While the packaging should be further improved to prevent bending of the bracket, it's highly doubtful that the card would sustain damage. And indeed, the card turned out to work just fine. There is an issue elsewhere in the network.
It's even more impressive than that. I live in the world of pharmaceuticals where the most dreaded word in the industry is the "R" word...which stands for recall. When something bad happens due to product contamination, packaging errors or regulatory glitches, companies need to respond quickly with 3 responses: acknowledgement of the problem, identification of the root cause, and remediation. This can often take months (and a lot of that delay is often due to internal finger pointing and failure of the responsible group to step up). What Taiko did was remarkable in that it only took a few weeks from soup to nuts to rectify this. You can't possibly ask for better than that. (Yes, we're talking about 100 boards and not 100 million pills w far more risk if not handled correctly). Still, that's beyond impressive. It's flat out truly amazing.
I am VERY SURPISED at the difference the card makes. I knew there was a difference as I had originally heard the card prior to going back to the old card. BUT, maybe the new heat-sink added to it?, regardless it's not a subtle difference over the switch with the old card. It's a major uptick with the new card.
But what about the card, lol.
I have been one of the lucky ones whose initial Taiko NIC card has performed flawlessly since its arrival on 3/16. I have been astonished by the system SQ uptick, increasingly over the first 2 weeks. I will be very curious to hear if the copper heatsink version improves SQ further....
A few weeks ago you reported the fiber card was close to the network card..for me it wasn't even close.
It’s one of those fortuitous ironies that out of an unforeseen problem, namely, issues with heat regulation, the corrective measure for that also brings an uptick in SQ. So far I hear more refinement, decay, and transparency. Way to go Team Taiko!!!" I did a SQ check installing and connecting with the bracket bent versus straight and as I could not hear a difference decided to go with straight bracket "Though I had a FedEx hold for me to pick up, gratefully, they ignored my request and delivered the new NIC this morning. No damage to outer or inner box but apparently the shipping gremlins have Uri Gellar-like powers. Install and network connect went smoothly in spite of my tech-Luddite tendencies. I did a SQ check installing and connecting with the bracket bent versus straight and as I could not hear a difference decided to go with straight bracket
I was talking to Ed today and I said, it's interesting as everyone's room, ears, systems are totally different. It's going to result in different reports. In my system it wasn't night and day from the original card to the old card, but I only was able to listen to the new card for 15 minutes before it destructed. Then when I used the switch with the old card it sounded really good and I was fine with that sound for the last 2 weeks. I was enjoying the music and not thinking about the cards or system.
