Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

EuroDriver

Well-Known Member
Sep 16, 2015
926
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Monaco
Does xdms have a built in eq? Or are all these improvements from design architecture only?
XDMS design architecture was reworked to take advantage of the updated OS.

It's the integration of Extreme hardware, Extreme OS, Taiko USB Driver, and software strategies and implementation as well as clever code that delivers these results
 

Bobofei86

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2021
95
82
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XDMS design architecture was reworked to take advantage of the updated OS.

It's the integration of Extreme hardware, Extreme OS, Taiko USB Driver, and software strategies and implementation as well as clever code that delivers these results
Thanks for you guys great effort and passion to surprise Extreme users from day 1 upto the recent upgrade such as: TAS, USB Card and now XDMS!!! I just heard this news few days ago and hopefully I don’t need to wait too long in the queue to test it:)
 

cat6man

Well-Known Member
Feb 6, 2013
890
995
1,155
west of NYC, east of SF
We have done our first external tester installation of XDMS with Android Tablet running the remote App

It's available and it works

thanks to @EuroDriver for his help yesterday for setting up XDMS on my extreme and for getting me the android apk of alpha v31.

for the record, i installed the android apk, without problem, on both a pixel pro 6 (android 13) phone and a Fire10HD amazon tablet (running android 9 at core). v31 of the android app is designed for a tablet, so the images are scrunched up on the mobile phone, but it still works fine.

i verified playback of local files and Qobuz streaming. i listened to some of my local standard demo tracks, and even sitting off center in front of one of my speakers, the sound was transcendent. the upgrade to xdms is far more significant than all of previous upgrades combined.................more later.
 

DW101

Well-Known Member
Feb 20, 2022
80
287
60
Hi everyone!

Apologies for this brief interruption to the XDMS feedback (but keep it coming - as you will see, I am relying on your reactions for the next few months).

I received my Extreme in early summer. I’ve spent the intervening months listening to by some distance the best music my system has ever produced, it has been wonderful. I got gains by putting the Extreme on its own 30A-rated line, then tried TAS and literally never went back to Roon. Not even to A/B.

I have a question for those running a Chord DAVE with their Extreme who also may now use or in the past have used AudioWise OPTO.DX between the Extreme and DAVE.

(To anyone interested its a transmit and receive pair of fiber optic transducers that isolate the DAC from the large amount of electrical noise the Chord MScalar hardware upsampler kicks out as an unwanted ‘bonus’ with the audio bitstream).

I now use PGGB files instead of the MScalar but still have the OPTO.DX as a legacy part of my Extreme > DAVE chain. The Extreme and Taiko’s continued developments have overturned a few preconceived notions as well as dramatically reducing my system box count, and in that spirit I’m trying to question and remove things I’ve collected in my system on the journey so far that the Extreme renders unnecessary. I want to compare Extreme > OPTO.DX > DAVE vs Extreme > DAVE, to see if the OPTO.DX is still worth having in there or I could get gains by removing it (i.e. is the Extreme output noise floor lower than OPTO.DX noise floor). I power each OPTO.DX with an Uptone Ultra Cap LPS 1.2.

I know it is an easy thing to try for myself, but I haven't had the right lengths of the cables I’d need to do the comparison and more significantly I have ‘run out of time’, as I am now away from my system until December. So I thought I'd ask if anyone here had done the experiment and would care to share their experience?

And yes, my timing of being away sucks with regards to XDMS. I will continue to live vicariously through the reactions on here, and join that particular party when I'm back. Maybe with added Taiko networking hardware :)

This is my first post after receiving my Extreme, so whilst I am here I also want to publicly say “Thank you and Bravo, Taiko." I believe my system is on the strongest of foundations with the Extreme, and I am very excited for the holistic software / hardware roadmap to become available. Also, FWIW to any lurkers reading who are like the ‘skeptical me’ of a year or so ago, thinking ‘it can’t be THAT good, its just a PC’ - it is that good.
 

jelt2359

Well-Known Member
Nov 17, 2020
241
255
133
39
If I understand correctly, to use the OPTO-DX you removed USB from the equation- might very well be worth trying the Taiko USB card, and try the SRC-DX instead. So it would look like this:
Extreme > Taiko USB > SRC-DX (USB to dual BNC) > Dave

Having the SRC-DX in the chain in this case allows you to use the Taiko USB Drivers to their full effect where the Dave direct from the Taiko USB wouldn't have worked. I think that's what most Taiko/PGGB/Dave users are doing. As an added bonus, the SRC-DX would be powered directly from the Taiko USB card: no need for Uptone LPS 1.2 anymore.

FWIW, I also have another DAC apart from my Dave- the Benchmark DAC 3B, and Taiko helped me get it setup so I can do USB direct with that DAC with an updated Taiko USB driver. AB-ing:
Extreme > Taiko USB > Benchmark DAC 3B
vs
Extreme > Taiko USB > SRC-DX (USB to single coax) > Benchmark DAC 3B

And the chain with the SRC-DX still sounds better to me.

Hope that helps.
 

Zeotrope

Well-Known Member
Feb 11, 2021
1,762
1,398
230
49
France, Canada
What’s the best way to rip a redbook CD using a Mac? (Apologies, I know this was discussed before, but now can’t find it…).
I have an Apple Superdrive CD player connected to my Mac Pro. Do I just pick the Lossless settings in iTunes, then export the files from iTunes, and finally copy them to the Extreme?
 

cat6man

Well-Known Member
Feb 6, 2013
890
995
1,155
west of NYC, east of SF
thanks to @EuroDriver for his help yesterday for setting up XDMS on my extreme and for getting me the android apk of alpha v31.

for the record, i installed the android apk, without problem, on both a pixel pro 6 (android 13) phone and a Fire10HD amazon tablet (running android 9 at core). v31 of the android app is designed for a tablet, so the images are scrunched up on the mobile phone, but it still works fine.

i verified playback of local files and Qobuz streaming. i listened to some of my local standard demo tracks, and even sitting off center in front of one of my speakers, the sound was transcendent. the upgrade to xdms is far more significant than all of previous upgrades combined.................more later.

A quick adder. I am also running the apk alpha on an Nvidia shield pro (android 11) which is my video streamer in the home theater.

Here's the xdms app running on the shield pro, upscaled to a 65" 4k television.

It's not how I do things here but this would be useful to those who integrated their audio and video systems.
 

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oldmustang

Well-Known Member
Dec 1, 2012
1,057
3,124
1,445
What’s the best way to rip a redbook CD using a Mac? (Apologies, I know this was discussed before, but now can’t find it…).
I have an Apple Superdrive CD player connected to my Mac Pro. Do I just pick the Lossless settings in iTunes, then export the files from iTunes, and finally copy them to the Extreme?
I try to avoid iTunes at all costs. My method is to use the program dBpoweramp to rip the CD, verify and edit the metadata with Yate, and then import into the Extreme.

Steve Z
 

nenon

Well-Known Member
Jan 29, 2020
203
1,191
210
Chicago
I received my Extreme in early summer.
Congratulations!

I got gains by putting the Extreme on its own 30A-rated line
This is great!

I now use PGGB files instead of the MScalar
Most people with Extreme and DAVE prefer the offline upsampled PGGB files over the realtime upsampling the Mscaler does. I do too, although I don't have a DAVE permanently in my system anymore. The only issue is it does not work for streaming Tidal, Qobuz, etc.

I have a question for those running a Chord DAVE with their Extreme who also may now use or in the past have used AudioWise OPTO.DX between the Extreme and DAVE.
I want to compare Extreme > OPTO.DX > DAVE vs Extreme > DAVE, to see if the OPTO.DX is still worth having in there or I could get gains by removing it
Completely agree with @jelt2359 ' s comment above!
To get the best out of the Taiko Extreme, it is highly recommended that you take advantage of the Taiko USB driver. I think it's a must with XDMS. Chord DAVE uses Amanero USB, which does some funky things. Without going into technical details, let me say that it defeats some of the principals Taiko is trying so hard to implement. Hence, the Taiko USB driver does not work with the Amanero in the DAVE DAC.
Adding an SRC.DX might be your best choice with the Chord DAVE. It's a passive device you insert between the Taiko Extreme and the DAVE. Connect it with a USB cable to the Taiko and then connect it to via dual BNC cables to the DAVE. Get yourself some good BNC cables... this will allow you to utilize the Taiko USB driver, because the Taiko USB card will be communicating with the SRC.DX rather than the Amanero on the DAVE.
Of course, ultimately you should just do an A/B comparison and decide for yourself. Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions.
Also, if you use a Sean Jacobs DC4 for your DAVE, Sean is about to release a new (inexpensive) board for the DAVE that everyone seems to love so far.

What’s the best way to rip a redbook CD using a Mac? (Apologies, I know this was discussed before, but now can’t find it…).
I use a program called XLD - http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html
 

cat6man

Well-Known Member
Feb 6, 2013
890
995
1,155
west of NYC, east of SF
Congratulations!


This is great!


Most people with Extreme and DAVE prefer the offline upsampled PGGB files over the realtime upsampling the Mscaler does. I do too, although I don't have a DAVE permanently in my system anymore. The only issue is it does not work for streaming Tidal, Qobuz, etc.



Completely agree with @jelt2359 ' s comment above!
To get the best out of the Taiko Extreme, it is highly recommended that you take advantage of the Taiko USB driver. I think it's a must with XDMS. Chord DAVE uses Amanero USB, which does some funky things. Without going into technical details, let me say that it defeats some of the principals Taiko is trying so hard to implement. Hence, the Taiko USB driver does not work with the Amanero in the DAVE DAC.
Adding an SRC.DX might be your best choice with the Chord DAVE. It's a passive device you insert between the Taiko Extreme and the DAVE. Connect it with a USB cable to the Taiko and then connect it to via dual BNC cables to the DAVE. Get yourself some good BNC cables... this will allow you to utilize the Taiko USB driver, because the Taiko USB card will be communicating with the SRC.DX rather than the Amanero on the DAVE.
Of course, ultimately you should just do an A/B comparison and decide for yourself. Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions.
Also, if you use a Sean Jacobs DC4 for your DAVE, Sean is about to release a new (inexpensive) board for the DAVE that everyone seems to love so far.


I use a program called XLD - http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

I've no idea why an angry face from me showed up on that post.....must be those fat fingers on a mobile phone, please ignore
 

EuroDriver

Well-Known Member
Sep 16, 2015
926
2,479
450
Monaco
A quick adder. I am also running the apk alpha on an Nvidia shield pro (android 11) which is my video streamer in the home theater.

Here's the xdms app running on the shield pro, upscaled to a 65" 4k television.

It's not how I do things here but this would be useful to those who integrated their audio and video systems.
The jumbo size of the dancing bar graph is a new bug in v31.

IT WILL BE SQUASHED in v32
 

ctydwn

Well-Known Member
Aug 23, 2019
345
1,350
208
While visuals fantastic and functionality improvements great, definitely looking forward to streaming hires files and hopefully their sonic boost. And of course any potential dac tailoring for sq improvement bumps. I’m in the camp of any lower hanging sq improvements prioritized over aesthetic or functionality improvements particularly if expanding beyond initial interfaces. Key competitive advantage, and the race is clearly on, of course is SQ that I have full faith in Emile, Ed and team in the face of pretty stiff competition which have been releasing their own software updates of course.

Been trying to convey to a few other Extreme owners that don’t follow this thread that have gotten a bit weary that it is time to abandon TAS, try returning to digital and transition to XDMS, for their priorities and its key mission - sound quality and of course increased functionality a close second (not to mention that Tidal works and XDMS already better functionality than TAS imho).

Thank you again to the team as clearly it is mid weekend and Taiko is ever present.
 
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nonesup

VIP/Donor
Feb 15, 2017
1,044
623
355
Spain
One question: once the alpha version of XDMS is installed, the successive updates, be they alpha, beta or definitive, no longer require Ed to connect, but only press the "update" button?
 

SwissTom

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2021
181
472
70
XDMS Feature Request

Importing Roon playlists.


This would be a most welcomed XDMS feature.

I suppose this would be something relatively painless to code.

Roon playlists can be exported to XLSX format.

The resulting Excel file contains the path to each file in the playlist.

It would then be potentially easy to create an XDMS playlist.

How does this sound to you @Taiko Audio ?

Would this be something feasable?

Cheers,

Thomas
 

dminches

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2011
3,408
2,794
1,410
XDMS Feature Request

Importing Roon playlists.


This would be a most welcomed XDMS feature.

I suppose this would be something relatively painless to code.

Roon playlists can be exported to XLSX format.

The resulting Excel file contains the path to each file in the playlist.

It would then be potentially easy to create an XDMS playlist.

How does this sound to you @Taiko Audio ?

Would this be something feasable?

Cheers,

Thomas

I guess you don’t have XDMS yet since this is what the library scan options screen looks like:

24999926-9B58-4DD1-A44F-7B159D2E051C.jpeg
 

SwissTom

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2021
181
472
70
I guess you don’t have XDMS yet since this is what the library scan options screen looks like:

Brilliant!
Thanks! :)

No I don't have XDMS installed. But I'm looking forward to it.
In fact, I haven't even activated my Extreme yet.
It's been sitting in my office with the rest of my HiFi for a few weeks, waiting for my listening room to be finished.

WhatsApp Image 2022-06-07 at 13.57.22.jpeg
 
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