Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[matthias]

I‘m trying to understand why an unscreened cable would sound better than an optimally screened cable. Applying some logic I come to the following: Is this feasible?
A screen does certain things to the signal but prevents other things from happening that are more damaging. A non screened cable picks up a lot of damaging noise but isnt affected by a screen. When the Extreme effectively removes all the added grunge and extracts the music the unscreened cable ends up sounding better because there’s no screen related affects.? What this infers is that screened is much better than unscreened cable unless you have the ability to remove all the added junk, then the opposite is true.

Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

Bob, you missed the adding of dCS Rossini, it sings with the Taiko Driver All Dac's SING with the Taiko Driver:):) Cool on the Rossini:)

www.whatsbestforum.com

Matt

 

[nonesup]

Hi Emile,
One more follow-up thanks. I‘m trying to understand why an unscreened cable would sound better than an optimally screened cable. Applying some logic I come to the following: Is this feasible?
A screen does certain things to the signal but prevents other things from happening that are more damaging. A non screened cable picks up a lot of damaging noise but isnt affected by a screen. When the Extreme effectively removes all the added grunge and extracts the music the unscreened cable ends up sounding better because there’s no screen related affects.? What this infers is that screened is much better than unscreened cable unless you have the ability to remove all the added junk, then the opposite is true.
What do you think?

Well unfortunately your paragraph “When the Extreme effectively removes all the added grunge” is not correct IMO. Sure, Extreme's software is reducing network grunge, but it's not completely removing it. Likewise and in my personal experience it is very striking how the difference in SQ between a Cat 5e cable and a very expensive shielded cable based on Cat7 has decreased, however for me the sound with the Göbel Ethernet cable is still superior and again in my experience placing a Mello S-100 between the Modem-Router and the Extreme “clearly” improves the sound. I would have loved it if it wasn't, because I would have put the S-100 up for sale, but for now it's still in my system.

 

[Blackmorec]

Well unfortunately your paragraph “When the Extreme effectively removes all the added grunge” is not correct IMO. Sure, Extreme's software is reducing network grunge, but it's not completely removing it. Likewise and in my personal experience it is very striking how the difference in SQ between a Cat 5e cable and a very expensive shielded cable based on Cat7 has decreased, however for me the sound with the Göbel Ethernet cable is still superior and again in my experience placing a Mello S-100 between the Modem-Router and the Extreme “clearly” improves the sound. I would have loved it if it wasn't, because I would have put the S-100 up for sale, but for now it's still in my system.

Hi nonesup,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, which I was very happy to read. Essentially you’re saying that the Extreme can take things a very long way but still not the whole way. I’m sure Emile/ will be glad to hear that in spite of having some of the finest sound out there, there’s still plenty of room for more improvement. This is obviously the area that the new router, internet card and switch address and is the area I’ve been fooling around in these past 2.5 years, albeit with a different server and I can attest to it being an area rich for exploitation in terms of SQ. There’s already great rewards just leaving the Extreme to pick out the music from a totally unrefined network stream. But i cannot imagine that an Extreme is going to sound worse with a refined network. What’s changed as far as I can see maybe things like network screening, which needs some research to figure out what actually works best. For example, my network screens are star wired to a low impedance earth so I wonder if that would work better than an unscreened cable. The question is, is the Extreme better with or without an optimally done screen. The difference between the two is mainly detected by the ear…..so if the unscreened indeed does sound better I would ask the question, how is the screen affecting the signal……what is it about a screen that puts an audible stamp on the music? Any suggestions?

 

[Emorante]

Mi chiedevo perché ho trovato 24 Extremes sulla soglia di casa. Li vuoi indietro o posso collegarli a margherita?

Mi chiedevo perché ho trovato 24 Extremes sulla soglia di casa. Li vuoi indietro o posso collegarli a margherita?

uno dovrebbe essere mio

 

[audioquattr]

..... The question is, is the Extreme better with or without an optimally done screen.

to me without (connected)screen. I tried to many screened (incl 'audiophile') and never liked them. I allways hear distortion and noise.

.... The difference between the two is mainly detected by the ear…..so if the unscreened indeed does sound better I would ask the question, how is the screen affecting the signal……what is it about a screen that puts an audible stamp on the music? Any suggestions?

The screen is not affecting the signal but the (connected to metal connectors)screen is transporting noise (e.g. from powersupply or..) in to the next connected component.

 

[BaconBrain]

Apologies for going off topic, but previously there were thoughts around producing a Taiko Case for the DIY community. Is that project still active and if so, when could one expect them to be available? Thanks.

 

[simorag]

Question for SRC*DX / PGGB users: are you able to play 705/768kHz content via dual BNC?

I have loaded the USB4 driver and set Roon to 32 bit.
The PGGB files were created with 24bit depth.

I see they are converted to 352.8/384kHz and sent via single BNC.

I tried to set Roon to 24bit but the result is the same.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Question for SRC*DX / PGGB users: are you able to play 705/768kHz content via dual BNC?

I have loaded the USB4 driver and set Roon to 32 bit.
The PGGB files were created with 24bit depth.

I see they are converted to 352.8/384kHz and sent via single BNC.

I tried to set Roon to 24bit but the result is the same.

View attachment 90555

1) Update the firmware of the SRC-DX
2) Use the ASIO output, not WASAPI

 

[simorag]

1) Update the firmware of the SRC-DX
2) Use the ASIO output, not WASAPI

Thanks Emile, for the quick reply.
I have switched to the ASIO output:


And now I can play 768kHz, thank you! The name of the device changed from "Taiko Audiowise SRC-DX" to "Taiko Audio USB".
Am I still using your USB4 drivers or did I reverted to the generic ones?



P.S.: the SRC-DX firmware is from December 2021 (cannot see a newer version on Audiowise website)

 

[Taiko Audio]

The USB profiles only work with ASIO, you’re bypassing them using WASAPI. I would suggest disabling all unused outputs for another small boost in SQ.

 

[RUIN*ish]

"The eagle has landed"

Thank you Emile for the early morning dial in and setting up my rig!!
Marc

 

[John T]

Talk About Great Customer Support! This level is off the charts!

 

[theaudiogeek]

"The eagle has landed"

Thank you Emile for the early morning dial in and setting up my rig!!
Marc

That is great news... Looks like there is some movement in the customs clearance/delivery. Hopefully rest of the Eagles will learn to fly and land at the their respective places shortly...

 

[simorag]

I have to confess I am not a fan of crossfeed having tried it on a highly rated "Pro Audio" DAC.

Our software to do list is long, and I think it will be quite a while before we would have the time to experiment with crossfeed

Ed, thank you for the reply. I agree that crossfeed is a controversial subject, a difficult matter and a niche topic, so I acknowledge that giving it low priority makes totally sense.

On another subject, the possibility was mentioned in this thread in the past of implementing realtime upsampling via Remastero PGGB technology in XDMS. Is that still an active project?

 

[Kris]

I think there are as well some other considerations that speak in 5GHz’s favour.
A 5GHz band is a lot quicker, has greater bandwidth and thanks to tri-band routers can more easily be dedicated to audio without sharing with any other clients. This means that what little network activity there is is over very quickly. In addition, 5GHz penetrates buildings less well so for a dedicated band you can create a ‘low power hot spot’ with an extender/bridge outside the hi-fi room. The bridge receives files and bi-directionally transmits commands. Following the wi-fi bridge is a great place for a switch, ideally with a great power supply and low noise switch chip there purely to clean, retime and retransmit the stream. Putting a really good power supply on the bridge also brings substantial benefits.

I prefer separate ISP fibre and modem for audio ,
And a second fibre + modem for home.
The key is modem and router are passing audio packages only.
No other work !

Yes 5ghz is quicker but much more noisy.
The 5ghz in my place sounds good but only with filtering devices or filtering ethernet cable.
I am very glad we will have switch and router from Emile .
He knows what he is doing.

No metter what we do top class power supply is a must.

 

[Kris]

A year ago we were mainly guessing and wondering. Today we have developed software affecting network sensitivity, went through 4 switch designs, 2 network card designs, and have a prototype router up and running. What once was mysterious is not mysterious anymore today. If you're interested I suggest to read the last few 100 posts in this thread which details a few aspects of the OS update we launched recently causing a change in network interaction. These statistics are all post update. You could consider this phase 1 out of 3 phases leading to a complete solution we're launching over the course of this year.

You could call it "learning on the job"

Can we expelct that All 3 devices you are preparing will have External power supply option ? Swich , router, NIC.
Majority of us have a top class power supply for that any way .
It would be great to just disconnect old devices and connect new.

 

[oldmustang]

Can we expelct that All 3 devices you are preparing will have External power supply option ? Swich , router, NIC.
Majority of us have a top class power supply for that any way .
It would be great to just disconnect old devices and connect new.

Well, for the internally-mounted network interface card I'd expect that using the Extreme's own top-shelf and very extreme power supply would be hard to beat.

As far as external devices, good question. Also, wondering if the switch and router will accommodate a range of voltages, say 5VDC to 12VDC assuming a user-supplied external power supply is indeed an option. Or if that comes with too many sonic compromises.

I trust Emile to incorporate into his switch and router design the best sound quality decisions and if that means an included power supply, I'm happy with that.

Steve

 

[John T]

Interesting times ahead!

 

[Bobvin]

Coming up on…

 

[Bobvin]

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