Taiko Audio Extreme + Switch

[JoeN]

The Taiko Audio Extreme

The Taiko Audio Extreme is 99 lbs. It’s built like a tank. Best build quality of any streamer I’ve seen to date.

Christiaan from Taiko set up the unit remotely from the Netherlands. He also maximized Roon. He was extremely gracious and patient. Ed set up XDMS. It isn’t into even Beta version yet, but the sound!!!

The sound is amazing!

Vinyl still wins the day. I think it always will. But Taiko is closing the gap. We will see just by how much when the TachDAS Air Force One arrives.

The Taiko is world class! Some of the improvements I’m hearing over our other streamer:

(1) The soundstage seems limitless

(2) The dynamics have improved

(3) Removal of distortion

(4) A purity and clearer sound

(5) It gets me closer to our analogue life-like sound

Those are the initial pros.


The Taiko Audio Switch

When you own a Taiko Audio Extreme you are already thinking, “How can it get better than this?” Truly amazing!

Well, the Taiko Team has been at work. Enter the Taiko Audio Switch. I’ve only been using it a few hours, but here are my initial impressions.

The bass is deeper and more defined. The organic midrange has improved the imaging. While with the Extreme alone I felt as if the singer was in the room, now I feel as if I could touch them. That’s how realistic the sound is. You’re not only at the venue, but at the very best seat in the house.

The sound is as natural as the air you’re breathing. This said, the sound retains its edge acuity. That is the notes are better defined. There’s definitely more bloom to the sound. There’s a 3D layering of the sound - layer after layer - like a beautiful wave of naturalness falling upon your entire being. You’re one with the music.

I really enjoy female vocals. That’s one reason I purchased Vitus Audio Masterpiece components, as Hans fine tunes them to the human voice. Vitus excels in every aspect of their process, and you hear it. However, Vitus MP + Taiko Extreme + Taiko Switch brings your experience even closer to absolute nirvana. Taiko doesn’t improve Vitus, but fully complements it bringing what in my option is the best sound that one may have from a digital source.

Taiko has out done themselves AGAIN!

PS: Thinking about the Taiko Audio Router.

[Masterlu]

Great review;

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/superi...mer_Review.htm

[Famester V1]

I find mine amazing enough to sell my vinyl gear and just go with the Taiko.
It is literally impossible to describe until you hear one.
Just like Joe said, you cannot believe that it can get any better, until another software update comes out and then it blows everything away.

[JoeN]

Originally Posted by Famester V1

I find mine amazing enough to sell my vinyl gear and just go with the Taiko.
It is literally impossible to describe until you hear one.
Just like Joe said, you cannot believe that it can get any better, until another software update comes out and then it blows everything away.

Awesome! And Ivan that is a great review!

[JoeN]

We just had an upgrade today to NSM. This is a serious upgrade to SQ in XDMS (Taiko’s streaming app). Better bass and sound stage were immediately heard.

Taiko Audio just announced their Olympus Streamer as well. It’s above the Extreme. There are many different configs to it. No pricing at present.

[JoeN]

Here’s the official announcement:

Today we are introducing the culmination of close to 4 years of research and development. As a bona fide IT/tech nerd with a passion for music I have always been intrigued by the potential of leveraging the most modern of technologies in order to create a better music playback experience. This, amongst others, led to the creation of our popular, perhaps even revolutionary, Extreme music server 5 years ago which we have been steadily improving and updating with new technologies over the course of it's life cycle. Today I feel we can safely claim it's holding it's ground against the onslaught of new server releases from other companies, and we are committed to keep improving it for years to come.

We are introducing a new server model today, called the Olympus. Hierarchically it positions itself above the Extreme. It does provide quite a different music experience then the Extreme, or any other server I've heard for that matter. Conventional audiophile descriptions as sound staging, dynamics, colour palette, etc, fall short to describe this difference. It does not sound digital or analog, I would be inclined to describe it as coming closer to the intended (or unintended) performance of the recording engineer.

Committed as we are to keeping the Extreme as current as possible we are introducing a second product today, called the Olympus I/O. This is an external upgrade to the Extreme containing a significant part of the Olympus technology allowing it to come near, though not entirely at, Olympus performance levels. The Olympus I/O can even be added to the Olympus itself to elevate it's performance even further, though not as dramatic an uplift as adding it to the Extreme. Consider it the proverbial "cherry on top".

There are many technological advanced innovations in the Olympus, describing them all will take time and will make this introduction piece hard to digest, we will add bits and pieces of information over the coming days. For now I'll just say that the best way to describe it in short is that we have eliminated a large number of intermediate processing steps and conversions, in both hardware and software, for a more direct, more streamlined, more purist "signal path". I will post a graphical presentation in the following posts which we made in an attempt to provide an as clear as possible overview of the Olympus product series. Pricing and availability information to follow later as well.


Pic of different configs

[JoeN]

Pics of the Olympus and I/O

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by JoeN

Here’s the official announcement:

Today we are introducing the culmination of close to 4 years of research and development. As a bona fide IT/tech nerd with a passion for music I have always been intrigued by the potential of leveraging the most modern of technologies in order to create a better music playback experience. This, amongst others, led to the creation of our popular, perhaps even revolutionary, Extreme music server 5 years ago which we have been steadily improving and updating with new technologies over the course of it's life cycle. Today I feel we can safely claim it's holding it's ground against the onslaught of new server releases from other companies, and we are committed to keep improving it for years to come.

We are introducing a new server model today, called the Olympus. Hierarchically it positions itself above the Extreme. It does provide quite a different music experience then the Extreme, or any other server I've heard for that matter. Conventional audiophile descriptions as sound staging, dynamics, colour palette, etc, fall short to describe this difference. It does not sound digital or analog, I would be inclined to describe it as coming closer to the intended (or unintended) performance of the recording engineer.

Committed as we are to keeping the Extreme as current as possible we are introducing a second product today, called the Olympus I/O. This is an external upgrade to the Extreme containing a significant part of the Olympus technology allowing it to come near, though not entirely at, Olympus performance levels. The Olympus I/O can even be added to the Olympus itself to elevate it's performance even further, though not as dramatic an uplift as adding it to the Extreme. Consider it the proverbial "cherry on top".

There are many technological advanced innovations in the Olympus, describing them all will take time and will make this introduction piece hard to digest, we will add bits and pieces of information over the coming days. For now I'll just say that the best way to describe it in short is that we have eliminated a large number of intermediate processing steps and conversions, in both hardware and software, for a more direct, more streamlined, more purist "signal path". I will post a graphical presentation in the following posts which we made in an attempt to provide an as clear as possible overview of the Olympus product series. Pricing and availability information to follow later as well.


Pic of different configs

The Taiko graphic attached designates the new Olympus add-on as the Olympus I/O (when used with the Extreme) and when used with the new Olympus server as the "Olympus O/I"

What is the actual, correct descriptor for this "add-on" to the Extreme or new (standalone) Olympus server?

[JoeN]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

The Taiko graphic attached designates the new Olympus add-on as the Olympus I/O (when used with the Extreme) and when used with the new Olympus server as the "Olympus O/I"

What is the actual, correct descriptor for this "add-on" to the Extreme or new (standalone) Olympus server?

From what I understand it’s called I/O or O/I. The I/O may be added to the Extreme to improve playback. The O/I may be added to the Olympus. I think the Extreme and Olympus will have a different way to connect to one’s system or internally and that may be why the I and O are reversed. But that’s just a guess. The Olympus runs off a battery - 30 year life span.

[Puma Cat]

Well, as someone used to be involved in leading VOC (Voice of the Customer) teams and DFSS projects for highly technical engineering and scientific product design and development, my suggestion for Taiko would be to come up with a standardized nomenclature for their product offerings, otherwise this will indubitably lead to a fair bit of customer confusion. Especially amongst "audiophile-types" as we know how potentially "obssesive" they can be about minutiae.

Just my 2¢. Cheers.