Taiko Audio with 'Evo spec' meets MSB Select II digital + NVS tt

lately I've had a bit of action around my place, with new amplifiers (ML3 and VAC Statements) and Ron Resnick's visit. then last week Ed Hsu of Taiko Audio/SGM spent 3 days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) at my home. mostly I was gone to work and Ed was there working.

Ed visited to (1) convert the stock TS-150 and TS-140 Herzan's to the Taiko Tana top plates and remove the internal SMPS's, (2) add one more Taiko Tana Linear power supply, (3) to convert the now -3- Taiko Tana Linear Power supplies to the new 'Evo spec', and (4) introduce the new Daiza Panzerholtz plinths. the top plate conversions, and 'Evo spec' upgrades to the Linear Power Supplies was a big job and took most of the 3 days (when I got home from work we listened to that days work product). Ed also brought a suite of special vibration measuring devices and spent some time with those.

when Ed arrived i had 4 active units; a stock TS-140 sitting on my barn kitchen table unused, a stock TS-150 under the SGM server, a Taiko Tana TS-150 (under the dart pre) and TS-140 (under the NVS tt) each with a Taiko Tana LPS. also i had 3 panzerholtz plinths; one each under the TS-140 and TS-150 and one under one of the LPS's. now I'm using 4 active units; all fully Taiko Tana top plated, with 3 now 'Evo spec' LPS units (i switch one when i go from digital to vinyl until the 4th LPS arrives). sorry for all the detail and realize you might need to read it a couple times and look at the pictures to digest it. short answer is that now all my front end electronics and tt except the 2 power supplies of the MSB Select II are on SOTA active devices.

Evo Spec had been developed about 2 months ago with significantly better anti-vibration sonic performance on analog and digital electronics, but how would it perform for the Tana under a NVS turntable?

Wednesday night when i got home, two of the LPS's had been converted to 'Evo spec'. we connected both of those to the already Taiko Tana'd top plated TS-140 and TS-150 and listened to vinyl. i want to be objective here and just say there was a solid noticeable improvement in the performance. specifically more focus, cleaner, noticeably greater dynamic contrasts, more expressive, and greater tonal richness. interestingly since the dynamics were increased it was louder and more lively. i saw higher peak wattage for the same volume points (less smearing...rounding off peaks). i also noticed that on musical peaks things were all the way sorted out and it changed my reference for how some familiar pressings can sound. i used the same recordings i had used with Ron Resnick; specifically the Classic 45 4-disc of Mussorgsky's Pictures, disc 4 'Great Gates', and the Classic 45 disc 2 of Scheherazade. there were others, but these were enough to confirm the step up. these areas of performance were already at reference levels, so to get any improvements was impressive. we listened to a number of vocals, Jazz (Mallitoba Spank), and some rock. but more than the objective areas of clear improvement was the increase in calmness, ease and refinement which translated into a very beguiling and compelling musical experience.

Thursday night when i got home Ed had converted the stock TS-150 to full Taiko Tana top plate, and the 'Evo Spec' to the 3rd LPS. so now we inserted the Taiko Tana top plated TS-150 under the MSB dac box and then listened to this with dart pre also with Taiko Tana + Evo spec LPS. now this was a huge step up, since this was the first time i had had active under the MSB dac of any kind. wow. Ed had told me that dac's showed the biggest result from Taiko Tana treatment and he was right. we both listened to our reference tracks, and there was so much more space and rendering of delicate detail that it was spooky. I'm going to stop there and come back later to this subject.

Friday night when i got home Ed had completed the TS-140 top plate and so we did add that to the mix under the SGM server (needing to switch the third LPS unit from the tt to the SGM) and there was a further boost. and there is lots more details i will get into further in future posts.

on Sunday i did ask Jazdoc to visit just to give me some feedback. i won't speak for him at all.

16 years ago, in 2002, i first heard a Halyconics active device in my room. i had the passive air suspended Rockport Sirius III for 9 years from 2002-2011. then in 2013 i bought my 2 Herzan units. lots of promise from those products.

that promise is now delivered.

 

I was just over at Mike's, and hadn't been there in about 4 weeks or so, since he got his new amps. As usual there were lot's of changes since I was there.

The multiple LPS, Evo Spec and Daiza were new additions.

The last time I was at Mike's I thought the combination of latest MSB Select plus the Taiko Audio was producing the best digital I have heard and his vinyl playback was the best ever also. The latest Evo Spec and Daiza additions were simply amazing. I couldn't believe there was that much music/information still obscured in an already SOTA system. Who knew the media had the potential. Anyway, I am blown away and consider it all breakthrough SOTA+, the stuff of dreams. Kudos Mike.

Hi Joe,

Many Thanks for going to Mike’s, listening and posting your observations. Emile and I really value your observations which are important additional data points for us

My take aways and 2 cents from my visit are :

- the SQ uplift Delta with the MSB Select II sitting on the Tana was just incredible. The Delta was an order of magnitude greater than the Delta we get with the Aqua Formula XHD, and the copper topped T+ A DAC 8 DSD sitting on the same spec Tana. I was half expecting to hear a smaller Delta given that the MSB has a very well engineered and manufactured chassis and housing. However it seems no matter how well the housing is executed, there is no escaping the sq damaging effects of low frequency vibration which can only be addressed by an active solution.

- this was my first listening experience of an active preamp sitting on a Tana Evo Spec. I previously only heard a Bespoke TVC. The sq uplift I observe on the Dart pre and Bespoke Pre is pretty similar. Detail, clarity, rock solid holographic sound stage with a sonic body that breathes realism !

- The effect of the Tana LPS quality (ripple and isolation) on sound quality continues to raise our eyebrows. Be it a TT, analog electronics or digital electronics we can really hear the differences. I spent about 6 hours converting Mike’s 3 units to Evo spec, but oh what a sonic dividend for my labor. The SQ Delta between original and Evo spec is as big as between the Singaporean LPS and the original Tana LPS.

- The effect of the Daiza plinths with the spiral channels on the underside is quite a breakthrough for bringing clarity and banishing smearing in mid and upper frequency ranges. Together with Tana the whole significant frequency spectrum for audio applications seems to be covered. Daiza plinths are now on back order with new orders coming from Hong Kong weekly

We are getting happy user reports of Daiza under Aurenda N series servers, Mac mini’s as well as TT’s, CD transports, pre amps and power amps

Here is a photo from Hong Kong of CH Precision preamps sitting on a Daiza

​

 

What is the price of the TS-140 and 150 or is there newer products?

I just spoke with Herzan, and they have decided to extend their 30 pct discount special offer till the end of June

 

Yes, the Daiza with spiral grooves on its underside is a very hot items in Hong Kong.
And Taiko Audio enertains tailor-making diff sizes too.

BTW I know that the Hong Kong dealer Volent Audio had given some useful advice to Taiko Audio on fine-tuning the panzerholz board.

 

Yes, the Daiza with spiral grooves on its underside is a very hot items in Hong Kong.
And Taiko Audio enertains tailor-making diff sizes too.

BTW I know that the Hong Kong dealer Volent Audio had given some useful advice to Taiko Audio on fine-tuning the panzerholz board.

Ed did mention to me how popular the Daiza had become in HK audio circles......and that feedback from there had resulted in the investigations resulting in the Daiza.

i asked him if there was interest in the Tana (TS units with panzerholtz top layer and panzerholtz cased LPS) in HK, and he said so far, no. i found that very curious......i respect the cost difference involved......but i view the Daiza as a sidenote to the tour-de-force Evo spec Tana. but maybe that viewpoint is system dependent. and the Evo Spec is a very new development.....so maybe it's just a matter of time.

i can see a typical HK set-up using a number of reasonably priced, properly sized, Daiza's under all the gear. but they need to hear the Evo spec Tana in HK.

 

Ed did mention to me how popular the Daiza had become in HK audio circles......and that feedback from there had resulted in the investigations resulting in the Daiza.
i asked him if there was interest in the Tana (TS units with panzerholtz top layer and panzerholtz cased LPS) in HK, and he said so far, no. i found that very curious......i respect the cost difference involved......but i view the Daiza as a sidenote to the tour-de-force Evo spec Tana. but maybe that viewpoint is system dependent. and the Evo Spec is a very new development.....so maybe it's just a matter of time.
i can see a typical HK set-up using a number of reasonably priced, properly sized, Daiza's under all the gear. but they need to hear the Evo spec Tana in HK.

Hello Mike,

There may be only around 10 active anti-vibration platform audiophile users in Hong Kong.
Around half of them use TableStable/Herzan TS150 and the others use Accurion i4 (https://www.accurion.com/active-vibration-isolation-products/i4-series).
7 of them are actually my friends. Haha

They are using them with various tweaks :
1. Accurion i4 has an external switching psu. The internal swtiching powersupply section of Herzan TS150 can be bypassed easily, using the original mod kit (https://www.herzan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/External-Power-Supply-Installation-User-Guide.pdf) or by DIY. There are several famous and reliable HiFi Mod shops in HK. Most of my friends replace the original switching psu with a linear external psu made by Kenneth Lau with significant sonic improvement.

2. The top plates of TS150 and Accurion are not aiming for audiophile uses. Several friends of mine bought Titanium TC4 Alloy boards to be placed between their components and the TS150/Accurion. 65cmx45cmx2cm?26kg in weight per board. The sonic improvement is again very significant.




The titanium TC4 alloy board is about USD800 only.
The top model of Kenneth Lau extenal linear psu is around USD1500 only.

I do believe that the Taiko Audio composite panzerholz/steel top plate and the EVO external linear psu are very good stuff.
But the HK audiophiles won't take the plunge to buy them unless they can have a demo/shootout in HK.

Maybe Edward when you visit HK next time, please bring and demo them to HK TS150/Accurion users.
I shall call them and organize a gathering for you.

 

CK
Maybe Edward when you visit HK next time, please bring and demo them to HK TS150/Accurion users.
I shall call them and organize a gathering for you.

Hi CK,

Very interesting application of TC4 alloy ! Taiko is in the process of optimizing the placement of the spiral channels in a 500 x 600 Daiza for going on top of a TS 140

Emile and I are indeed planning for a trip to Hong Kong and a shoot out between different LPS and top plate treatment alternatives for active anti-vibration.

We have a lot of respect for Kenneth Lau's LPS builds, but the Taiko Evo LPS is a different animal. The high cost is a result of the labor and machining time of the Panzerholz bathtub enclosure

Thank you for your offer to organize, it is very much appreciated !

 

Yes, the Daiza with spiral grooves on its underside is a very hot items in Hong Kong.
And Taiko Audio enertains tailor-making diff sizes too.

BTW I know that the Hong Kong dealer Volent Audio had given some useful advice to Taiko Audio on fine-tuning the panzerholz board.

Brother Ben has been and is a very valued fellow traveler on the Audiophile road for Taiko / Sound Galleries with a lion's share of sales volume, and a steady flow of technical insight, observations and suggestions.

What is really interesting about the Daiza development is that in Taiko's sound demo room, Emile have been using VTL monoblocks for 14 months. The VTL's did not show / masked the resonance problems of plain panzerholz plinths. It was feed back from Ben that gave Emile the Aha Ha moment and drove the development of the spiral design.

This same sonically audible resonance phenomenon of plain plinths also showed it self at Mike's when the Dart's were powering the system, but was quickly resolved when the Daiza with spiral channels was placed on top of the Tana / Herzans. When the Lamm's were driving the system the resonance of plain Panzerholz plinths was hard to detect / not detectable

 

Hi CK,
Very interesting application of TC4 alloy ! Taiko is in the process of optimizing the placement of the spiral channels in a 500 x 600 Daiza for going on top of a TS 140
Emile and I are indeed planning for a trip to Hong Kong and a shoot out between different LPS and top plate treatment alternatives for active anti-vibration.
We have a lot of respect for Kenneth Lau's LPS builds, but the Taiko Evo LPS is a different animal. The high cost is a result of the labor and machining time of the Panzerholz bathtub enclosure
Thank you for your offer to organize, it is very much appreciated !

Hello Edward,
Eagerly looking forward to meeting Emile & you in HK!

BTW May you disclose a bit about the coming update/upgrade plan for the SGMS server?
Will there be an EVO upgrade or Mk2 Version or some other plans for it?
Many thanks!

 

Hello Edward,
Eagerly looking forward to meeting Emile & you in HK!

BTW May you disclose a bit about the coming update/upgrade plan for the SGMS server?
Will there be an EVO upgrade or Mk2 Version or some other plans for it?
Many thanks!

Hello CK,

Yes indeed there is a SGM Evo in the works which builds on the implementation of Evo spec power supplies

 

Hello Mike,

There may be only around 10 active anti-vibration platform audiophile users in Hong Kong.
Around half of them use TableStable/Herzan TS150 and the others use Accurion i4 (https://www.accurion.com/active-vibration-isolation-products/i4-series).
7 of them are actually my friends. Haha

They are using them with various tweaks :
1. Accurion i4 has an external switching psu. The internal swtiching powersupply section of Herzan TS150 can be bypassed easily, using the original mod kit (https://www.herzan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/External-Power-Supply-Installation-User-Guide.pdf) or by DIY. There are several famous and reliable HiFi Mod shops in HK. Most of my friends replace the original switching psu with a linear external psu made by Kenneth Lau with significant sonic improvement.

2. The top plates of TS150 and Accurion are not aiming for audiophile uses. Several friends of mine bought Titanium TC4 Alloy boards to be placed between their components and the TS150/Accurion. 65cmx45cmx2cm?26kg in weight per board. The sonic improvement is again very significant.

The titanium TC4 alloy board is about USD800 only.
The top model of Kenneth Lau extenal linear psu is around USD1500 only.

I do believe that the Taiko Audio composite panzerholz/steel top plate and the EVO external linear psu are very good stuff.
But the HK audiophiles won't take the plunge to buy them unless they can have a demo/shootout in HK.

Maybe Edward when you visit HK next time, please bring and demo them to HK TS150/Accurion users.
I shall call them and organize a gathering for you.

hello CK,

thanks for those details and pictures. i have no doubt those mods make differences. it's good to see others doing these similar things.

I know from past posts (a few years ago) on this subject that your group in HK was experimenting with these tweaks to the active devices. i should have taken your lead in the past and done the LPS mod myself.....just never got around to it. and now Ed and Emile have taken the idea and gone (it seems) a few levels beyond. of course, when Ed can bring the whole Evo-Tana-Daiza to HK then we will see where it all shakes out.

I have no doubt that you guys are getting some excellent results.

 

hello CK,
thanks for those details and pictures. i have no doubt those mods make differences. it's good to see others doing these similar things.
I know from past posts (a few years ago) on this subject that your group in HK was experimenting with these tweaks to the active devices. i should have taken your lead in the past and done the LPS mod myself.....just never got around to it. and now Ed and Emile have taken the idea and gone (it seems) a few levels beyond. of course, when Ed can bring the whole Evo-Tana-Daiza to HK then we will see where it all shakes out.
I have no doubt that you guys are getting some excellent results.

Hello Mike,

Thanks for your kind words.
We in HK are amateurs whereas Edward and Emile are professionals with ears.
I believe the Taiko products are in a different league.
We look forward to have our eyes and ears opened when Ed & Emile visit HK in the near future.

BTW when all your Tana EVO psu have settled down, please experiment with the powercords and footers for them.
We found that even such "peripheral" accessories could produce a very audible effect in a hi-end system.
Last night a friend of mine replaced the powerplug of his Troy Signature with an Oyaide new Armored Series AP-004 (http://singaporehifi.blogspot.hk/2017/12/oyaide-armored-series-iec-ac-plugs.html) and all of us were awed by the increased quietness, resolution and bass authority.
Fine-tuning a hi-end system is both fun & headache.

 

Hello Mike,

Thanks for your kind words.
We in HK are amateurs whereas Edward and Emile are professionals with ears.
I believe the Taiko products are in a different league.
We look forward to have our eyes and ears opened when Ed & Emile visit HK in the near future.

me too (looking forward to learning from that shootout).

BTW when all your Tana EVO psu have settled down, please experiment with the powercords and footers for them.
We found that even such "peripheral" accessories could produce a very audible effect in a hi-end system.
Last night a friend of mine replaced the powerplug of his Troy Signature with an Oyaide new Armored Series AP-004 (http://singaporehifi.blogspot.hk/2017/12/oyaide-armored-series-iec-ac-plugs.html) and all of us were awed by the increased quietness, resolution and bass authority.
Fine-tuning a hi-end system is both fun & headache.

as far as the Evo spec Tana power supplies (all 4 of them) will each have their own small Daiza to sit upon. and Taiko has engineered their own special footers underneath that is optimal for sitting on the Daiza. those 4 Daiza's will be spiked into my concrete floor through the carpet (Ed measured my floor and found it to be the quietest of the 5 or 6 he has measured). for power, Joe Pittman (who posted earlier in this thread), is putting together a custom 'Hydra' 4 headed power cord for these 4 LPS's. it will be a single plug but 4 separate runs to each LPS. it eliminates plugs and outlets......and should outperform, and be much more cost effective, than any 'uber' added power strip.

as far as the Tripoint and plugs, a question; have you tried the NCF Furutech FI-52m plug? I would assume you have already tried those NCF Furutech's and determined that this Oyaide AP=004 is even better?

right now if I were to change out the stock plug from my Tripoint Troy Sig or Elite it would be to the Furutech NCF.

I use those Furutech plugs everywhere in my system (15 power cords) and they have been wonderful for me. it's too much investment to consider any changes, but if you say that this new Oyaide is even better that is a significant data point to me to keep in mind for the future.

for me fine tuning is the step needed to go beyond the pieces and find that greater experiential whole. but agree it's both fun and some pain too.

 

I am sorry to be the party-pooper here, but I have to ask: what is the theory behind the spiral grooves of the Daiza with spiral grooves? The thing looks like a crop circle.

 

I am sorry to be the party-pooper here, but I have to ask: what is the theory behind the spiral grooves of the Daiza with spiral grooves? The thing looks like a crop circle.

i'm going to give you my interpretation of what it's doing, then later Ed will chime in when it's morning in Europe.

originally it was simply a solid panzerholtz plinth, which i had three of in my system a few weeks ago when you were here. and they were clearly helpful in my system at reducing resonance. in Hong Kong some audiophiles, particularly one's with solid state gear, were getting high frequency distortion. there was talk about what to do to attenuate more higher frequency resonance. i don't really know exactly what suggestions were from HK. so Emile back in the Netherlands did some experimenting with various things and measured the results. eventually they tried the spiral design which they had used as a graphic design last summer more as a brand. then they tried those round inserts with different materials using their measuring gear to find the most linear result.....the Daiza. basically the routed out channels reduce/attenuate resonance combined with the natural properties of the material and panzerholtz construction. and those round plastic inserts get the last bit of higher resonance. think of it as breaking up the path of the resonance and dissipating it.

panzerholtz already is the best measuring material Taiko has found at organically damping resonance. so it starts in a great place to be tweaked at be optimal.

the proof is in the listening. from last Friday night to Saturday night after i removed the third shelf braces and was able to move things around to get those Daiza's in the right place, the calmness and level of refinement was clearly boosted. it was like now the whole picture was right from the bottom to the top.

wherever i tried the Daiza's I liked what they did; but between the gear and top layer of the Tana TS unit was where it made the most profound difference for me in my system.

and now i'm getting this overwhelming degree of texture from every source including redbook. and zero glare or any sort of high frequency issue at all. smooth and sweet all the way up. no matter how hard i push it.

 

I am sorry to be the party-pooper here, but I have to ask: what is the theory behind the spiral grooves of the Daiza with spiral grooves? The thing looks like a crop circle.

Hi Ron,

Emile will chime in soon. Here is a what has been posted on Hiendy.com about the Daiza spirals, you can paste the weblink into Google Chrome to get an amusing translation

http://www.hiendy.com/hififorum/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=115288

 

CK
BTW when all your Tana EVO psu have settled down, please experiment with the powercords and footers for them.
We found that even such "peripheral" accessories could produce a very audible effect in a hi-end system.
Last night a friend of mine replaced the powerplug of his Troy Signature with an Oyaide new Armored Series AP-004 (http://singaporehifi.blogspot.hk/201...-ac-plugs.html) and all of us were awed by the increased quietness, resolution and bass authority.
Fine-tuning a hi-end system is both fun & headache.

As incredible as it may seem, we have actually observed burn in time for Daiza platforms ! It seems that when you place and load up a Daiza platform, some creep in the material takes place and it takes time to settle and the sound signature changes for the better. The effect is not huge but it is observable and repeatable.

The Tana LPS's performance is indeed affected by the power cords. For the power cords being custom made, we would suggest plenty of damping material in the sleeve that goes over the wires in the bundle.

Another interesting takeaway is that the largest use of Panzerholz is for the formers and spool pieces in high power industrial transformers for electrical power distribution. The electrical efficiency of transformers with Panzerholz internals is typical about 6 % higher than transformers with internals using other materials. Vibration reduction delivers higher electro magnetic transmission efficiency too !

 

that promise is now delivered.

Hello Mike,

I am very happy you are enjoying the results of the rollercoaster ride of discoveries you put us on well over a year ago!

 

Yes, the Daiza with spiral grooves on its underside is a very hot items in Hong Kong.
And Taiko Audio enertains tailor-making diff sizes too.

BTW I know that the Hong Kong dealer Volent Audio had given some useful advice to Taiko Audio on fine-tuning the panzerholz board.

Hello CK,

Ben Lau of Volent Audio deserves a lot of credit, and I suspect you and your group have provided some input too. The Daiza and Tana are prime examples of the results of good manufacturer - client interaction.

As we do CAD engineering and CNC machining in house it’s relatively easy for us to design and supply custom sized platforms with short lead times.

 

I am sorry to be the party-pooper here, but I have to ask: what is the theory behind the spiral grooves of the Daiza with spiral grooves? The thing looks like a crop circle.

Hello Ron,

Thank you for asking, this is an area I love to chat about, therefore my apologies in advance if this turns into a lengthy reply.

The primary reason for the existence of these cut outs is to reduce the resonances correlated to the physical dimensions of the board. These resonances are not exclusive to Panzerholz but exist in any solid material with fixed dimensions. An easy to understand analogy would be room modes. In fact these resonances are lower (better damped/dissipated) in Panzerholz then any other non-compliant stiff material we know of. This is why Panzerholz is being used to stop bullets, it’s very good in dissipating impact. Another application of Panzerholz is parts for / structural support of very large transformers, as in the size you would find in power plants where it would be exposed to severe, as you can imagine, vibrations.

However addressing these mayor, dominant, resonances is only part of their purpose. They also “spread out” minor resonances. The design goal here was to have a more even frequency response from the platform from a resonance point of view, the ultimate goal being absolutely neutral / no colouration. To divide larger amplitude peaks into multiple smaller ones. As it turns out the audible impact of this is quite significant.

To clarify I’d like to revert to the Room Acoustics (modes) example referred to above. The origins of the “spiral” design are actually originating from an Acoustic Panel experiment. Actually as Mike correctly referred to earlier in the thread the absolute earliest use of one of the principles was an early graphics logo design for our company, many years ago, but this is not related to our current use.

In this experiment we attempted to create acoustic panels for treating first reflection points. The question here of course being, what would you like the first reflection response to look like? Our focus was on this reflection matching the off axis response of the source, the loudspeaker, as close as possible. It goes without saying for this experiment to have any validity to its theory you need loudspeakers with a good, even off axis response. If it’s uneven why would you bother to reflect this as truthfully as possible… Anyway, we used bamboo boards for this experiment, and while measuring these found out they were altering the frequency response, partially due to board resonances, partially due to uneven absorption (as most, if not all materials would do). This is where we first started using an early version of these spiral cut outs to get an even midrange frequency response from the reflected energy of these boards. Next to this we had to cover a part of the board with thin wool felt to extend the even response into the high frequencies as (any) wood typically absorbs some midrange and reflects most of the high frequency energy. Ofcourse this doesn’t do much, if anything for low frequencies, maybe we’ll try an active platform on the first reflection points someday! ;-) So here the analogy to the Daiza platform ends with a different application but similar sonic end result. Quite interesting imho.

 

Do you mean by even off axxis response of a ls, that the measured output stays the same even under an angle?