News Fanless audiophile PC sells for close to $30,000 — music server features dual Xeon 10-core CPUs, 48GB RAM, 280GB Optane SSD, and 2TB secondary stor...

[Admin]

Taiko Audio is selling a dual Intel Xeon server paired with a custom fanless cooling solution to audiophiles around the globe for almost $30,000.

Fanless audiophile PC sells for close to $30,000 — music server features dual Xeon 10-core CPUs, 48GB RAM, 280GB Optane SSD, and 2TB secondary stor... : Read more

 

[gg83]

I love this stuff. Hobbies do cost a lot of money. Audio has to be unique in that sense. Fixing and modding a car has visible results. Audio is 100 subjective.

 

[why_wolf]

a fool and their money is soon parted. Just pure snake oil.

I'm amazed they didn't gold plate the connectors like so many Best Buy cables.

 

[bit_user]

A modern A/V Receiver strikes me as oddly resembling a fanless audiophile PC and most cost quite a bit less. They're mixed-signal (handling both analog and digital) and the ones I've seen inside of even have a backplane with cards plugged into a sort of motherboard.

 

[why_wolf]

A modern A/V Receiver strikes me as oddly resembling a fanless audiophile PC and most cost quite a bit less. They're mixed-signal (handling both analog and digital) and the ones I've seen inside of even have a backplane with cards plugged into a sort of motherboard.

The thing is you still need an A/V Receiver with this "server". It has no ability to natively power any speakers.

 

[DougMcC]

I love this stuff. Hobbies do cost a lot of money. Audio has to be unique in that sense. Fixing and modding a car has visible results. Audio is 100 subjective.

You could measure the audio output with a pretty trivial microphone setup, and prove to yourself that this is a pure waste of money.

 

[vanadiel007]

Taiko says that “fewer and lower speed DIMMs are better for sound quality”.
Would love for Taiko to provide the technical data behind that claim. Have a feeling there is none.

 

[stonecarver]

Off there web site, it still needs a DAC. No RCA out's. Nice looking but to far out there in left field for my reality.

Taiko Audio Extreme Music Server on Artesania Exoteryc and Finite Elemente Pagode MR – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/w...-Taiko-Audio-Extreme-Manual_v00_17.x80569.pdf

One of the Extreme’s goals is to provide the least possible latency to the signal processing, therefore, its operating system (based on Windows 10) has been stripped to the core, and the data output is “bit perfect” without any oversampling or upsampling. The latter is not necessary anyway, for a DAC that connects to the Taiko server may or may not employ further data processing; this way the DAC choice is yours.

 

[UnforcedERROR]

You could measure the audio output with a pretty trivial microphone setup, and prove to yourself that this is a pure waste of money.

You wouldn't want to measure it that way. Microphones are useful for testing speakers/headphones, but not the output of the audio equipment. You'd use an analyzer in this case, since you're going to be more concerned with the distortion measurements. EDIT: this isn't even a DAC-level device, its entire purpose is to output to a DAC, which makes measuring it even more irrelevant and the cost even more absurd.

Still, this is pure marketing garbage. Audiophile stuff is always ridiculous, but some of the upper-range items are designed specifically for people with plenty of money and no understanding of what they're purchasing.

 

[DougMcC]

You wouldn't want to measure it that way. Microphones are useful for testing speakers/headphones, but not the output of the audio equipment. You'd use an analyzer in this case, since you're going to be more concerned with the distortion measurements. EDIT: this isn't even a DAC-level device, its entire purpose is to output to a DAC, which makes measuring it even more irrelevant and the cost even more absurd.

Still, this is pure marketing garbage. Audiophile stuff is always ridiculous, but some of the upper-range items are designed specifically for people with plenty of money and no understanding of what they're purchasing.

Meh. Expensive compared to a couple of mics. The mics will tell you all you need to know.

 

[bit_user]

The thing is you still need an A/V Receiver with this "server". It has no ability to natively power any speakers.

Oh, yeah. I hadn't noticed this thing doesn't even seem to have any analog outputs? SMH.

My home PC setup has long consisted of using digital outputs, feeding into a Toslink crossbar switch -> standalone DAC -> preamp -> powered speakers. I also had a standalone heaphone amp connected to the tape loop of the preamp, but its volume knob got scratchy and the headphone output on the preamp is really pretty good.

The DAC -> preamp -> powered speakers are connected via balanced interconnects, which is the only kind to use if you're really serious about sound quality. The speakers are legit studio monitors perched on stands and placed at ear-level and with my head on-axis, since distortion tends to increase the farther off-axis you go.

These days, most of my listening happens on noise cancelling Sony headphones, using their LDAC codec. If there's any background noise at all, the noise cancelling headphones easily surpass the quality of my PC audio system, even with hi fi headphones.

If I wanted to level-up my speaker setup, the next thing I'd do is parametric equalization to defeat the resonances in my room.

 

[bit_user]

Taiko says that “fewer and lower speed DIMMs are better for sound quality”.
Would love for Taiko to provide the technical data behind that claim. Have a feeling there is none.

If the box is properly EMI-shielded, then it shouldn't really matter what's inside.

One of the Extreme’s goals is to provide the least possible latency

Latency only matters for gaming or live performance. It's not a fidelity issue.

 

[UnforcedERROR]

Meh. Expensive compared to a couple of mics. The mics will tell you all you need to know.

Mics won't tell you anything, that's not how you measure the distortion of audio equipment. Period. All a mic can tell you is how your speakers perform, not how accurate the audio signal is.

You know all the snake oil people complain about with subjective reviews of audio equipment? That's basically what you're doing.

This explains what I'm talking about further:

Article: Understanding Digital Audio Measurements

EDIT: Kind translation to Spanish by member @RamiroColasurdo here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/article-understanding-digital-audio-measurements.10523/page-8#post-1486638 A detailed tutorial on how one can characterize the true performance of DACs (whether...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[J4ck1nth3b0x]

I would bet one-month wages on a double blind test that the CEO of Taiko Audio cannot tell the difference between streaming with Roon on a Raspberry Pi or this overpriced fanless server. Windows 10 Enterprise? Come on! Low speed DIMMS for better audio quality? LMFAO!

 

[mac_angel]

This is about as legit as the audiophile router or the audiophile network cables. There's absolutely no reason a computer that's built to work on audio files needs that much power.

 

[spongiemaster]

This is so over the top expensive, it falls into the who cares category. This isn't something the average person saves up for a couple months for, nor is it getting connected to a decent $5-10k speaker system. So, you have to have legit money to be dropping 30 grand on something useless like this to connect to your similarly priced "audiophile" system. The markup on this is likely so insane that they'll only need to sell a few to break even, which is likely all they are going to be able to sell.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

This is right up there with those 100% oxygen free braided copper speaker wires that require special standoffs to keep them 1" off the floor and cost $2000+ per pair (8ft max).

Heck, I'm still using those 12ft black/red bulk wires that shipped with my Kenwood KL-555D's over 40 years ago.

 

[usertests]

While the company's claims seem entirely unsupportable, and the dual socket Xeon to run a UI and app separately is a waste, maybe it can make sense at that price as a fanless enterprise-grade web server or something. But even then I know it can be a lot cheaper.

 

[YSCCC]

As partly an audiophile (with sense and data backed)... with low running fan and a reasonable external dac, those crazy thousand dollar fanless and isolation BS are complete scam, just get a reasonably well designed dac with good noise isolation built in, any non leaking and up to general spec cables in amazon costing like $10 and a real studio monitor as desk speaker with some sub, better using some in room calibaration and you get what is as faithful (Hi Fi) as you can get... and this is used as a server... you can setup a music server in a well damped, isolated room with those blower fans and not leaking any of the noise at your listening room..

 

[stonecarver]

This is right up there with those 100% oxygen free braided copper speaker wires that require special standoffs to keep them 1" off the floor and cost $2000+ per pair (8ft max).

Man I knew a guy like that in the past. He was so excited showing everyone his ceramic vintage telephone pole wire separators that he used to float his magical " in his mind" sounding speaker wires off the floor.

He ran the wires into a pair of the mid size Martin Logan electrostatic speakers and I thought the whole system sounded like crap.

Funny I fell in love with the Martin Logan Monoliths and that's what I run but I'm not nuts about about the weird side of Audio. Some people are very, very weird.

 

[Amdlova]

On my 14700T setup semi passive... when incrase ram over 3200mhz the system make more coil whine noise or other related sounds.
Some times I have to disable the c states because can listen the changing of power.
The usb mouse with the polling rate of 1000mhz kicks on the audio. I use here a stereo car cd player from kenwood and a car audio amplifier.
Using a ps3 power supply aps 226 cheap and go over 100db snr

 

[pixelpusher220]

When the Audiophile market starts to falter, swap in a camo paint job and it's a TACTICAL DEFENSE SERVER

 

[8086]

a fool and their money is soon parted. Just pure snake oil.

I'm amazed they didn't gold plate the connectors like so many Best Buy cables.

Gold plating does serve a purpose but not every cable needs to be gold plated, like toslink cables. With copper interconnects, the gold plating serves to preserve the underlying metal connector from oxidation or corrosion over time which will degrade the signal quality thus affecting sound.

And while, I won't disagree with you; not everything that appears to be snake oil really is snake oil.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzwAdwvy9l4

Audio Quest is the King of Snake Oil Sales.

 

[8086]

This is right up there with those 100% oxygen free braided copper speaker wires that require special standoffs to keep them 1" off the floor and cost $2000+ per pair (8ft max).

Heck, I'm still using those 12ft black/red bulk wires that shipped with my Kenwood KL-555D's over 40 years ago.

The standoff thing is a bit of an oddity in most cases. Most cables are not worth the price but there are a few which can be justified, both financially and scientifically. Danny at GR Research is good at cutting through the crap and getting down to the technicals.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILU7PxmB_PY

Do watch this. He does make a lot of scientific and technical sense. Twisted cables to cancel out Crosstalk, RFI, and EMI

 

[Colif]

“The choice to design a dual CPU system was largely fueled by finding a way around the impact Roon’s luxury interface has on sound quality. It does enable Roon processing to become virtually inaudible, a world’s first in our experience.”

Love to know how they measured the "improvements"
Trust us bro, running two CPU on same board totally makes a difference.

Taiko says that “fewer and lower speed DIMMs are better for sound quality,” which is why it didn’t use the best RAM for gaming.

Right, cause digital files care about the ram they are on (besides not being corrupted by bad ram sticks)

Just like the answer to this was No

Guess that answers some of their products then:

Taiko Audio Extreme Router – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

Extreme Switch – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

what makes it an audio server? I don't see anything special in it besides lots of space. No special USB slots or "power conditioners"

I see you expected to have all the cables, so Audioquest 5k USD USB cables as well then?

Its got a linear PSU but then units that cost $750 have those in them now. Hardly a selling point.

People who don't understand anything about computers are an easy sale. Hi fi audio can be a money pit and some of the makers really don't like it when you point out what is really inside:

So much empty space.

Its tech info lacks details, if I was paying out 30k for a Server I would want to know more specific info than this:

EXTREME SERVER – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

Why didn't we push them further on claims? What motherboard does it use?