Article: Reality Quest: Going to Extremes with the Taiko Audio SGM Extreme (Part 2 of 5)

[bbosler]

38 minutes ago, ray-dude said:

 

As a very late breaking example (after I had finished all the listening tests and this review), a recent Roon update had a significant adverse impact on sound quality 

 

So then we see a retraction from Taiko that the Roon update did not affect sound quality

 

did I miss something? If the reviewer heard "significant adverse impact" after this Roon update while no other changes were made, and then discovers there was no adverse impact, doesn't that cast some doubt about the whole review?

 

Yes, I am extremely skeptical that the "extreme" measures taken by this device are beneficial.  I think it is "extremely" likely that when someone spends $30K they expect to hear significant improvements and it is well proven we often hear what we want to or expect to hear.  I will wait for further explanation, but it does raise the  the "extremely" logical question about expectation bias.

 

 

 

 

 

[bbosler]

10 minutes ago, ray-dude said:

Chris, I don't think any of us have anything definitive (other than the note posted above).  

 

 

fair enough, there are many things in this hobby that can't be explained, and even though I will remain skeptical about the benefit of going to this length, I admire your passion. 

 

I do want to thank you for the Qobuz playlist and notes about the recordings you used. Although I will never spend that kind of money on a server, I do enjoy the reviews and discovering new music. I ordered 10 MA CDs yesterday so at least they got some benefit from it. 

 

 

[bbosler]

23 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Audiophiles pretty much got rid of Toslink years ago. Plus, it has very limited bandwidth. 

 

24/192 is fairly common, the last versions of Apple computers with Toslink will do that, so "very limited" isn't quite right. Theoretically unlimited as far as audio is concerned since it is fiber optic, but you are right that many devices are limited to < 192K by design. It does however have a reputation for high jitter. I am making an educated guess that is only because the designers put no effort into lowering it. The end result is as you say, Audiophiles abandoned it long ago.