Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[Steve Williams]

Doctor's Orders-Part Two-The New Listening Room Of Steve Williams

Having had the pleasure of spending a couple of days at Steve's house last winter, I too can attest to his system sounding remarkable. Everything about that space is extraordinary from the story of how the room was engineered from essentially a open cathedral ceiling, to the overkill...

whatsbestforum.com

Doctor's Orders-Part Two-The New Listening Room Of Steve Williams

Congratulations, Steve, on purchasing the Horizon and on hosting this fun and exciting debut!

whatsbestforum.com

Doctor's Orders-Part Two-The New Listening Room Of Steve Williams

Congratulations, Steve, on purchasing the Horizon and on hosting this fun and exciting debut!

whatsbestforum.com

I really believe that in my system and room the tube kit I am using now has been a big factor in the SQ uptick

 

[jbrrp1]

Strong statement. Now, how will we get an excuse to buy the router?

That's easy: because the Router will make both sound even better. No brainer.

 

[darkfrank]

Sorry missed this one but similar to the analogy in my reply to your previous post.

Let me share a tale on the subject. Once upon a time in our old workshop in Hengelo we had better sound disabling 5G and exclusively using 2.4G wireless networking. Spacing the single 2.4G access point as far away from the listening room as possible improved the sound even further. As we had bad Wi-Fi coverage because of that anyway we did't connect our phones to Wi-Fi which sounded even better!

When we moved to our new facilities in Oldenzaal we had a much larger area to cover, added more machines, needed better coverage and ended up installing an Ubiquity router, switches, multiple Wi-Fi 6 access points, people working here installing wireless internet radios, etc, etc. Before I knew it we had over 30 wireless devices active at all time. With the system up and running, when most of the dust of moving had settled, I thought to myself, hey let's revisit the 2.4G thing which had proven to be that successful in Hengelo. Imagine my surprise as this now worked the other way around. I invested more time, reconfiguring the router and access points, playing with it at night powering off all devices, big surprise, it simply was best using 5G and just having a lot of active devices on the network. Well "best" as in a reduction of a nasty glare & edginess but at the cost of lower overall levels of transparency AND reduced dynamics.

Now you can probably imagine in order to actually fully solve this "problem" a router where you have full control over its software is about the only way to get rid of the "glare" while simultaneously retaining or even improving transparency and dynamics. Though the switch really already solves a significant part of it..

And this is actually a big thing to keep in mind. A lot of network tweaks which "improve" the sound do so by making the sound more relaxing and easier to listen too, like releasing tension, and that can be perceived as a much better sound, no doubt. However, and this is something you may not notice right away or perhaps even at all, a reduction in dynamics, both micro and macro, often a smoothing effect in high frequencies, reducing dynamics there, and this has been a personal struggle for me for years with network tweaks, being able to achieve "better" sound at the cost of a reduction in dynamics, and ultimately reducing/smothering musical life. IMHO this is the ultimate pitfall of digital audio and actually not that far off from the compression applied by mastering engineers we have all come to despise, the wrong tool for the job but satisfactory to the large majority.

Since routers and APs for home usage continue to generate noise, polluting our home electrical grid network no matter how many audiophile routers/switches we use for our hi-fi system. I wonder if you could share some configurations or experience that can reduce this type of interference. For example, what is the best choice between 2.4G/5G, narrowband 20MHz, DTIM, Beacon Interval, etc.?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Since routers and APs for home usage continue to generate noise, polluting our home electrical grid network no matter how many audiophile routers/switches we use for our hi-fi system. I wonder if you could share some configurations or experience that can reduce this type of interference. For example, what is the best choice between 2.4G/5G, narrowband 20MHz, DTIM, Beacon Interval, etc.?

Well unfortunately I cannot provide fixed recommendations as this highly varies between routers, environment and connected devices. In general modern routers automatically adjust parameters while they attempt to provide good quality connections to all devices. They can for example automatically increase transmission power to increase the connection quality to a distant device which can in turn can generate more noise. So the situation could occur where 2 APs with good combined coverage sum to less noise then a single one struggling to maintain good quality connections.

 

[Fishfood]

All tube system
Lamm Signature series
Horizon DAC SRS 551 pentodes, Tungsol brown base ECC32 triodes and Valvo G2504 rectifier
Extreme with Taiko usb csrd
Taiko Switch and NIC
awaiting delivery in a month or so of the Tsiko router
New Extreme witth BPS is in the plans

BTW you’re close to me , Emile is hoping to be here in the final quarter to do a soft launch of the BPS at my house. Im well over 40 coming so far from all over the country and as far away as Brazil

Ok! If I'm not out of town working, I'm in. Thanks!

 

[RUIN*ish]

Day 5:
Oh lord - The Bass....

 

[cat6man]

Day 5:
Oh lord - The Bass....

Amazing, huh? I heard multiple improvements but the bass was both an unexpected and profound improvement.

 

[RUIN*ish]

Amazing, huh? I heard multiple improvements but the bass was both an unexpected and profound improvement.

If a lower noise floor and neutrality were the goals, Taiko nailed it...

 

[simorag]

Just tried the album below with Roon and XDMS (NIC and Switch in the chain).

The sense of music floating in midair, the depth, the tactility of musical objects are a definite step up with XDMS.

Roon sounds outstanding as well, although with a slightly blurred transient attack and more diffuse presentation in direct comparison.

Amazing recording anyways, super-easy to the ear, full of spectacular moments and utterly lyrical symphonic / vocal intercourses ...

 

[ctydwn]

As a relative late comer to the NIC/switch, have been waiting for this week for awhile. After Taiko helped me discover my own embarrassing user error trying to get the switch to work (initially never got the proper click from the ethernet cable into the SPF cage, just a soft one), I finally got things fully up and running today.

With only 3 hours of burn-in on the switch, definitely lower noise floor, more resolution and 'traction' getting added to strings for example. I believe a tightening in spatiality of instruments. bass has promise as tighter and layered. 4-5 of my test tracks no noticeable difference in tonal balance. my brightness test track i could see maybe there was a 1-2% uptick, perhaps just added resolve. i initially had direct on hrs shelf w its 3 copper tiny feet. Added 3 1-inch HRS couplers under it and that knocked off at least 1% of that brightness. This is w the switch using the supplied generic power supply plugged into a household shared 15 amp outlet.

So at this point i could part w back up networking gear, LPSs, power cords, ethernet cables and switches all of which cost me near the cost of the Taiko switch. Not to mention rack real estate!

And of course 3-4 days break-in and I still need to introduce a better LPS.

Cannot wait to sneak in some more listening later on tonight. Really excited about these next few days.

Thanks again to Taiko and everyone on this thread, as always

Edit: Now 7 hours in, wow, I have never heard music sound like this, on my home system here

 

[Audire]

Has anyone tried Symposium Rollerblock Junior HDSEs under the Taiko Switch? If so what are your impressions? Thanks.

 

[onlychild]

I am currently using this battery from Amazon to power the Taiko switch as a temporary solution until the Taiko BPS comes out. Works well, better than the supplied SMPS at my place in downtown Chicago with crappy power. Has a DC output I set to 12V. You can also charge and use at the same time, though I never charge while listening.

Also using two more of the same battery, one to power the ATT Fiber ONT and another to power the Ubiquity Modem/Router combo that feeds the Taiko switch, keeping my entire system completely off the grid.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RNZZXRM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Kris]

I am currently using this battery from Amazon to power the Taiko switch as a temporary solution until the Taiko BPS comes out. Works well, better than the supplied SMPS at my place in downtown Chicago with crappy power. Has a DC output I set to 12V. You can also charge and use at the same time, though I never charge while listening.

Also using two more of the same battery, one to power the ATT Fiber ONT and another to power the Ubiquity Modem/Router combo that feeds the Taiko switch, keeping my entire system completely off the grid.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RNZZXRM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

LiFePo4 battery is by far the best. The only problem is that the low quality BMS is usually used and
is limiting it. I use it to power the access point . Additional benefit is isolation when using batteries.

 

[RUIN*ish]

Day 6: LOL

 

[ctydwn]

holy sh%#% the bass
so clean, articulate, layered, fast and dynamic

 

[RUIN*ish]

Ummm...
Day 7: Chills
This shit is for real..
Mn

 

[ACHiPo]

Ummm...
Day 7: Chills
This shit is for real..
Mn

This is the switch plus NIC? Also plus XDMS? With local and streaming music?

 

[RUIN*ish]

This is the switch plus NIC? Also plus XDMS? With local and streaming music?

Switch/Sean Jacobs dc4arc6
Nic
XDMS/local files
Roon(streaming radio)
XDMS/Qobuz
Sonority support products/switch nubs removed.

 

[cat6man]

i guess the bass stopped improving after day 7?

 

[Rhapsody]

i guess the bass stopped improving after day 7?

I heard his floor gave out from the bass and everything now is one floor down.