon 1.7 in comparison to native playback?
Thanks
Matt
I prefer native with the Extreme.
I know
Actually I changed them after arrival of Extreme. I guess I forgot that I did that. All good on my end. No 1.7 yet!
Now that Qobuz is sounding so good using Roon in the Extreme, is there an option to search for "format" in Qobuz contents in the upgraded Roon?
