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.

ed-3.jpg

ed-4.jpg
 
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Mike, if I’m not being too presumptuous, you’ve been on a bit of a spending spree, and we’re always happy to be your Personal Shopper .

No, it’s that your adulation at this platform seems particularly effusive, digital really is benefitting. It surely makes absolute sense to inquire as to whether Powerbases on Tanas is a logical direction.

No quibble with your answer. But had you written here the change was positive but more borderline, I wouldn’t have replied the way I did.

FWIW, I got more overall bang for my buck putting the Stacore under my transformer than anywhere else, that should at least hint that tricked out Tanas under psus could be majorly good.

We’re happy to stop suggesting whenever you ask us to .
 
Mike, if I’m not being too presumptuous, you’ve been on a bit of a spending spree, and we’re always happy to be your Personal Shopper .

No, it’s that your adulation at this platform seems particularly effusive, digital really is benefitting. It surely makes absolute sense to inquire as to whether Powerbases on Tanas is a logical direction.

No quibble with your answer. But had you written here the change was positive but more borderline, I wouldn’t have replied the way I did.

guilty on the spending spree part......from the outside looking in I guess it would be hard for me to argue.

however; I see my comments from today more as one of assessing the experiential consequences of effects I previously described.....and me coming to grips with what it means after living with it.

if it read as more than that, it's on me. at first listen it's a clear step up, but only after time spent does the musical impact become clear....and maybe it's a bit of settling and breaking in too....so it's evolving.
 
Sure Mike.
Even though I’ve decided not to go further on beyond the two Stacores I’ve already settled on, I have a good idea of the benefits you’re getting with digital on the Tana, having been ecstatic with my cdp on the Polish platform.
 
Hello Emile,
If the Oyaide 004 is of your taste, you must buy and listen to the new Oyaide AP-004.

You CNC that metallic shell? Very nice & sturdy!
Yes, the plastic shell of many a/c plugs encourages adverse vibration & is the portal of EMF/RFI pollution entry.

Audio Replas of Japan makes several accessories to tackle this weakness :
https://www.thecableco.com/cpc-iec43sz-se-iec-collar.html
https://www.thecableco.com/cpc-35sz.html
https://www.thecableco.com/cpc-2sz-hg-ac-receptacle-housing-hg.html

Hi CK,

Yes we made it ourselves, although it makes a big difference I'm confident we can do better using something else then aluminium. I will most definitely check out the AP series.

Thanks!
 
vibration measurements with Music playing !

It's been a long time coming, but I am happy to present vertical vibration measurements with music playing !! The track being played is Hans Zimmer's Supermarine from the movie Dunkirk playing loud. The spectrum analysis is over a period of about 90 seconds. The grey plot shows the vibration of Mikes floor with no music playing, the yellow plot shows the Lamm amp on its passive stand with music playing, and the purple plot shows the preamp sitting on a Tana active platform with music playing

From 20 Hz to 45 Hz, the performance with and without the active antivibration platform is over 20 dB. This reduction in feedback of sound coming from the speakers to the equipment results in significantly less smearing

Mike floor Lamm Tana with Music.jpg
 
The horizontal vibration measurements with music playing are of a much larger magnitude than the vertical. The reduction in vibration amplitude is in the 15 -25 db range, so it's not surprising that the difference is clearly audible :cool:

The red plot is the floor with no music, the white trace is the Lamm, the purple trace is the Dart pre on the Tana

Mike H Floor Lamm Dart on Tana.jpg
 
Can you explain with some more detail what are each of the plots? I can not see how we can compare measurements with the accelerometer on different units.

Did you take any measurement of the floor vibration while the music was playing?
 
Can you explain with some more detail what are each of the plots? I can not see how we can compare measurements with the accelerometer on different units.

Did you take any measurement of the floor vibration while the music was playing?

Sadly, I did not take any vibration measurements of the floor when the music was playing, that would have been interesting

It's the same accelerometer measuring the vibration in / on different locations, with almost exactly the same music playing, so quite comparable as Mike's room is so quiet, and free from random noises.

The active anti-vibration measurement was measured on the rear corner of the Dart Pre, the Lamm measurement in the middle of the amp stage.
 
Some tailor-made Daiza :

For ripping CD. Believe it or not, the ripped files are benefited.

Yes, for offline digital to digital applications, vibration reduction brings audible benefits as well !

Reduced CD read error rate, or something else going on in addition to this ?
 
(...) For ripping CD. Believe it or not, the ripped files are benefited. (...)

Yes, for offline digital to digital applications, vibration reduction brings audible benefits as well !

Reduced CD read error rate, or something else going on in addition to this ?

IMHO only if use a poor drive and a poor software. CD ripping is known since long to be bit perfect. I am prepared to accept any kind of "magic" during the real time playback of digital, not during extraction or storage.

This time I feel I have to disagree with active platform supporters. :(
 
IMHO only if use a poor drive and a poor software. CD ripping is known since long to be bit perfect. I am prepared to accept any kind of "magic" during the real time playback of digital, not during extraction or storage.

This time I feel I have to disagree with active platform supporters. :(

+1
 
This sounds a bit like the nay sayers who were adamant I was wrong to hear an improvement in SQ when upgrading the power cord to my tt motor psu.
 
IMHO only if use a poor drive and a poor software. CD ripping is known since long to be bit perfect. I am prepared to accept any kind of "magic" during the real time playback of digital, not during extraction or storage.

This time I feel I have to disagree with active platform supporters. :(


This sounds a bit like the nay sayers who were adamant I was wrong to hear an improvement in SQ when upgrading the power cord to my tt motor psu.

I think you guys are barking up the wrong tree.

it's one thing to say/claim why something happens. but hearing what happens is what we do.....and guessing why.

if CK hears a better rip with the Daiza under his transport, then we respect that as a data point. and Ed only speculated on possible reasons. nothing definitive and just his observations relative to digital playback and the Daiza.

maybe all rips are bit perfect, but that's not any guarantee that other forces are not at work in the 'rip' performance question. that is not a closed issue. having the same bits might be only part of the performance equation.

and Micro, the Daiza is passive, not active. the Tana (LPS + TS + top panzerholtz layer) is the active device, and the Daiza is only a passive platform used with it sometimes to augment it's higher frequency performance.
 
I think you guys are barking up the wrong tree.

it's one thing to say/claim why something happens. but hearing what happens is what we do.....and guessing why.

if CK hears a better rip with the Daiza under his transport, then we respect that as a data point. and Ed only speculated on possible reasons. nothing definitive and just his observations relative to digital playback and the Daiza.

maybe all rips are bit perfect, but that's not any guarantee that other forces are not at work in the 'rip' performance question. that is not a closed issue. having the same bits might be only part of the performance equation.

and Micro, the Daiza is passive, not active. the Tana (LPS + TS + top panzerholtz layer) is the active device, and the Daiza is only a passive platform used with it sometimes to augment it's higher frequency performance.

Mike,

IMHO unfortunately this time you are the one barking up the wrong tree. Although you seem to misunderstand our technical debate , it was clearly claimed that (...) For ripping CD. Believe it or not, the ripped files are benefited. (...) . This concerns the files, not its playback.

People should separate "bit perfect storage" - what is being debated - from "bit perfect playback", a very different issue.

I think that only the original poster, CKKeung can clarify what he meant with the comment, and enlighten us in a positive way.

Active tables are a very interesting subject, and part of it is scientific and technical - it is why EuroDriver posted rigorous data. Surely on the subjective part of it we can only have opinions.

BTW, my argument is independent of being active or passive - I am just addressing vibration and platforms.
 
Mike,

IMHO unfortunately this time you are the one barking up the wrong tree. Although you seem to misunderstand our technical debate , it was clearly claimed that (...) For ripping CD. Believe it or not, the ripped files are benefited. (...) . This concerns the files, not its playback.

People should separate "bit perfect storage" - what is being debated - from "bit perfect playback", a very different issue.

I think that only the original poster, CKKeung can clarify what he meant with the comment, and enlighten us in a positive way.

'bit perfect storage' is irrelevant. and certainly not a topic for this thread. limiting CK's comments to something 'data only' and non playback related would be a real stretch.

so i guess we see this differently. performance is the only relevant issue. if performance is improved, then absolutely the files are benefitted. they have no value as data, only when making music. and we don't need to know how or why, just that CK hears them perform better.

Active tables are a very interesting subject, and part of it is scientific and technical - it is why EuroDriver posted rigorous data. Surely on the subjective part of it we can only have opinions.

BTW, my argument is independent of being active or passive - I am just addressing vibration and platforms.

but you used the phrase "active platform supporters" when we were addressing the effects of a passive device. that is not 'Micro-like-posting-precision":D. not a big deal, but I think it's important to recognize that the whole Taiko direction is a comprehensive active + LPS + passive integrated resonance treatment solution, not just 'active'. and if it's thought of as those 'active platform' guys then it's selling the direction short IMHO. it's so much more than that.
 
'bit perfect storage' is irrelevant. and certainly not a topic for this thread. limiting CK's comments to something 'data only' and non playback related would be a real stretch.

so i guess we see this differently. performance is the only relevant issue. if performance is improved, then absolutely the files are benefitted. they have no value as data, only when making music. and we don't need to know how or why, just that CK hears them perform better. (...)

As long as the word "ripping " is allowed in this thread we must accept that "bit perfect" is an issue. Anyway I will wait for a clarification of CK of the exact situation he wanted to describe. And will feel free to ask questions concerning the bits ...


but you used the phrase "active platform supporters" when we were addressing the effects of a passive device. that is not 'Micro-like-posting-precision":D. not a big deal, but I think it's important to recognize that the whole Taiko direction is a comprehensive active + LPS + passive integrated resonance treatment solution, not just 'active'. and if it's thought of as those 'active platform' guys then it's selling the direction short IMHO. it's so much more than that.

Point already taken in the previous answer! :)
 

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