steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"
Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
Fair enough.. blind in one eye - can't see out the other..
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
a reflection or a shadow? Like Ruin I am confused because I see what he is seeing
This is quite impressive!!!
It reminds me of the Grimm brothers' tale: Die Wichtelmänner.
It's as if there were a whole team of house elves in your Oldenzaal facility
...I think if that was a slot, the board would be 2x the allowable width. It's one of those silhouette/vase optical illusions. Or it just looks like one.
Nice video! So, copper cuts really "gummy", hence the heavy coolant flooding. What spindle speed is your CNC doing, if a manufacturing geek may ask?
I was given two different prototype DAC cables from QSA Lanedri to try when I received my Taiko switch. My NIC is running (fine) without a bracket and I planned to wait for a fix, in this case receiving the new NIC, before I start switching DAC cables. But I could not resist!
.You can read more about the company here - https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/qsa-lanedri-series.36078/
Don’t ask me what they do, I have no idea… but they have some kind of technology to treat cables, which makes a big difference. It’s quite impacting indeed. The company owner is a client of mine who has an ARC6 DC4 linear power supply, and I have kept in touch with him over the years as I do with most DC4 owners. It seems like he values my opinion, and he has sent me some of his prototype cables to try and give him my opinion. For that reason, I have an early prototype of their Ultimatum speaker cables and they made a bigger difference than replacing amplifiers in my system. It’s crazy. But this is not about QSA Lanedri (or at least not only). It’s about my experience with LAN and DAC cables with my Taiko switch.
Let me start with my network. I’ve done some crazy experiments with switches and have had more switches in my audio system than any sane person should ever have. According to my Amazon account, I bought 31 switches between 2020 and 2021. And that’s just Amazon. I’ve modded some of these switches for friends too. And I got pretty deep into it by replacing clocks, capacitors, wiring, etc. Okay, we established a baseline ( of how crazy I am ), so let me get to the point. With all these switches, there was a cumulative effect. You add one switch, and if it sounds better, there is a good chance that adding a second switch will sound even better. And that’s how I ended up daisy chaining 3,4,5,6+ switches at some point. And even with 6 switches, I could still hear an improvement when I added a 7th switch. I could also combine different switches with different sound signatures (i.e. like the M12 + heavily modified Buffalo), and that gave me the best of both worlds.
The opposite effect was also true - if I did not like how a switch sounded, I never liked it anywhere in the chain.
When I added the Taiko switch to my system, I noticed that simplicity is key. The more simple my network was, the better it sounded. I did not have 7 switches, but I had 2, and removing those brought more transparency and neutrality. The same thing happened with the LAN cables feeding the switch. I tried all the different LAN cables I had at home, and I found a simple $15 CAT6 cable I bought from Amazon to sound best. They all sounded different but the $15 CAT6 cable was the most neutral.
I purchased a LAN cable from QSA Lanedri (Gamma Infinity), and I quite liked that cable in my system before the Taiko switch. After installing the Taiko switch, I felt like it was not needed. It still made a difference, but I preferred the $15 CAT6 LAN cable.
The thing I like the most about the Taiko switch/NIC is how transparent and neutral it sounds. I am at a stage of my audiophile journey where I value that type of transparency and neutrality. And Emile has outdone himself with the switch and NIC. In fact, I think the Taiko switch / NIC is one of the best products Taiko has released. But keep in mind that I have probably maxed out the performance of that switch with very high-end LPS, DC cable, and power cord feeding my LPS. This does open the full potential of the switch. And because the high-end LPS made such a big difference in my system, I have a feeling that the BPS will be the best product Taiko will release this year, better than the switch (although the switch will also benefit from it)… but let’s wait and see that.
It’s hard to explain what the switch does, but I feel like it’s trying to remove any coloration from your network. It can’t completely remove that, and we know it because we can hear the impact of inserting upstream network devices and cables. It has limited horsepower and the easier you make its job, the better it sounds. How can you make its job easier? By removing as many devices and cables that have a strong sound signature. Then the Taiko switch has less work to do and enough horsepower to clean up your network and turn it into this transparent/neutral sound.
I guess that adding a Taiko router upstream of the switch will significantly increase the available horsepower to clean up the network even more and we’ll hear even more of that transparent and neutral-sounding music this process does.
But to help that process, I ended up removing all of my audiophile switches and fancy LAN cables (including the QSA Lanedri LAN cable). I just have my cable modem feeding a router feeding the Taiko switch. All are powered by linear power supplies and all with basic CAT6 cables.
BTW, this is all system and taste-dependent. I know people who prefer a QSA Lanedri LAN cable (and other audiophile LAN cables) feeding their Taiko switch. This has a big impact and does some interesting things. And I can see why many people may like it. But I just prefer to make the Taiko switch/NIC do their thing and make their job a lot easier.
After that experience, I was very skeptical that the QSA Lanedri DAC cable between the Taiko switch and NIC will have any benefit. Combine this with the fact that my NIC is hanging in the air, not secured by a bracket, and I had very little desire to test the two DAC cables I had. But audiophiles are not the most patient people, and I decided to test it. Boy, was I wrong about this? Both of these DAC cables were a significant improvement over the stock DAC cable. But one was quite better than the other. And I heard QSA Lanedri went with the cable I preferred to production, which I think was the right decision. It’s hard to explain what this cable does. The bass becomes more textured. There is a sense of better dynamics. More transparency and you hear more of the room of the recording. Everything sounds more real and more palpable. The list goes on.
Is there a downside? I was thinking a lot about this as I was switching back and forth. The stock DAC cable sounds a bit more relaxed compared to the QSA Lanedri DAC cable. The QSA Lanedri DAC cable sounds more energetic but not in any way fatiguing. Switching back to the stock cable, you lose a lot of the magic, and it sounds relaxed, but the word that keeps coming to my mind is “boring”. So, yes, after you listen to the QSA Lanedri cable for a while and have to switch back to the stock DAC cable, it does sound boring.
I was told that I can’t keep the prototype DAC cable and I need to send it somewhere else. I have some friends coming over for Axpona, and will keep the prototype until then because they wanted to hear it too. Maybe they will post their impressions too.
I would like to exchange my QSA Lanedri LAN cable for one of these DAC cables, but I am outside of my 30-day return policy. If I can’t, I will be selling the LAN cable and buying a DAC cable for myself.
I love reading your posts (seriously I do), it makes me feel so un-obsessive and normal, which of course I am notI was given two different prototype DAC cables from QSA Lanedri to try when I received my Taiko switch. My NIC is running (fine) without a bracket and I planned to wait for a fix, in this case receiving the new NIC, before I start switching DAC cables. But I could not resist!
You can read more about the company here - https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/qsa-lanedri-series.36078/
Don’t ask me what they do, I have no idea… but they have some kind of technology to treat cables, which makes a big difference. It’s quite impacting indeed. The company owner is a client of mine who has an ARC6 DC4 linear power supply, and I have kept in touch with him over the years as I do with most DC4 owners. It seems like he values my opinion, and he has sent me some of his prototype cables to try and give him my opinion. For that reason, I have an early prototype of their Ultimatum speaker cables and they made a bigger difference than replacing amplifiers in my system. It’s crazy. But this is not about QSA Lanedri (or at least not only). It’s about my experience with LAN and DAC cables with my Taiko switch.
Let me start with my network. I’ve done some crazy experiments with switches and have had more switches in my audio system than any sane person should ever have. According to my Amazon account, I bought 31 switches between 2020 and 2021. And that’s just Amazon. I’ve modded some of these switches for friends too. And I got pretty deep into it by replacing clocks, capacitors, wiring, etc. Okay, we established a baseline ( of how crazy I am ), so let me get to the point. With all these switches, there was a cumulative effect. You add one switch, and if it sounds better, there is a good chance that adding a second switch will sound even better. And that’s how I ended up daisy chaining 3,4,5,6+ switches at some point. And even with 6 switches, I could still hear an improvement when I added a 7th switch. I could also combine different switches with different sound signatures (i.e. like the M12 + heavily modified Buffalo), and that gave me the best of both worlds.
The opposite effect was also true - if I did not like how a switch sounded, I never liked it anywhere in the chain.
When I added the Taiko switch to my system, I noticed that simplicity is key. The more simple my network was, the better it sounded. I did not have 7 switches, but I had 2, and removing those brought more transparency and neutrality. The same thing happened with the LAN cables feeding the switch. I tried all the different LAN cables I had at home, and I found a simple $15 CAT6 cable I bought from Amazon to sound best. They all sounded different but the $15 CAT6 cable was the most neutral.
I purchased a LAN cable from QSA Lanedri (Gamma Infinity), and I quite liked that cable in my system before the Taiko switch. After installing the Taiko switch, I felt like it was not needed. It still made a difference, but I preferred the $15 CAT6 LAN cable.
The thing I like the most about the Taiko switch/NIC is how transparent and neutral it sounds. I am at a stage of my audiophile journey where I value that type of transparency and neutrality. And Emile has outdone himself with the switch and NIC. In fact, I think the Taiko switch / NIC is one of the best products Taiko has released. But keep in mind that I have probably maxed out the performance of that switch with very high-end LPS, DC cable, and power cord feeding my LPS. This does open the full potential of the switch. And because the high-end LPS made such a big difference in my system, I have a feeling that the BPS will be the best product Taiko will release this year, better than the switch (although the switch will also benefit from it)… but let’s wait and see that.
It’s hard to explain what the switch does, but I feel like it’s trying to remove any coloration from your network. It can’t completely remove that, and we know it because we can hear the impact of inserting upstream network devices and cables. It has limited horsepower and the easier you make its job, the better it sounds. How can you make its job easier? By removing as many devices and cables that have a strong sound signature. Then the Taiko switch has less work to do and enough horsepower to clean up your network and turn it into this transparent/neutral sound.
I guess that adding a Taiko router upstream of the switch will significantly increase the available horsepower to clean up the network even more and we’ll hear even more of that transparent and neutral-sounding music this process does.
But to help that process, I ended up removing all of my audiophile switches and fancy LAN cables (including the QSA Lanedri LAN cable). I just have my cable modem feeding a router feeding the Taiko switch. All are powered by linear power supplies and all with basic CAT6 cables.
BTW, this is all system and taste-dependent. I know people who prefer a QSA Lanedri LAN cable (and other audiophile LAN cables) feeding their Taiko switch. This has a big impact and does some interesting things. And I can see why many people may like it. But I just prefer to make the Taiko switch/NIC do their thing and make their job a lot easier.
After that experience, I was very skeptical that the QSA Lanedri DAC cable between the Taiko switch and NIC will have any benefit. Combine this with the fact that my NIC is hanging in the air, not secured by a bracket, and I had very little desire to test the two DAC cables I had. But audiophiles are not the most patient people, and I decided to test it. Boy, was I wrong about this? Both of these DAC cables were a significant improvement over the stock DAC cable. But one was quite better than the other. And I heard QSA Lanedri went with the cable I preferred to production, which I think was the right decision. It’s hard to explain what this cable does. The bass becomes more textured. There is a sense of better dynamics. More transparency and you hear more of the room of the recording. Everything sounds more real and more palpable. The list goes on.
Is there a downside? I was thinking a lot about this as I was switching back and forth. The stock DAC cable sounds a bit more relaxed compared to the QSA Lanedri DAC cable. The QSA Lanedri DAC cable sounds more energetic but not in any way fatiguing. Switching back to the stock cable, you lose a lot of the magic, and it sounds relaxed, but the word that keeps coming to my mind is “boring”. So, yes, after you listen to the QSA Lanedri cable for a while and have to switch back to the stock DAC cable, it does sound boring.
I was told that I can’t keep the prototype DAC cable and I need to send it somewhere else. I have some friends coming over for Axpona, and will keep the prototype until then because they wanted to hear it too. Maybe they will post their impressions too.
I would like to exchange my QSA Lanedri LAN cable for one of these DAC cables, but I am outside of my 30-day return policy. If I can’t, I will be selling the LAN cable and buying a DAC cable for myself.
LOL, glad I can helpI love reading your posts (seriously I do), it makes me feel so un-obsessive and normal, which of course I am not
.Don't let Jerry (Rhapsody - Chicago) hang out too much with me.
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I must admit @nenon that you have been known as well to drop a posted pearl every now and again.LOL, glad I can help
Don't let Jerry (Rhapsody - Chicago) hang out too much with me.
I keep telling him to go and live in your house and LEARN!!!!LOL, glad I can help
Don't let Jerry (Rhapsody - Chicago) hang out too much with me.
The SQ improvement “fingerprints” of @nenon are all over many systems of those who post at WBF!
Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
Hi John, not so much a no-no as best practice not to have more than one server/player solution enabled at a time. There is a sonic impact on XDMS (reduction in expression and a smoothing effect) as soon as there is an active Roon core on the network, even if it is not on the Extreme. The same is probably true for TAS (but I have not tested this). That said, you probably won't break anything if you're using them for testing and are switching on the fly.
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Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
I really shouldn't be praising our own products, but this just looks finger-licking delicious, doesn't it?
Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
You all have a good point, and I also fell for it at first. It is a reflection. So no hole as such but a slit that is open on one side.
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