Here are some thoughts I put together over the summer. Posts following below:
What does the world's most Extreme music server do in a sound system?
I wanted to start this with a big shout out to Tom @ Thx Stereo for making this possible. Tom is the dealer who sold me my first pair of hifi speakers (some dynaudios) and we quickly became friends. Sounds cliche, but we regularly discuss audio and non audio stuff and I probably text with him more than I do with my gf lol. He asked me if I knew anything about Taiko Extreme. I told him I had heard about it on whatsbest and read a good portion of the thread. It seemed like an amazingly engineered product but $25k-$30k usd for a server is too much for my blood. I bought my rockna wavedream NET from him back in November and my rockna wavedream sig se from him a year before that. I am very happy with this digital front end (all my listening is digital - I'm on the younger side for this hobby: 29. I have been ripping mp3's since I was 7 years old. Vinyl is confusing, digital is simple
). On the server side, I had been doing macbook/computer to dac via usb for years. Then I got roon and a metrum ambre to go with it. Woah. Not only super convenient but it sounded better. Then I got the wavedream NET and it was one of my few "night and day" audio experiences. Tom was urging me to give the extreme a try: "why not bro, life is short". Tom was eager to try an extreme himself so in the process of ordering one, he ordered one for me as well. I told him I didn't want to spend this kind of money on my rig at the moment and he said "don't worry about it - pay me later". Damn, not only is that generous but how could I refuse.
I paid him for it but he also mentioned that he's willing to take it back if I don't like it or feel that the system changes were not up to the $ spent. That's a very personal note so regardless of what I do at the end of all this, I acknowledge that others may find the system changes to be worth 2x, 3x, 100x more than the price of the Taiko. Different strokes for different folks. Different techniques for different freaks. In the spirit of honesty and transparency, I received an offer on my rockna over a dm. I have a hand shake agreement with the buyer for a sale in late september if I decide to keep the Taiko. The buyer is gracious in his understanding that this is an opportunity for a great audio experiment and, ideally, a type of review/experience report that the audio community does not get too often. I am not taking shots at dealers or reviewers but a true owner's experience has always served me well and hopefully I can give back to the community this way. I also wanted to do this differently than the standard review. I plan on giving regular updates of the good, bad, and ugly. We are used to reading reviews after a few months or a year of ownership so this is hopefully this method is an interesting, new perspective. Also, for many of us, buying an expensive piece often leads to a barbell system where not everything else is up to spec but the plan is to fix that down the line. On my end, I think my gear is up to snuff but not so much the cables and network optimization. Will the taiko clearly best the rockna with no optimization? What optimization is working well? How does the sound change over the first few weeks and months? Am I just experiencing something different or is this truly better? These are all questions I have and hope to answer. This is a bit like a journal but feel free to ask questions and please excuse any half formed thoughts or typos.
My system:
Torus AVR the second largest one before the wall unit -> rockna wavedream NET -> rockna wavedream sig se -> soulution 721 -> symphonic line kraft 300 (mk3 model - most recent) -> magico s5mk2.
I was running a wireworld loom until I got some new components which are on stock power cables. Why? Well, I wanted to get them set up and burned in and then continue with my loom but instead of buying cables and a rack I ended up with a Taiko instead lol. I know I outlined my situation above but mentally I've parceled away the money so I'm going to stop buying audio stuff for a little bit and then recable.
I have done no network optimization due to a mix of lack of time, lack of interest currently, and a desire to let others figure out what works first. I have a verizon fios 1gb line but otherwise stock parts from them. I was going to buy a new ethernet cable, but same issue as outlined above.
The taiko is sitting on the floor, plugged directly into a separate outlet and not the torus. I'm using a $5 amazon basics usb cable, a stock power cable, and a stock cat6 that came with an xbox. This is not optimized at all but I just wanted to get this running. Also because of the price delta between the Rockna Wavedream NET, which I adore and has synergies (such as a specialized clock) with the dac, I basically want to make sure the delta in performance is high enough that it makes sense for me to start optimizing around the Taiko. I know some readers may dismiss my take aways because of this, but ultimately, this is what I need from the Taiko to justify the cost. The fit and finish is gorgeous, it's incredibly heavy, and we all know how well engineered it is. For some, that is enough to buy it - for me, I need need need to make sure the delta in price makes sense as I would take a minimal degradation in performance in order to redeploy the capital into something more responsible.
My musical preferences:
I tend to listen to rap, hip hop, electronic, and a bit of pop. I'm always open to new music in different genres and dabble in some classical and jazz when the mood hits as well as music from India (particularly ghazals as I grew up listening to them). Within hip hop and rap, I vary from modern trap to more rhyming/"bars" focused artists such as Kendrick or J. Cole. I definitely value a great beat over great lyrics but when a master wordsmith absolutely "bodies" a beat, it doesn't matter what the beat is because the timing, pace, intonation, and tempo shifts all showcase the genius of the artist. I love listening for samples from other works and references to other artists/older works - these are often described as "interpolations"
Within electronic, I was a big trance head for years. I listen to trance less so now and when I do it's usually psytrance (artists such as simon patterson). But I love me some good techno (boris brejcha and aes dana come to mind) - I wasn't a huge fan until I went to Awakenings festival in the netherlands in 2018. I love future garage and wavepool as well because of the ebbing and flowing deep bass and vast soundscapes with ghostly samples. I'll listen to a little house or older dubstep here and there but it's not really my speed
My listening biases:
Resolution, space, speed take first preference. Tonal density matters more to me now that it did before because I am at the point in my audio journey where I have realized that the upper echelons of gear don't require one to sacrifice body for detail and air. I do like a bit of richness in vocals but my ears are particularly sensitive to speed and most gear described as "rich" is often slow to my ears. Dynamics are extremely important as I like a first row presentation that pops out at me but I also realize that modern music can be dynamically limited so often it's not a fault of my system but a fault of the recording.
Day 1: Out of the box, goddamn is this thing heavy...but also very pretty. After hunting down spare cables in my closet I got it plugged in and running. Set up was easy enough, but I'm not sure if I need to mess around with the software at all. Emile kindly messaged me on whatsapp (honestly, this kind of service makes the price palatable) and told me play around with Asio vs. Jplay. I started with Jplay then switched to Asio where it stayed most of the day. I'm not sure I hear much of a difference between the two but I need to sit down and listen more closely after everything opens up a bit. There is certainly something interesting going on, the sound seems bigger and clearer but I'm still a bit apprehensive and nervous about the expenditure. Let's see where this goes. My plan is to listen to this for a week or more as I get accustomed to the sound and as, in my experience, most ss devices sound better when left on for days.
Day 2: worked late into the night, woke up tired and slow. made some coffee and as per ritual, threw on some tunes while checking emails. i started with a track I play often. Darci - Come Around. A small, somewhat unknow artist. The lyrics/rhyming are meh, but the beat is clean, layered, and atmospheric. My friends and I refer to this as "chillcloud" - easy listening but atmospheric and leaning towards the darker persuasions. Chillcloud music has been the soundtrack to many a spliff. Now, I will say that I'm one of the lucky one who can experience synesthesia through music. It doesn't happen often but for whatever reason, when I hear this track I see a shade of purple that I've never seen anywhere else. You can find magic in the most random of places.
I've heard about all the details one can hear in this track off my CIEMs (64Audio A18T) so I'm not expecting to hear anything new but there is a sense of space that I haven't heard from this beat. The stage is massive and all encompassing. The Kraft brought this aspect out of the magicos and the Taiko seems to give the Kraft more space to work with if that makes sense. The bass digs deep and while very resolute, I notice the lowest octaves are one-note. This could be a fault of my room, something upstream, the recording, or lack of break in on the Taiko - I guess this will be revealed in due time. There is a density and flow to the vocals that, while I've heard before, is enhanced to a new degree.
The closest I can liken it to - for my fellow big watt Class A amp owners - when my system plays for an hour or two it hits this level of flow and dynamics. It doesnt sound bad on track one but this quality is enhanced through a listening session as the lower mid to lower treble range opens up and the dynamic shading from that peak to trough becomes apparent. The Tiako is able to bring this out on track 1 and with more clarity and tonal color than I've heard before. At least, I'm attributing to this Taiko and not the use of usb or something else. Some may disagree with this conclusion but in the past when I changed inputs on my dac, I didn't hear this level of difference.
A track like Lykke Li's Last Piece is a great showcase of this. A minimal beat that builds and she brings so many vocal ranges and tempos to the table. The song itself varies from visceral to ethereal but that lower mid to lower treble range (in this case it would be lower treble to lower mid as she lowers her voice to harmonize with the beat) and this variation creates something beautiful as I have a weakness for modulating female vocals. it's a great way to test a speaker system's speed as it needs to be able to shift tempos quickly. On the resolution side, particularly as it relates to inner details, Alina Baraz's Maybe is beautifully put together track with and exceptionally deep sustained bass note and her high pitched vocals with smoky reverb. I honestly find the beat in this track distracting in the last third of the track and tend to skip the track around there. Today I noticed an added sense of air to her vocals and that smoky reverb I referred to earlier had greater presence offering a more ghostly sound. I prefer it this way and would not classify it as slow or anything like that.
Last track before I stop listening (it will keep playing in the back but I need to put down some code today): Burial's Archangel. As always Burial brings a ghostly atmosphere and beautiful samples. This is my favorite Burial track and I go through long spells of listening to only future garage or wavepool (Volor Flex, Ofdream, Craset, and Pensees being my favorites in that genre). This is room boundary shattering space. I've heard something like this once before when I had Dynaudio 1.4LE's with a modest Arc stack. They were on the short wall and as monitors imaging was a strong suit. I currently have my speakers on the long wall and tweeters are about 4ft away from the wall behind them. I certainly have a front row sound out of preference but I'm hearing deeper into the back of the stage and above my head as well. Oh what the hell, one more track can't hurt: Sorrow - Want U Back. Little xylophone synth dancing with the bass line. Ignore the earlier vocals, they don't add anything to the track but the way that bass ebbs and flows is gorgeous. It starts with a big punch on the bass note that rolls and waves down to lower octaves. It stops short of the octaves where I am hearing "one-note"-ness. There is a lot of texture to the bass and for me I see waves forming in front of me (attribute this back to the synesthesia) - particularly when the later (and preferable) samples of what sounds like indian female vocals with their high pitched modulations kick in. Fine, one more, Normani and 6Lack's Waves. A sexy track with Normani's emotion packed voice contrasted by 6Lack's more gruff, staticy rnb - more of what I was hearing above. Normani is able to dance around the beat in the pre chorus and the system is able to follow before delivering a viscerally deep bass line on the chorus. That gave me some goosebumps, waves of them if you pardon the pun.
All in all, an interesting listen this morning. Clearly the Taiko has improved since yesterday. There is no denying that. There is also no denying that this is an unoptimized set up and Day 2 of a new piece of gear: long road ahead but I am excited to explore further.: worked late into the night, woke up tired and slow. made some coffee and as per ritual, threw on some tunes while checking emails. i started with a track I play often. Darci - Come Around. A small, somewhat unknow artist. The lyrics/rhyming are meh, but the beat is clean, layered, and atmospheric. My friends and I refer to this as "chillcloud" - easy listening but atmospheric and leaning towards the darker persuasions. Chillcloud music has been the soundtrack to many a spliff. Now, I will say that I'm one of the lucky one who can experience synesthesia through music. It doesn't happen often but for whatever reason, when I hear this track I see a shade of purple that I've never seen anywhere else. You can find magic in the most random of places.
I've heard about all the details one can hear in this track off my CIEMs (64Audio A18T) so I'm not expecting to hear anything new but there is a sense of space that I haven't heard from this beat. The stage is massive and all encompassing. The Kraft brought this aspect out of the magicos and the Taiko seems to give the Kraft more space to work with if that makes sense. The bass digs deep and while very resolute, I notice the lowest octaves are one-note. This could be a fault of my room, something upstream, the recording, or lack of break in on the Taiko - I guess this will be revealed in due time. There is a density and flow to the vocals that, while I've heard before, is enhanced to a new degree.
The closest I can liken it to - for my fellow big watt Class A amp owners - when my system plays for an hour or two it hits this level of flow and dynamics. It doesnt sound bad on track one but this quality is enhanced through a listening session as the lower mid to lower treble range opens up and the dynamic shading from that peak to trough becomes apparent. The Tiako is able to bring this out on track 1 and with more clarity and tonal color than I've heard before. At least, I'm attributing to this Taiko and not the use of usb or something else. Some may disagree with this conclusion but in the past when I changed inputs on my dac, I didn't hear this level of difference.
A track like Lykke Li's Last Piece is a great showcase of this. A minimal beat that builds and she brings so many vocal ranges and tempos to the table. The song itself varies from visceral to ethereal but that lower mid to lower treble range (in this case it would be lower treble to lower mid as she lowers her voice to harmonize with the beat) and this variation creates something beautiful as I have a weakness for modulating female vocals. it's a great way to test a speaker system's speed as it needs to be able to shift tempos quickly. On the resolution side, particularly as it relates to inner details, Alina Baraz's Maybe is beautifully put together track with and exceptionally deep sustained bass note and her high pitched vocals with smoky reverb. I honestly find the beat in this track distracting in the last third of the track and tend to skip the track around there. Today I noticed an added sense of air to her vocals and that smoky reverb I referred to earlier had greater presence offering a more ghostly sound. I prefer it this way and would not classify it as slow or anything like that.
Last track before I stop listening (it will keep playing in the back but I need to put down some code today): Burial's Archangel. As always Burial brings a ghostly atmosphere and beautiful samples. This is my favorite Burial track and I go through long spells of listening to only future garage or wavepool (Volor Flex, Ofdream, Craset, and Pensees being my favorites in that genre). This is room boundary shattering space. I've heard something like this once before when I had Dynaudio 1.4LE's with a modest Arc stack. They were on the short wall and as monitors imaging was a strong suit. I currently have my speakers on the long wall and tweeters are about 4ft away from the wall behind them. I certainly have a front row sound out of preference but I'm hearing deeper into the back of the stage and above my head as well. Oh what the hell, one more track can't hurt: Sorrow - Want U Back. Little xylophone synth dancing with the bass line. Ignore the earlier vocals, they don't add anything to the track but the way that bass ebbs and flows is gorgeous. It starts with a big punch on the bass note that rolls and waves down to lower octaves. It stops short of the octaves where I am hearing "one-note"-ness. There is a lot of texture to the bass and for me I see waves forming in front of me (attribute this back to the synesthesia) - particularly when the later (and preferable) samples of what sounds like indian female vocals with their high pitched modulations kick in. Fine, one more, Normani and 6Lack's Waves. A sexy track with Normani's emotion packed voice contrasted by 6Lack's more gruff, staticy rnb - more of what I was hearing above. Normani is able to dance around the beat in the pre chorus and the system is able to follow before delivering a viscerally deep bass line on the chorus. That gave me some goosebumps, waves of them if you pardon the pun.
All in all, an interesting listen this morning. Clearly the Taiko has improved since yesterday. There is no denying that. There is also no denying that this is an unoptimized set up and Day 2 of a new piece of gear: long road ahead but I am excited to explore further.
What does the world's most Extreme music server do in a sound system?
I wanted to start this with a big shout out to Tom @ Thx Stereo for making this possible. Tom is the dealer who sold me my first pair of hifi speakers (some dynaudios) and we quickly became friends. Sounds cliche, but we regularly discuss audio and non audio stuff and I probably text with him more than I do with my gf lol. He asked me if I knew anything about Taiko Extreme. I told him I had heard about it on whatsbest and read a good portion of the thread. It seemed like an amazingly engineered product but $25k-$30k usd for a server is too much for my blood. I bought my rockna wavedream NET from him back in November and my rockna wavedream sig se from him a year before that. I am very happy with this digital front end (all my listening is digital - I'm on the younger side for this hobby: 29. I have been ripping mp3's since I was 7 years old. Vinyl is confusing, digital is simple
). On the server side, I had been doing macbook/computer to dac via usb for years. Then I got roon and a metrum ambre to go with it. Woah. Not only super convenient but it sounded better. Then I got the wavedream NET and it was one of my few "night and day" audio experiences. Tom was urging me to give the extreme a try: "why not bro, life is short". Tom was eager to try an extreme himself so in the process of ordering one, he ordered one for me as well. I told him I didn't want to spend this kind of money on my rig at the moment and he said "don't worry about it - pay me later". Damn, not only is that generous but how could I refuse.I paid him for it but he also mentioned that he's willing to take it back if I don't like it or feel that the system changes were not up to the $ spent. That's a very personal note so regardless of what I do at the end of all this, I acknowledge that others may find the system changes to be worth 2x, 3x, 100x more than the price of the Taiko. Different strokes for different folks. Different techniques for different freaks. In the spirit of honesty and transparency, I received an offer on my rockna over a dm. I have a hand shake agreement with the buyer for a sale in late september if I decide to keep the Taiko. The buyer is gracious in his understanding that this is an opportunity for a great audio experiment and, ideally, a type of review/experience report that the audio community does not get too often. I am not taking shots at dealers or reviewers but a true owner's experience has always served me well and hopefully I can give back to the community this way. I also wanted to do this differently than the standard review. I plan on giving regular updates of the good, bad, and ugly. We are used to reading reviews after a few months or a year of ownership so this is hopefully this method is an interesting, new perspective. Also, for many of us, buying an expensive piece often leads to a barbell system where not everything else is up to spec but the plan is to fix that down the line. On my end, I think my gear is up to snuff but not so much the cables and network optimization. Will the taiko clearly best the rockna with no optimization? What optimization is working well? How does the sound change over the first few weeks and months? Am I just experiencing something different or is this truly better? These are all questions I have and hope to answer. This is a bit like a journal but feel free to ask questions and please excuse any half formed thoughts or typos.
My system:
Torus AVR the second largest one before the wall unit -> rockna wavedream NET -> rockna wavedream sig se -> soulution 721 -> symphonic line kraft 300 (mk3 model - most recent) -> magico s5mk2.
I was running a wireworld loom until I got some new components which are on stock power cables. Why? Well, I wanted to get them set up and burned in and then continue with my loom but instead of buying cables and a rack I ended up with a Taiko instead lol. I know I outlined my situation above but mentally I've parceled away the money so I'm going to stop buying audio stuff for a little bit and then recable.
I have done no network optimization due to a mix of lack of time, lack of interest currently, and a desire to let others figure out what works first. I have a verizon fios 1gb line but otherwise stock parts from them. I was going to buy a new ethernet cable, but same issue as outlined above.
The taiko is sitting on the floor, plugged directly into a separate outlet and not the torus. I'm using a $5 amazon basics usb cable, a stock power cable, and a stock cat6 that came with an xbox. This is not optimized at all but I just wanted to get this running. Also because of the price delta between the Rockna Wavedream NET, which I adore and has synergies (such as a specialized clock) with the dac, I basically want to make sure the delta in performance is high enough that it makes sense for me to start optimizing around the Taiko. I know some readers may dismiss my take aways because of this, but ultimately, this is what I need from the Taiko to justify the cost. The fit and finish is gorgeous, it's incredibly heavy, and we all know how well engineered it is. For some, that is enough to buy it - for me, I need need need to make sure the delta in price makes sense as I would take a minimal degradation in performance in order to redeploy the capital into something more responsible.
My musical preferences:
I tend to listen to rap, hip hop, electronic, and a bit of pop. I'm always open to new music in different genres and dabble in some classical and jazz when the mood hits as well as music from India (particularly ghazals as I grew up listening to them). Within hip hop and rap, I vary from modern trap to more rhyming/"bars" focused artists such as Kendrick or J. Cole. I definitely value a great beat over great lyrics but when a master wordsmith absolutely "bodies" a beat, it doesn't matter what the beat is because the timing, pace, intonation, and tempo shifts all showcase the genius of the artist. I love listening for samples from other works and references to other artists/older works - these are often described as "interpolations"
Within electronic, I was a big trance head for years. I listen to trance less so now and when I do it's usually psytrance (artists such as simon patterson). But I love me some good techno (boris brejcha and aes dana come to mind) - I wasn't a huge fan until I went to Awakenings festival in the netherlands in 2018. I love future garage and wavepool as well because of the ebbing and flowing deep bass and vast soundscapes with ghostly samples. I'll listen to a little house or older dubstep here and there but it's not really my speed
My listening biases:
Resolution, space, speed take first preference. Tonal density matters more to me now that it did before because I am at the point in my audio journey where I have realized that the upper echelons of gear don't require one to sacrifice body for detail and air. I do like a bit of richness in vocals but my ears are particularly sensitive to speed and most gear described as "rich" is often slow to my ears. Dynamics are extremely important as I like a first row presentation that pops out at me but I also realize that modern music can be dynamically limited so often it's not a fault of my system but a fault of the recording.
Day 1: Out of the box, goddamn is this thing heavy...but also very pretty. After hunting down spare cables in my closet I got it plugged in and running. Set up was easy enough, but I'm not sure if I need to mess around with the software at all. Emile kindly messaged me on whatsapp (honestly, this kind of service makes the price palatable) and told me play around with Asio vs. Jplay. I started with Jplay then switched to Asio where it stayed most of the day. I'm not sure I hear much of a difference between the two but I need to sit down and listen more closely after everything opens up a bit. There is certainly something interesting going on, the sound seems bigger and clearer but I'm still a bit apprehensive and nervous about the expenditure. Let's see where this goes. My plan is to listen to this for a week or more as I get accustomed to the sound and as, in my experience, most ss devices sound better when left on for days.
Day 2: worked late into the night, woke up tired and slow. made some coffee and as per ritual, threw on some tunes while checking emails. i started with a track I play often. Darci - Come Around. A small, somewhat unknow artist. The lyrics/rhyming are meh, but the beat is clean, layered, and atmospheric. My friends and I refer to this as "chillcloud" - easy listening but atmospheric and leaning towards the darker persuasions. Chillcloud music has been the soundtrack to many a spliff
. Now, I will say that I'm one of the lucky one who can experience synesthesia through music. It doesn't happen often but for whatever reason, when I hear this track I see a shade of purple that I've never seen anywhere else. You can find magic in the most random of places.I've heard about all the details one can hear in this track off my CIEMs (64Audio A18T) so I'm not expecting to hear anything new but there is a sense of space that I haven't heard from this beat. The stage is massive and all encompassing. The Kraft brought this aspect out of the magicos and the Taiko seems to give the Kraft more space to work with if that makes sense. The bass digs deep and while very resolute, I notice the lowest octaves are one-note. This could be a fault of my room, something upstream, the recording, or lack of break in on the Taiko - I guess this will be revealed in due time. There is a density and flow to the vocals that, while I've heard before, is enhanced to a new degree.
The closest I can liken it to - for my fellow big watt Class A amp owners - when my system plays for an hour or two it hits this level of flow and dynamics. It doesnt sound bad on track one but this quality is enhanced through a listening session as the lower mid to lower treble range opens up and the dynamic shading from that peak to trough becomes apparent. The Tiako is able to bring this out on track 1 and with more clarity and tonal color than I've heard before. At least, I'm attributing to this Taiko and not the use of usb or something else. Some may disagree with this conclusion but in the past when I changed inputs on my dac, I didn't hear this level of difference.
A track like Lykke Li's Last Piece is a great showcase of this. A minimal beat that builds and she brings so many vocal ranges and tempos to the table. The song itself varies from visceral to ethereal but that lower mid to lower treble range (in this case it would be lower treble to lower mid as she lowers her voice to harmonize with the beat) and this variation creates something beautiful as I have a weakness for modulating female vocals. it's a great way to test a speaker system's speed as it needs to be able to shift tempos quickly. On the resolution side, particularly as it relates to inner details, Alina Baraz's Maybe is beautifully put together track with and exceptionally deep sustained bass note and her high pitched vocals with smoky reverb. I honestly find the beat in this track distracting in the last third of the track and tend to skip the track around there. Today I noticed an added sense of air to her vocals and that smoky reverb I referred to earlier had greater presence offering a more ghostly sound. I prefer it this way and would not classify it as slow or anything like that.
Last track before I stop listening (it will keep playing in the back but I need to put down some code today): Burial's Archangel. As always Burial brings a ghostly atmosphere and beautiful samples. This is my favorite Burial track and I go through long spells of listening to only future garage or wavepool (Volor Flex, Ofdream, Craset, and Pensees being my favorites in that genre). This is room boundary shattering space. I've heard something like this once before when I had Dynaudio 1.4LE's with a modest Arc stack. They were on the short wall and as monitors imaging was a strong suit. I currently have my speakers on the long wall and tweeters are about 4ft away from the wall behind them. I certainly have a front row sound out of preference but I'm hearing deeper into the back of the stage and above my head as well. Oh what the hell, one more track can't hurt: Sorrow - Want U Back. Little xylophone synth dancing with the bass line. Ignore the earlier vocals, they don't add anything to the track but the way that bass ebbs and flows is gorgeous. It starts with a big punch on the bass note that rolls and waves down to lower octaves. It stops short of the octaves where I am hearing "one-note"-ness. There is a lot of texture to the bass and for me I see waves forming in front of me (attribute this back to the synesthesia) - particularly when the later (and preferable) samples of what sounds like indian female vocals with their high pitched modulations kick in. Fine, one more, Normani and 6Lack's Waves. A sexy track with Normani's emotion packed voice contrasted by 6Lack's more gruff, staticy rnb - more of what I was hearing above. Normani is able to dance around the beat in the pre chorus and the system is able to follow before delivering a viscerally deep bass line on the chorus. That gave me some goosebumps, waves of them if you pardon the pun.
All in all, an interesting listen this morning. Clearly the Taiko has improved since yesterday. There is no denying that. There is also no denying that this is an unoptimized set up and Day 2 of a new piece of gear: long road ahead but I am excited to explore further.: worked late into the night, woke up tired and slow. made some coffee and as per ritual, threw on some tunes while checking emails. i started with a track I play often. Darci - Come Around. A small, somewhat unknow artist. The lyrics/rhyming are meh, but the beat is clean, layered, and atmospheric. My friends and I refer to this as "chillcloud" - easy listening but atmospheric and leaning towards the darker persuasions. Chillcloud music has been the soundtrack to many a spliff
. Now, I will say that I'm one of the lucky one who can experience synesthesia through music. It doesn't happen often but for whatever reason, when I hear this track I see a shade of purple that I've never seen anywhere else. You can find magic in the most random of places.I've heard about all the details one can hear in this track off my CIEMs (64Audio A18T) so I'm not expecting to hear anything new but there is a sense of space that I haven't heard from this beat. The stage is massive and all encompassing. The Kraft brought this aspect out of the magicos and the Taiko seems to give the Kraft more space to work with if that makes sense. The bass digs deep and while very resolute, I notice the lowest octaves are one-note. This could be a fault of my room, something upstream, the recording, or lack of break in on the Taiko - I guess this will be revealed in due time. There is a density and flow to the vocals that, while I've heard before, is enhanced to a new degree.
The closest I can liken it to - for my fellow big watt Class A amp owners - when my system plays for an hour or two it hits this level of flow and dynamics. It doesnt sound bad on track one but this quality is enhanced through a listening session as the lower mid to lower treble range opens up and the dynamic shading from that peak to trough becomes apparent. The Tiako is able to bring this out on track 1 and with more clarity and tonal color than I've heard before. At least, I'm attributing to this Taiko and not the use of usb or something else. Some may disagree with this conclusion but in the past when I changed inputs on my dac, I didn't hear this level of difference.
A track like Lykke Li's Last Piece is a great showcase of this. A minimal beat that builds and she brings so many vocal ranges and tempos to the table. The song itself varies from visceral to ethereal but that lower mid to lower treble range (in this case it would be lower treble to lower mid as she lowers her voice to harmonize with the beat) and this variation creates something beautiful as I have a weakness for modulating female vocals. it's a great way to test a speaker system's speed as it needs to be able to shift tempos quickly. On the resolution side, particularly as it relates to inner details, Alina Baraz's Maybe is beautifully put together track with and exceptionally deep sustained bass note and her high pitched vocals with smoky reverb. I honestly find the beat in this track distracting in the last third of the track and tend to skip the track around there. Today I noticed an added sense of air to her vocals and that smoky reverb I referred to earlier had greater presence offering a more ghostly sound. I prefer it this way and would not classify it as slow or anything like that.
Last track before I stop listening (it will keep playing in the back but I need to put down some code today): Burial's Archangel. As always Burial brings a ghostly atmosphere and beautiful samples. This is my favorite Burial track and I go through long spells of listening to only future garage or wavepool (Volor Flex, Ofdream, Craset, and Pensees being my favorites in that genre). This is room boundary shattering space. I've heard something like this once before when I had Dynaudio 1.4LE's with a modest Arc stack. They were on the short wall and as monitors imaging was a strong suit. I currently have my speakers on the long wall and tweeters are about 4ft away from the wall behind them. I certainly have a front row sound out of preference but I'm hearing deeper into the back of the stage and above my head as well. Oh what the hell, one more track can't hurt: Sorrow - Want U Back. Little xylophone synth dancing with the bass line. Ignore the earlier vocals, they don't add anything to the track but the way that bass ebbs and flows is gorgeous. It starts with a big punch on the bass note that rolls and waves down to lower octaves. It stops short of the octaves where I am hearing "one-note"-ness. There is a lot of texture to the bass and for me I see waves forming in front of me (attribute this back to the synesthesia) - particularly when the later (and preferable) samples of what sounds like indian female vocals with their high pitched modulations kick in. Fine, one more, Normani and 6Lack's Waves. A sexy track with Normani's emotion packed voice contrasted by 6Lack's more gruff, staticy rnb - more of what I was hearing above. Normani is able to dance around the beat in the pre chorus and the system is able to follow before delivering a viscerally deep bass line on the chorus. That gave me some goosebumps, waves of them if you pardon the pun.
All in all, an interesting listen this morning. Clearly the Taiko has improved since yesterday. There is no denying that. There is also no denying that this is an unoptimized set up and Day 2 of a new piece of gear: long road ahead but I am excited to explore further.
