Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

MarkusBarkus

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Feb 6, 2021
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...perhaps a small refinement to your question Marty: Will the skunk-works NSM supplant/leap-frog the XDMS beta stage (currently in alpha) we have been anticipating?
 
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oldmustang

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Dec 1, 2012
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2 questions:
1) I don't follow the XDMS development story closely but need to ask: Is XDMS-NSM the same thing as the long awaited XDMS-Alpha?

2) Sometime months ago Emile suggested the sonic improvement by adding the switch might be in the neighborhood of 30% as I recall. I also remember reading an estimate for further SQ improvement of the DCD as 20%? Most recently however, Emile said that due to. number of recent innovations and re-assessment, he might revise some of the guidance for anticipated improvements for the imminent router, DCD, BPS, XDMS-NSM and whatever else he had or has in mind. Have those estimates been revised or made available recently (I do not participate in Discord so would not see them if that is where it was discussed).

Looking forward to the router and DCD shortly.
Marty
XDMS Alpha is the current version being tested, debugged and refined by a small group, communicating on a Discord channel. Participation is by invitation or request (subject to time availability of the Taiko staff engaged in XDMS development).

XDMS NSM is a significant overhaul of the current XDMS Alpha "back end" (the XDMS engine rather than the XDMS control app). It is under testing and development by Taiko staff only at this time.

As far as assigning quantitative (percentage) values to the various Taiko hardware and software products, that is something that I suspect is best left to Taiko staff who have participated in listening trials at their facility, Emile being chief among them.

Steve Z
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
XDMS NSM is a significant overhaul of the current XDMS Alpha "back end" (the XDMS engine rather than the XDMS control app). It is under testing and development by Taiko staff only at this time.
Also the control app is presently on build 67 as every bug is being squashed. The alpha version works well for me even though there are some things that need to be cleaned up. I think the look of the control app is really nice looking.
 
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cat6man

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Feb 6, 2013
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...perhaps a small refinement to your question Marty: Will the skunk-works NSM supplant/leap-frog the XDMS beta stage (currently in alpha) we have been anticipating?

I believe emile has said that nsm will be in the beta release, so the answer is yes
 

rau

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Aug 6, 2015
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2 questions:
1) I don't follow the XDMS development story closely but need to ask: Is XDMS-NSM the same thing as the long awaited XDMS-Alpha?

2) Sometime months ago Emile suggested the sonic improvement by adding the switch might be in the neighborhood of 30% as I recall. I also remember reading an estimate for further SQ improvement of the DCD as 20%? Most recently however, Emile said that due to. number of recent innovations and re-assessment, he might revise some of the guidance for anticipated improvements for the imminent router, DCD, BPS, XDMS-NSM and whatever else he had or has in mind. Have those estimates been revised or made available recently (I do not participate in Discord so would not see them if that is where it was discussed).

Looking forward to the router and DCD shortly.
Marty
DCD ?
 

oldmustang

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Kris

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It is a very simple matter to switch an iPad from one Wifi network to another. Tap "Settings" icon, tap "Wifi", select whichever Wifi network you require at the moment.

I personally don't find that to be such an inconvenience that I would invest in a second iPad.

However, I freely acknowledge that some might find that to be a problem.

Steve Z

We need to wait for Emile to test whats the best.
Both Emile and Ed referred long ago that Android based devices were better than ios as a remote.
I tried that and have a separate Android phone with large screen as an remote controller.
Roon is far better with Android based phone than with ipad.
Not sure how this will look like with XDMS. For that I use ipad only so far.
Taiko Dream Team will tell us whats best in audio including Remote control.
 
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EuroDriver

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Sep 16, 2015
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We need to wait for Emile to test whats the best.
Both Emile and Ed referred long ago that Android based devices were better than ios as a remote.
I tried that and have a separate Android phone with large screen as an remote controller.
Roon is far better with Android based phone than with ipad.
Not sure how this will look like with XDMS. For that I use ipad only so far.
Taiko Dream Team will tell us whats best in audio including Remote control.
My Samsung A8 does sound a little better than the ipads, but the difference is not huge

the A8 is also on special offer this weekend at Best Buy
 

Taiko Audio

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Feb 10, 2017
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Taiko router ordered.
I would like to continue to use my ipad for XDMS - for music.

Until now, the very same ipad was used for photography storage, social media, all other internet use. WLAN connection to „dirty“ router needed, of course.

Will I need two ipads?

I personally just switch Wi-Fi networks on my Ipad like @oldmustang described. You can use your Ipad for everything then as it has internet access like you’re used too though not blazingly fast, limited to about 15Mbps up/down, this rapidly deteriorates if you move out of the room the router is located in. You can ofcourse boost this by mounting a larger antenna and/or boosting transmission power but that has an impact on sonics. As configured now the router’s Wi-Fi functionality draws less power then a single active RJ45 network port and that makes it more then competitive to a wired connection where you’d have 2 active ports. If one of those 2 is battery powered (Ipad), I still prefer Wi-Fi.
 

Taiko Audio

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Feb 10, 2017
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We need to wait for Emile to test whats the best.
Both Emile and Ed referred long ago that Android based devices were better than ios as a remote.
I tried that and have a separate Android phone with large screen as an remote controller.
Roon is far better with Android based phone than with ipad.
Not sure how this will look like with XDMS. For that I use ipad only so far.
Taiko Dream Team will tell us whats best in audio including Remote control.

The remote device still does have an effect, but if it’s worth it to purchase a separate tablet for that is up to yourself. We have so many mayor updates coming up that any audiophile upgrade urges should be plenty satisfied :) , the contribution of a separate tablet is rather minor in the whole.
 

Taiko Audio

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Feb 10, 2017
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2 questions:
1) I don't follow the XDMS development story closely but need to ask: Is XDMS-NSM the same thing as the long awaited XDMS-Alpha?

2) Sometime months ago Emile suggested the sonic improvement by adding the switch might be in the neighborhood of 30% as I recall. I also remember reading an estimate for further SQ improvement of the DCD as 20%? Most recently however, Emile said that due to. number of recent innovations and re-assessment, he might revise some of the guidance for anticipated improvements for the imminent router, DCD, BPS, XDMS-NSM and whatever else he had or has in mind. Have those estimates been revised or made available recently (I do not participate in Discord so would not see them if that is where it was discussed).

Looking forward to the router and DCD shortly.
Marty

I’ve started assessing the individual contributions of all the upgrades but it’s an elaborate task due to the sheer number of them. As the progress was too slow over the past years to my tastes, partially because of the global supply shortage situation which plagued the world significantly impacting populated pcb leadtimes, we increased the parallelism of development projects. Now a lot of projects have reached their final stages somewhat simultaneously and I find myself in a situation evaluating many permutations in a short timespan. The improvement of the whole I would call dramatic, perhaps even incomparable to before. Which is great and I’m beyond excited how its all turning out. But to assess all the individual contributions is now quite a task and I have to do this in an environment where weekly patches just keep on improving SQ. The router itself has improved too with the addition of the new Wi-Fi solution and additional enhancements of its power rails. So that should be reassessed too. Though as shipping on that is imminent there should be plenty of feedback coming in on that.
 

Armsan

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Jan 28, 2016
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My Samsung A8 does sound a little better than the ipads, but the difference is not huge

the A8 is also on special offer this weekend at Best Buy
The same here, as I’m sharing from the beginning, with my Lenovo tablet compared to my iPAD Air.
 

John T

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Feb 15, 2022
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I personally just switch Wi-Fi networks on my Ipad like @oldmustang described. You can use your Ipad for everything then as it has internet access like you’re used too though not blazingly fast, limited to about 15Mbps up/down, this rapidly deteriorates if you move out of the room the router is located in. You can ofcourse boost this by mounting a larger antenna and/or boosting transmission power but that has an impact on sonics. As configured now the router’s Wi-Fi functionality draws less power then a single active RJ45 network port and that makes it more then competitive to a wired connection where you’d have 2 active ports. If one of those 2 is battery powered (Ipad), I still prefer Wi-Fi.
Why so slow with 15Mbps? With my current situation ipad 500 down/up. Is your slower speed due to the separation of the networks? Trying to wrap my brain around this. So the router's Wi-Fi functionality drawing less power has a direct correlation with this??
 
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Taiko Audio

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Feb 10, 2017
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Why so slow with 15Mbps? With my current situation ipad 500 down/up. Is your slower speed due to the separation of the networks? Trying to wrap my brain around this. So the router's Wi-Fi functionality drawing less power has a direct correlation with this??

It’s because of the combination of an as low as possible transmission power with a specific antenna size while still providing reasonable remote control performance.
 

John T

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Feb 15, 2022
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It’s because of the combination of an as low as possible transmission power with a specific antenna size while still providing reasonable remote control performance.
ik begrijp het nu
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Is it only me or are others finding that as the router and DCD get ready to ship we are learning new parameters for the router and iPad. Like John T the slow iPad upload and download rates seem appallingly slow. Will this affect the sound quality in any way or is everything still good. I am on board for all things Taiko but I have to admit that the use of dual routers has me somewhat confused. At the end of the day however I have full confidence in Emile and the team and am looking forward to the next piece of the sonic puzzle.
 

dminches

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Oct 22, 2011
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Is it only me or are others finding that as the router and DCD get ready to ship we are learning new parameters for the router and iPad. Like John T the slow iPad upload and download rates seem appallingly slow. Will this affect the sound quality in any way or is everything still good. I am on board for all things Taiko but I have to admit that the use of dual routers has me somewhat confused. At the end of the day however I have full confidence in Emile and the team and am looking forward to the next piece of the sonic puzzle.

Assuming the Taiko router and wireless device are in the same room I don't see how the reported speed could be an issue. One isn't sending tons of information between the 2 devices. Also, given that Emile has stated that most of his music is streamed, this statement would also include any data from the streaming companies needed to update the information populated on the wireless device.

I am reading Emile's comments to mean that they have chosen these parameters to maximize sound quality so I don't see that being an issue either.
 

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