Taiko Audio XDMS - Extreme Direct Music Server Software
- Thread starter Christiaan Punter
- Start date
Sorry, but NSM leaves XDMS as well as Roon in its dust......vrooommmmm, vrooooommmm
And I was the one extolling the virtues of Taiko’s own software over Roon about a week or so ago, on another thread here… while you were preferring Roon! (just a friendly jab, Bob…)Sorry, but NSM leaves XDMS as well as Roon in its dust......vrooommmmm, vrooooommmm
Well sure I preferred XDMS prior to the Router then I preferred ROON after the installation of the router and now with NSM I’m reporting at what I am hearing.
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steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I’ve never preferred Roon. but i did say it’s a flavor thing between XDMS and Roon. Now Roon compared to NSM sounds veiled and grainy You just cannot unhear NSM. I wish I could sell my lifetime Roon membership. It has always for my ears been second fiddle but NSM truly destroys it
Where do we go for dinner?
NSM
Hard to add to the detailed, informative descriptions from @cat6man, steve, bob, @nenon...
just my two cents... differences immediately apparent. Thus far, I am hearing a visceral tonal saturation within the soundstage - immersive. Simultaneously, the layered textures within the soundstage are exquisite and more distinguishable. Vocals sound more natural and in the room than before. The bass, which I could not believe how much the router/PD improved, has only been refined further, in both substance and control. Clear increase in resolution/micro detail on a couple tracks where before I wasn't totally sure if I was hearing something. I feel like I can turn the volume down from my normal positions. And, lastly, fatigueless.
Thank you everyone at Taiko, XDMS master wizard Ed and all alpha testers for the multi year effort to get to this point.
Nothing Short of Magical indeed!
Hard to add to the detailed, informative descriptions from @cat6man, steve, bob, @nenon...
just my two cents... differences immediately apparent. Thus far, I am hearing a visceral tonal saturation within the soundstage - immersive. Simultaneously, the layered textures within the soundstage are exquisite and more distinguishable. Vocals sound more natural and in the room than before. The bass, which I could not believe how much the router/PD improved, has only been refined further, in both substance and control. Clear increase in resolution/micro detail on a couple tracks where before I wasn't totally sure if I was hearing something. I feel like I can turn the volume down from my normal positions. And, lastly, fatigueless.
Thank you everyone at Taiko, XDMS master wizard Ed and all alpha testers for the multi year effort to get to this point.
Nothing Short of Magical indeed!
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We've started work on creating an installer that should make new XDMS installs a lot easier.as an alpha tester, i suspect that will be coming to you soon as they are working on an installer to automate the installation process. the manual installation by Emile and Ed does not scale up well
edit--unless wednesday's announcement is that they have made a breakthrough in cloning technology and dozens of Ed's will be amongst us soon.
Adding NSM to am existing XDMS install is still a manual process but not a lot of work.
Can we reach out to support to arrange NSM installation on our servers or this service is not yet available to the masses ?
Awesome to see the email this morning from Khyle that NSM was installed on my Extreme. Had to start my work schedule.. but, spent like 5 minutes hearing the sound quality. Of which, the first 2 minutes with low volume... the sound quality has gone to different levels where I could hear higher frequency instruments very clearly at those volume levels. I then raised the volume to normal level for another 3 minutes and now, I can hear the Bass has much more weight to it and hearing that kind of Bass felt very satisfied.
Its one thing when you read others explaning the sound quality after the NSM install and its a totally different experience once you hear it for yourself. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work. will be spending more time in the coming days. Thank you and awesome work team Taiko!
Its one thing when you read others explaning the sound quality after the NSM install and its a totally different experience once you hear it for yourself. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work. will be spending more time in the coming days. Thank you and awesome work team Taiko!
I've had NSM for about a day, and I agree with the other posters here that it is a major SQ uplift. I am hearing:
- bass that is more articulate, more textured, yet somehow goes deeper,
- rhythmic lines are much easier to follow,
- tonal richness, saturation, and refinement,
- longer decays,
- and more texture and layering.
Excellent recordings now sound spookily realistic, placing instruments and voices with holographic precision. Even more exciting, previously muddy recordings now reveal levels of layering and detail previously unheard! The most impressive thing is that you now have more freedom with that volume knob. At lower volumes, the music still has a level of excitement and engagement that it previously didn't. And if you want to crank up the volume, there is a notable drop in harshness and fatigue.
As I had backed up some stuff, I was able to go back and forth between XDMS Classic and NSM (note: this is not a supported option). Going from XDMS Classic to NSM sounds very similar to making a major component upgrade in your system. In fact, I happen to be reviewing a dCS DAC and it's associated Clock. It struck me that the effect of NSM over Classic was quite similar to the effect the Clock was making when driving the DAC.
As an experiment, I compared XDMS-Classic and NSM, each with or without the dCS Clock in the chain. I was not too surprised when I found that:
- SQ of Classic with the Clock was on par with NSM without the clock
- Of course, NSM with the Clock took things to a whole new level.
So in essence, NSM on this dCS DAC was giving me an SQ boost similar to what its companion Clock component does. Not too shabby for a "free" upgrade.
Kudos, Taiko Team!
- bass that is more articulate, more textured, yet somehow goes deeper,
- rhythmic lines are much easier to follow,
- tonal richness, saturation, and refinement,
- longer decays,
- and more texture and layering.
Excellent recordings now sound spookily realistic, placing instruments and voices with holographic precision. Even more exciting, previously muddy recordings now reveal levels of layering and detail previously unheard! The most impressive thing is that you now have more freedom with that volume knob. At lower volumes, the music still has a level of excitement and engagement that it previously didn't. And if you want to crank up the volume, there is a notable drop in harshness and fatigue.
As I had backed up some stuff, I was able to go back and forth between XDMS Classic and NSM (note: this is not a supported option). Going from XDMS Classic to NSM sounds very similar to making a major component upgrade in your system. In fact, I happen to be reviewing a dCS DAC and it's associated Clock. It struck me that the effect of NSM over Classic was quite similar to the effect the Clock was making when driving the DAC.
As an experiment, I compared XDMS-Classic and NSM, each with or without the dCS Clock in the chain. I was not too surprised when I found that:
- SQ of Classic with the Clock was on par with NSM without the clock
- Of course, NSM with the Clock took things to a whole new level.
So in essence, NSM on this dCS DAC was giving me an SQ boost similar to what its companion Clock component does. Not too shabby for a "free" upgrade.
Kudos, Taiko Team!
For those of us yearning for true gapless, NSM is not there yet, although the team is working on this with very high priority.
The good news is that NSM has improved the loading time of tracks significantly, and is much faster than Classic on this score. So while inter-track gaps are still present, they are now very short — much shorter than Classic — especially in Concert mode.
The good news is that NSM has improved the loading time of tracks significantly, and is much faster than Classic on this score. So while inter-track gaps are still present, they are now very short — much shorter than Classic — especially in Concert mode.
How can I explain why streaming software makes such a difference to a friend who is the CTO of a large software company? He would describe himself as an audiophile, and knows that streaming is “bit perfect”. Aren’t there checksums used to ensure that 100% of the bits get from the file to the DAC? If so, then why does the streamer make a difference?
I told him I believe that checksums are not used during playback, which allows noise, jitter, and other things to modify the digital code.
I told him I believe that checksums are not used during playback, which allows noise, jitter, and other things to modify the digital code.
Others might give you way more technical insights than my humble self, but one thing I always remember for myself is that accurate music reproduction (and with it the music signal) is as much dependent on the actual content (= the bits) as the timely correct delivery of that content. … and that timely delivery is effected by a myriad of things (like transfer protocols, grounding, cables, etc.).
Yes, as I understand it, the stream read is done on the fly without redundancy, which necessitates the receiver getting it right the one opportunity it sees the data. Noise disguises the data stream from being read correctly. Receivers like nice sharp delineations to read the “1’s”. When it looks like a smoothed sine wave you don’t know how or when it will read a signal step. Noise comes from everywhere and is a large topic in itself.
So the audio stream read is fundamentally different than a regular data transfer read process and therefore much more prone to errors.
The other part of the answer for why software makes a difference is complicated. Partly, inefficient code, which is all too common, ramps up processor demands and therefore processor noise. Stripping down the processes of stock OS software is mandatory. Managing the spectra of device noise to minimize it’s impact can also be a software issue.
Bit perfection has been solved. With audio the bit needs to arrive at exactly the right time with nothing else coming along for the ride. This is astonishingly difficult to achieve.
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