Taiko Audio Extreme Music Server

Standard included: Taiko USB Card, Extreme Network Card, Flightcase and 2TB Storage.

“The Taiko Audio Extreme is a State of the Art Music Server designed to deliver the most realistic sounding / live reproduction from stored music files and streaming music from Qobuz and Tidal.”

EXTREME

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF AUDIO STREAMING

Emerging from many years of relentless researching, comparing and listening, the Extreme is the culmination of what is possible in the field of music servers.

It combines many technological breakthroughs completely unseen before in the world of digital High-End Audio. Only the best components from the most respected vendors are sourced for it, many of which are custom-designed from the ground up.

During the lengthy design process, no stone has been left unturned, giving equal attention to resonance control, prevention of electric pollution, reliability, and user-friendliness. Due to its flexible and modular architecture, you can expect a very long life expectancy with both hard- and software updates, giving you the confidence of a future-proof investment in the best digital source for years to come.

PCIe STORAGE

In our research, we found SSD storage to be a significant bottleneck in the overall performance of a digital source. An SSD always connects to your system via the motherboard DMI chipset. For the Extreme, we are using PCIe modules, which connect directly to the CPU and bypass the DMI. Therefore, we achieve speeds up to 4x faster than SSD, which results in lower latency and much lower system noise overall, giving you black backgrounds, huge space rendition, and bringing an ease to the musicians’ performance, only matched by the very best vinyl and tape playback systems. We rely on the new VMD technology that Intel introduced with their new Xeon Scalable line of processors. VMD allows us on the hardware level instead of the software level to have greater bandwidth on the PCIe interface, reducing the active processes once more.

You can select anything from 2TB to up to 64TB internal storage, eliminating the need for playback from external drives such as a NAS. Worried about backups? We found that RAID is not beneficial to the sound quality. Therefore, we strongly recommend that our customers use an external backup drive, which can be accessed remotely via the Extreme. Should you still wish to use RAID, the Extreme will also handle this.

SELECTED HIGH SPEED RAM

Ever heard of DRAM refresh? You should, because it is one of the main reasons many think fewer and lower speed DIMMs are better for sound quality. In our research, we discovered the true source of why RAM has such a significant impact on sonics and were able to deal with it our way:

Our custom RAM modules have factory pre-selected A-grade memory modules, and all dimm components (memory chips, capacitors, resistors, etc.) are matched to within a 1% tolerance and selected for low current draw. The side effect of this is that the refresh rate burst current is reduced by almost 50%, and operating temperatures are much lower, allowing lower refresh rates. Combined with power supply filtering this allows us to use 12 memory dimms with a very high combined bandwidth at very low refresh noise levels.

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“We test every part that goes into our servers, measuring the performance to ensure everything in within specifications. We also spend thousands of hours listening to music. A constant source is used as a datum point, and every server that leaves our factory is guaranteed to exceed our own reference.”

Low queue depth and latency

The Extreme is built for bit-perfect output without upsampling the data stream to cater to the latest premium R2R and Sigma/Delta D-to-A converters. With bit-perfect streaming, system latency (=active processing time) becomes a significant part of the resulting sound quality. In our design of the Extreme, we focused on providing the lowest latency possible for every instruction or set of instructions the server has to manage.

Why? To maintain as short a queue depth as possible in all system components, which leads to a constant current draw, low EMI/RFI emissions, and powerline pollution. This is why the Extreme’s computational power seems to be overkill, but, in fact, it is paramount to the resulting quality of the audio stream.

This also ensures that the Extreme will not be harmful to any other associated equipment you have in your music playlist.

The operating system has been custom-stripped to the very core of what is absolutely needed to run music services. We believe our solution to be better and more reliable than any aftermarket software and even better than running the whole operation system in RAM.

MULTI-STAGE ULTRA LINEAR POWER SUPPLY

Our 400W linear power supply is a new in-house development specially created for the Extreme and its unique needs. It comprises only the very best capacitors from Mundorf and Duelund, combined in a way we found to be most neutral to the sound. The chokes are supplied by Lundahl and were selected also by ear.

Extensive vibrational measures have been applied to make it as resilient as possible. Again, Panzerholz was used in strategic places to shift the vibration patterns in benign territory. The whole design is built for low temperature, long life, and above all, the best sound quality.

The Cooling System

During the design phase, we quickly came to the conclusion that none of the available cooling systems would suffice our demands. Therefore we designed our very own custom 240W passive cooling system – no active parts, no fans, no noise. Many aspects needed to be considered, none more important than component longevity.

We found that most aftermarket passive cooling systems degrade in efficiency over time, which is why we machined the CPU interface with a precision of 5 microns tolerance (0,005mm!). We also use solid copper for the heat sinks, for twice the efficiency as regularly used aluminum. We estimate that our custom solution will lead to a prolonged component life of between 4 and 12 years extra, depending on the use and environmental conditions.

The Chassis design

As physically imposing as the chassis of the Extreme may seem, everything is there for a reason. The finely machined aircraft-grade aluminum available in silver or black acts as a shield from external noise but also keeps your other components free from pollution. The heavy top, for example, hosts a total of 6.000 machined holes. These holes are “waveguides” which attenuate emissions by 81 dB, which is around 10.000 times!

Inside, you will find multiple measures to tackle the vibrational behavior of the component. Copper and Panzerholz have proven to be the best materials for this task, bringing low mechanical impedance and a benign vibrational spectrum to the table.

The footers, too, are custom-designed to give optimal coupling to the surface below. The Extreme is a sight to behold and built to last.