Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[DoctorWhy]

The chrome finish switches ordered before April the 10th ship May 10-12, chrome switches order after April the 10th ship the second week of June. All black finish switches ship the first week of June.

Dear Emile,

I am a huge fan of what you and Taiko are achieving. I love my SGM Extreme! The previous USB upgrade was HUGE! The new Network Card and Switch sound great. I am, however, a bit disappointed that my switch order has not yet been shipped, despite being ordered and paid for in March. Robert864@mac.com

Rob

 

[ctydwn]

Dear Emile,

I am a huge fan of what you and Taiko are achieving. I love my SGM Extreme! The previous USB upgrade was HUGE! The new Network Card and Switch sound great. I am, however, a bit disappointed that my switch order has not yet been shipped, despite being ordered and paid for in March. Robert864@mac.com

Rob

I hear you…but, IMHO, you are lucky to be in the queue! As you may know already, Taiko works around the clock, soliciting extremely hard to find materials/parts/cases/finishes etc. and they can only control their supply chain as much as they can. Currently, lead times are up to 8 weeks (as highlighted in bold on their website when ordering); however, I surely wouldn't feel too disappointed by an extra week or two with the next Taiko SQ jump approaching your doorstep to take your system into the next stratosphere. Many of us are in the same position (switch, NIC, router, PD all fully paid for here and eagerly awaiting).

Personally, I am on this train for the long haul, an absolute privilege, and have grown to appreciate that an extra week or two for the final kink or two to be smoothed out is well worth it. Just IMHO FWIW and not trying to take away from your feelings.

 

[EuroDriver]

Ed,

Say you're listening to a queue in Concert mode. And suppose you want to add more tracks, perhaps reorder them, how can this be correctly achieved? Would this work?
- Stop playback
- Change to Discover mode
- add tracks to queue
- reorder tracks in queue
- Change back to Concert mode
- Start playback.

Is this the correct method? Or is it:
- Clear the queue
- Switch to discover mode
- add to and/or reorder tracks in queue
- Switch to Concert mode
- Start playback?

The first process is good. No need to delete the queue

 

[Taiko Audio]

Dear Emile,

I am a huge fan of what you and Taiko are achieving. I love my SGM Extreme! The previous USB upgrade was HUGE! The new Network Card and Switch sound great. I am, however, a bit disappointed that my switch order has not yet been shipped, despite being ordered and paid for in March. Robert864@mac.com

Rob

If you ordered a chrome switch it either already shipped last week or it ships today/tomorrow. If you ordered a black switch I’m afraid you’ll have to wait another 2 weeks.

 

[seatrope]

One quick note for those who experience problems with expanding storage by adding more SSDs on a separate card.

I followed the instructions on the Taiko website:
Extreme-Storage-Upgrade-Software-Configuration-Manual_v2.pdf (taikoaudio.com)

However, the D: Music drive remained stubbornly stuck at 7.43TB even after adding 2x 8TB Sabrent Rocket Q drives.



When I try to increase the size of the Music (D drive with the "Change" option, i could only go to 13TB or so and anything higher it gave the error ""storage space cannot be extended because the number of clusters will exceed the maximum number of clusters supported by the file system""

Emailed Taiko Support and got the message that I should follow the instructions on the website (which I had already done) - not very useful answer. Nothing to address the issues about the cluster size. Perhaps I missed something on the instructions...

I finally did some research on the web and found people with the same issue:
[SOLVED] - How to set Cluster size in Windows Storage Spaces Pool | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)
How to PROPERLY adjust storage space size (maximum) after adding drive - Windows 10 Forums (tenforums.com)

Basically for me, all I needed to do was to reformat the D: drive with a larger allocation unit size:
****YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING ON YOUR D DRIVE IF YOU DO THIS SO BACKUP FIRST****

****YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING ON YOUR D DRIVE IF YOU DO THIS SO BACKUP FIRST****

I used 16kb and this solved it. My D: is now the expected size (22TB).

@Taiko Audio have you done any experiments on whether the allocation unit size on the storage drives affects SQ? Will changing this to 16kb cause any issues?

Hope this helps others with the same problem!

 

[Kingsrule]

Wouldn't u lose the files that were on your D storage space when u did this?

 

[seatrope]

Did u lose the files that we on your D storage space when u did this?

Of course. I was going to recopy everything anyway.

I'll edit to make that clear. I keep a master copy on my Truenas server.

 

[dminches]

Did u lose the files that we on your D storage space when u did this?

If you do this correctly you shouldn't lose any files.

 

[seatrope]

If you do this correctly you shouldn't lose any files.

I don't know what I did wrong. Followed the instructions and had to reformat to change the allocation unit size in order to expand to the full size.. did you go through this yourself @dminches ?

What was your original SSD array size? perhaps if you had a bigger SSD array the allocation block size was larger to begin with.

 

[dminches]

I don't know what I did wrong. Followed the instructions and had to reformat to change the allocation unit size in order to expand to the full size.. did you go through this yourself @dminches ?

What was your original SSD array size? perhaps if you had a bigger SSD array the allocation block size was larger to begin with.

My original array was 8 TB and I increased it to 16 TB. I did this a while ago so I don't recall all the specifics. However, I don't remember adding all my music again (which wouldn't have been a big deal) but I guess it is possible. Someone from Taiko should comment on this.

 

[seatrope]

My original array was 8 TB and I increased it to 16 TB. I did this a while ago so I don't recall all the specifics. However, I don't remember adding all my music again (which wouldn't have been a big deal) but I guess it is possible. Someone from Taiko should comment on this.

You might had enough allocation units to account for that going to 16TB. but it would not let me go to my full 24TB.. or at least the POOL said 22TB available but the D: was stuck at 7.43TB or whatever.

 

[Kingsrule]

If you do this correctly you shouldn't lose any files.

Exactly...

 

[Taiko Audio]

You might had enough allocation units to account for that going to 16TB. but it would not let me go to my full 24TB.. or at least the POOL said 22TB available but the D: was stuck at 7.43TB or whatever.

Creative solution However this should not be necessary. Next time please notify support you require assistance and we’ll take care of that for you over a teamviewer session. You don’t have to worry about a SQ penalty, you’re good!

 

[vert]

I have discarded the Tplink 660 hd, too much “interference”. The Microtik mAP lite is my currently preferred AP. It runs at 5V with about a 500mA current draw and mainly only affects high frequencies negatively where the Tplink affects almost the entire frequency range. But also exploring different paths.

I was always researching lower powered access points.

I know this sounds crazy, but I can hear differences between ethernet cables used for the access point.

I had an ethernet cable that was bright, and when I used it for the access point, it made the sound brighter.

 

[Di-fi]

I was always researching lower powered access points.

I know this sounds crazy, but I can hear differences between ethernet cables used for the access point.

I had an ethernet cable that was bright, and when I used it for the access point, it made the sound brighter.

It’s not crazy at all, same here. With a resolving system you can hear differences between Ethernet cables and also dc - and power cables for example. You could hear a different AP changing the SQ, same for it’s DC power supply including the type of DC cable used.

If the AP is not as good as the recommended MikroTik AP higher up in this thread it will degrade your sound. But this will keep evolving and possibly an other AP can still sound better.

Now in theory, if you do not want to hear this, you could simply hit ’’ play album‘’ if Concert mode allows for that(?), disconnect AP and tablet & sit back and listen and only then reconnect to play an other album. In theory, because 1) nobody wants to bother doing that and 2) the cached or buffered album tracks need to be 100% free of any additional noise or interference for this to sound ‘perfect’ (if that ever exists).

 

[Di-fi]

Ed,

Say you're listening to a queue in Concert mode. And suppose you want to add more tracks, perhaps reorder them, how can this be correctly achieved? Would this work?
- Stop playback
- Change to Discover mode
- add tracks to queue
- reorder tracks in queue
- Change back to Concert mode
- Start playback.

Is this the correct method? Or is it:
- Clear the queue
- Switch to discover mode
- add to and/or reorder tracks in queue
- Switch to Concert mode
- Start playback?

You seem to prefer Concert mode. Are whole albums cached or buffered before playing? Or only two tracks at a time?

 

[austinpop]

You seem to prefer Concert mode. Are whole albums cached or buffered before playing? Or only two tracks at a time?

Yes I do. I may be reading too much into your phrase "seem to," but I hope that is not surprising? I would think many people like listening to albums, or at least for classical or opera fans, an entire piece of music that spans multiple movements or sections that are delivered as distinct tracks.

As to what Concert mode does: no, it does not cache the entire queue, like the Stylus player in Euphony. Rather, the cache contains the previous, current, and next track, and this updates at every track transition. This of course sets the stage for gapless transition between tracks, but this is still a work in progress in the backend development.

 

[Di-fi]

Yes I do. I may be reading too much into your phrase "seem to," but I hope that is not surprising? I would think many people like listening to albums, or at least for classical or opera fans, an entire piece of music that spans multiple movements or sections that are delivered as distinct tracks.

As to what Concert mode does: no, it does not cache the entire queue, like the Stylus player in Euphony. Rather, the cache contains the previous, current, and next track, and this updates at every track transition. This of course sets the stage for gapless transition between tracks, but this is still a work in progress in the backend development.

Thank you Austinpop, that answers my question. ’Seem to´, OK to be honest I know about your musical preferences being the public figure you are (more at AS maybe) although much less these days I must say. But I suspect I do know why, today having Emile and the team finding all the solutions ;-).

As you are familiar with Euphony OS and it’s buffering capabilities I am sure you had compared with the Extreme and the caching/buffering effect on SQ as far as Extreme allows for control of that. By the way, to keep things simple above I had erased my SQ question regarding your judgement of buffering in Concert Mode vs. Discovery mode and the role of network noise coming from upstream Router-AP-Switch and power. Very well understood, indeed it’s a (very exiting) work in progress.

 

[Kris]

It’s not crazy at all, same here. With a resolving system you can hear differences between Ethernet cables and also dc - and power cables for example. You could hear a different AP changing the SQ, same for it’s DC power supply including the type of DC cable used.

If the AP is not as good as the recommended MikroTik AP higher up in this thread it will degrade your sound. But this will keep evolving and possibly an other AP can still sound better.

Now in theory, if you do not want to hear this, you could simply hit ’’ play album‘’ if Concert mode allows for that(?), disconnect AP and tablet & sit back and listen and only then reconnect to play an other album. In theory, because 1) nobody wants to bother doing that and 2) the cached or buffered album tracks need to be 100% free of any additional noise or interference.

Same here. Big differences between differen lan cables. Also the lenght is important.
But innregards to AP I stopped testing once Emile was adding his info he is doing his experiments wit APs. I am sure he will find a way to optimise it to perfection.

In my system AP ( wifi) is the biggers source of noise. So I will be happy to eliminate it

 

[RUIN*ish]

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