Taiko Servers

[Randy Myers]

Good morning, everything I have read about the Taiko servers is excellent. I know I probably will never be able to actually afford one, but I do use a custom server which uses many of the same type of designs that Taiko does.

I am interested in hearing other people's experiences and opinions on these highly rated machines. I know there is one new user who has expressed that he has one of their machines. I would love to hear his experience and how he integrates it into his system. I would love to hear any other user who owns one of these servers.

I stress; I DO NOT WANT ANY DISCUSSIONS like the one thread in another forum bashing the company. I do not know of or care about or have ever read that particular forum. It does not sound like my cup of tea, so to speak. I am not posting this thread as a bash fest, or any name calling.

I just want to know actual users' experiences and how the server integrates with your audio system. I personally use an USB out from my server to my DAC and I also utilize a reclocker designed to clean up the USB signal and power. These units are designed by a personal friend of mine so please try to not jump on or bash these units if you have no knowledge of their use and design. Do you use similar interface with your Taiko sever or some other manner of interfacing it to your DAC?

Thank you!

 

[Mike]

We have several preowned Taiko Extremes for sale if you’re interested.

They were all traded in for Pink Faun’s. You may want to consider the Scion or Ultra in your search.

 

[Randy Myers]

We have several preowned Taiko Extremes for sale if you’re interested.

They were all traded in for Pink Faun’s. You may want to consider the Scion or Ultra in your search.

Hey Mike, I would love to consider one, but currently we are dealing with some health issues with my wife. We have agreed to not make any big purchases other than house upgrades in the foreseeable future .

 

[Mike]

Hey Mike, I would love to consider one, but currently we are dealing with some health issues with my wife. We have agreed to not make any big purchases other than house upgrades in the foreseeable future .

I’m sorry to hear. Hope all works out.

 

[Randy Myers]

I’m sorry to hear. Hope all works out.

Trying a couple new meds and going back for checkups in a week. The doctors are amazing here. We also have another follow up appointment at KU in Kansas City in a few weeks. Hopefully we will have a better understanding of our path forward soon.

The main reason we decided to retire here is because the health care is excellent. Cheryal is a retired hospice nurse, so she searched all over the country prior to narrowing down to this location. The health care is so much better than where we came from. The only real negative thing is how high property taxes are. Vastly higher than they are in California.

 

[Mike]

Trying a couple new meds and going back for checkups in a week. The doctors are amazing here. We also have another follow up appointment at KU in Kansas City in a few weeks. Hopefully we will have a better understanding of our path forward soon.

The main reason we decided to retire here is because the health care is excellent. Cheryal is a retired hospice nurse, so she searched all over the country prior to narrowing down to this location. The health care is so much better than where we came from. The only real negative thing is how high property taxes are. Vastly higher than they are in California.

Higher property taxes than California? Aren’t you homesteaded? Should be far less than California.

 

[Randy Myers]

Nope... Kansas does not have any real breaks for seniors. My small pension, which basically pays for our insurance, puts us over any tax help. But the real issue is they have this thing here that we had never heard of called "Specials" which is in fact extra taxes. Any new houses get assessed these taxes, which is very weird. But the bottom line, our taxes are 50% higher here than in California and the house in Cali was twice the price as the house here. Which of course is one of the advantages here. Housing cost versus California is a ton less. Also, health care is a ton better.

It surprises me because of the way you would think the Midwest would be much more for small government, but then they allow for sooooo much higher taxes . Go figure.

 

[mep]

Wow! Who would ever thought Kansas would have higher property taxes than CA?

My sister-in- law lives in NJ in a tiny house with a tiny yard and her property taxes are $8k a year. That's flat out robbery without the "Stick 'em up!"

 

[Randy Myers]

Yea, try $11k... yup my property tax in KANSAS is $11k. I sat down with someone at the county office. Her reply was that they don't have any tourism, so they make it up in taxes... kind of pitiful reasoning if you ask me.

 

[mep]

Unreal Randy. I live in TN and we have no state income tax. Your property taxes are 4.78 times more than what I pay.

 

[Mr Peabody]

My house is probably considered modest but I'm not complaining about property taxes here anymore after seeing what others pay. I think mine is around $3100 or so.

 

[gordon]

Trying a couple new meds and going back for checkups in a week. The doctors are amazing here. We also have another follow up appointment at KU in Kansas City in a few weeks. Hopefully we will have a better understanding of our path forward soon.

The main reason we decided to retire here is because the health care is excellent. Cheryal is a retired hospice nurse, so she searched all over the country prior to narrowing down to this location. The health care is so much better than where we came from. The only real negative thing is how high property taxes are. Vastly higher than they are in California.

Is this due, at least in part, to Prop 13? If I recall properly, property taxes only go up when a property is sold, so if you've owned your house for 10 years, you property tax is base on the value of the house 10 years ago.

My property taxes in Idaho are about the same as my previous house in California, but the Idaho house is worth 2x of the CA house, so taxes are about half.

 

[Michaels HiFi]

It's interesting when people move to Texas they talk about high property taxes. In absolute terms they are for sure. But they fail to mention the host of other taxes that either don't exist or are less % rate here vs. other states.

An example is in my other state I paid a yearly car excise tax. That was about $4,000 per year I had to pay on the value of my car. Just for owning a car. There is no such tax in Texas. Same when comparing income tax - there is none in Texas. There also is no graduated tax rates on selling a home here like there is in other states.

So certainly when we look at things like property taxes or sales tax it is higher in Texas than many others. But overall the tax sum is much lower.

It also varies whether you are in the cities here which lately have become give-a-way central, or in the suburbs where there is some sanity. Gotta pay for those freebies somehow.

Also gas and energy is considerably cheaper here. My mom's natural gas rate back home is 4X that of what it is here in Texas. She spend s$1,200 a MONTH as an 83 year old to keep her house heated at 64 degrees due to the energy charges as controlled by that state. None of that is the case here.

I'm not saying that's the case in Randy's situation as I don't know, but it can be an overall factor if only focusing on one tax type.

The other thing I've noticed is the suburbs here that have many businesses in them typically have a lower tax rate for residents as the business contribute a large sum towards taxes. In the smaller towns where you may not even have a Wal-Mart - the load gets pushed onto the resident.

Certainly I'm in the camp of less taxes is good. It's just always interesting to look at the breadth of taxes to see what my overall taxable responsibility is vs. just on narrow tax type.

Toyota recently moved their HQ fleeing Cali to here. Toyota said they were NOT going to give anyone who moved with them a raise because based on the overall cost of living as a whole: taxes, energy costs, food costs, housing costs, etc by keeping the pay the same the employees were in essence receiving a 32% raise over living in California.

So there are a lot of factors that come into play. As to which ones are important to people is certainly personal and totally up to them. Certainly high tax rates don't make California a bad state nor low tax rates make a state better. It could be free to live in Alaska and I still would never move there.