Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[theaudiogeek]

Ed took care of the DoP issue. Ed you are awesome!

 

[kswanson27]

We do suggest rebooting the Extreme weekly, but your experience of after 5 days is nice datapoint

Does it affect SQ if the Extreme is shut down overnight rather than rebooted?

 

[EuroDriver]

Does it affect SQ if the Extreme is shut down overnight rather than rebooted?

Overnight shutdowns are not harmful, a good idea when there are power outages. It does take a while for the Extreme to come back on song, I have heard reports of about 30 minutes.

Christiaan has a lot of experience on start up and reboot SQ behaviour

 

[Zeotrope]

We do suggest rebooting the Extreme weekly, but your experience of after 5 days is nice datapoint

I am guessing there is a memory leak that will be fixed for the final release, which is why I find more frequent restarts are necessary than once a week.

 

[Zeotrope]

Overnight shutdowns are not harmful, a good idea when there are power outages. It does take a while for the Extreme to come back on song, I have heard reports of about 30 minutes.

Christiaan has a lot of experience on start up and reboot SQ behaviour

I recall Emile had said never to shutdown the Extreme, and that it will take a lot longer than 30 min to “recover” after a shutdown, especially one as long as overnight. All the caps will drain, and it will take a few days to get back to normal stable performance. I think after a reboot, it’s about 30 min to get back to normal.

 

[onlychild]

I recall Emile had said never to shutdown the Extreme, and that it will take a lot longer than 30 min to “recover” after a shutdown, especially one as long as overnight. All the caps will drain, and it will take a few days to get back to normal stable performance. I think after a reboot, it’s about 30 min to get back to normal.

If you are shutting down with the power switch on the back of the Extreme, then you are looking at at least 5 days before the caps are ready.

Shutting down with the front switch is much less. Rebooting with the front switch should be around 2-3 songs.

 

[engadin]

Rebooting means front button off and on again?

 

[Steve Williams]

I have a quick question....I have XDMS Alpha 2.0

can someone tell me what XDMS Alpha 2.1 brings to the table

 

[dminches]

I have a quick question....I have XDMS Alpha 2.0

can someone tell me what XDMS Alpha 2.1 brings to the table

Besides some behind-the-scene code cleanup:

1 - DoP
2 - Can save favorites to Qobuz and Tidal
3 - Playlists UI somewhat functional

Nothing major

 

[Steve Williams]

Besides some behind-the-scene code cleanup:

1 - DoP
2 - Can save favorites to Qobuz and Tidal
3 - Playlists UI somewhat functional

Nothing major

Yes. Ed just reached out and told me the same. SQ he says is the same as 2.0

 

[Zeotrope]

Yes. Ed just reached out and told me the same. SQ he says is the same as 2.0

Is 2.1 in TestFlight? I have 0.0.1(5).

 

[CDub]

We do suggest rebooting the Extreme weekly, but your experience of after 5 days is nice datapoint

I'm finding something a little different, I'm having to have to restart my services for XDMS after 5 or 6 songs have played. The player seems to stop playing until I restart the two services in task manager.

 

[dminches]

Is 2.1 in TestFlight? I have 0.0.1(5).

You can't just install the updated app. 2.1 requires an update to XDMS on your Extreme. Both require Ed to get involved.

 

[oldmustang]

Besides some behind-the-scene code cleanup:

1 - DoP
2 - Can save favorites to Qobuz and Tidal
3 - Playlists UI somewhat functional

Nothing major

Also, now able to delete individual items from the Play Queue.

Steve Z

 

[Rhapsody]

Why would all of the Alpha testers not want to go to 2.1???

 

[Nils]

Why would all of the Alpha testers not want to go to 2.1???

Most Alpha testers will want to use the most recent XDMS-release.

However - there is a technical dependency between XDMS Client (aka control app) and the XDMS Server - they need to be compatible in order for XDMS to work.


The correct sequence is:

1) Install new XDMS Server - this still is a manual process and requires Ed to do the installation via TeamViewer
2) Upgrade to the new XDMS Client (Control App) via TestFlight

There is also a little confusion (?) regarding naming - what is referred to as XDMS Alpha v2.1 is made up of two components:
- XDMS Server with version number v221004
- XDMS Client (aka Control App) which at the moment has version number 0.0.1 (7) [see above screen shot from TestFlight]

 

[Christiaan Punter]

I am guessing there is a memory leak that will be fixed for the final release, which is why I find more frequent restarts are necessary than once a week.

We're not aware of this being the case. EDIT: there may actually indeed be a Roon memory leak.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Great! Is 2.1 on TestFlight? I don’t think I see it.

Does anyone else find that a restart of the Extreme is required every few days to bring SQ back to normal? It could be in my head, but there’s some loss of “magic” and exuberance when it’s been running for a 5-6 days without a restart.

A regular restart should not be required as standard but it can help in certain situations. Personally, I don't restart the Extreme unless I have to due to investigations or upgrades. A restart is best done via the front panel button. Do not switch off the server on the back or disconnect the power cable as that will lead to a longer recovery period.

When the server has been switched off via the rear panel switch and is switched back on again, the sound becomes more refined, less edgy, and more free-flowing as the server beds in / warms up / settles over time. In my experience, it (normally) stays that way even after having been switched on for longer.

On the other hand, there are indeed cases where the server accumulates static or some kind of charge. Emile has written the below on this topic.

• There is indeed a system-wide "accumulation" effect over time which can sometimes be observed. Grounding tweaks do address or rather affect this. It has nothing to do with the Extreme but it tends to "accumulate" on the largest mass component. I am not sure what causes this. I have had it in our system in Hengelo which back then consisted of the Totaldac D1-12mk2 and Audionet Stern/Heisenbergs. I never had to power cycle the Extreme which I could leave running for months at a time but the Totaldac and Audionet gear started to become less transparent sounding after around 5 days, as it was our office system I just powered everything except the Extreme off on Friday evening and powered it back on Monday morning.
• A reboot does force a disconnect of the USB and network ports, unplugging / replugging these probably has a similar / if not the same effect. Some builds from Roon suffered from memory leaks and memory usage would increase over time, but Roon tends to fix these when they come across them.
• I do not recommend powering off the Extreme regularly using the rear power switch, here it takes between 3 and 5 days to return to full Sound Quality. A soft reboot has slightly reduced sound quality for up to 20 minutes, largely determined by your Roon Database size.
• This "accumulation" X-files type of effect also happens to metallic racks. It even happens if you place your equipment on a copper plate. If you ground that copper plate the sound starts to change noticeably after 5 or so days until you disconnect the ground. The "Setchi" grounding devices we used to make in the past address this, being battery based they did not require to be disconnected, the "improvement" in sound quality spanned several days to reach their full effect. I do actually not know exactly what causes this hence my referral to the X-files
• A battery-powered Extreme does not suffer from these accumulation effects either, food for thought!

On the topic of short versus long power off:

• Question: If the power unplugged time is very short (say 2.5 seconds), is it expected that the performance restore time will be less than if unplugged for longer periods (like an hour) (as opposed to the average 3-5 days)?
• Emile responds: No, the time doesn’t matter, the inrush current on the capacitors is the cause.

Finally, a quick soft restart via the front panel leaves the power supply on and thus has a much smaller impact on the sound and a much shorter recovery time (normally a few tracks).

When there is an underlying issue such as a memory leak, the server may benefit from a restart. However, the negative impact of such a leak is not always audible.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

I recall Emile had said never to shutdown the Extreme, and that it will take a lot longer than 30 min to “recover” after a shutdown, especially one as long as overnight. All the caps will drain, and it will take a few days to get back to normal stable performance. I think after a reboot, it’s about 30 min to get back to normal.

That is correct. Unless there are underlying issues, the server normally performs best if it always remains on. The "up to 30 minutes" that Ed quoted stem from my experiences and are indeed referring to a soft restart. In this case, the power supply remains charged and therefore the effect is small and relatively short.

 

[Christiaan Punter]

Rebooting means front button off and on again?

Yes, the front panel button shuts down the OS and puts the motherboard in a low-power state but the server's main power supply remains on.