Tuesday, December 10th 2024
$30,000 Music Streaming Server is the Next Audiophile Dream Device
Taiko Audio, a Dutch high-end audio manufacturer, has unveiled what might be the most over-engineered music server ever created—the Extreme Server. With a starting price of €28,000 (US$29,600), this meticulously crafted device embodies either the pinnacle of audio engineering or the epitome of audiophile excess. The Extreme's most distinctive feature is its unique dual-processor architecture, using two Intel Xeon Scalable 10-core CPUs. This unusual configuration isn't just for show—Taiko claims it solves a specific audiophile dilemma: the impact of Roon's music management interface on sound quality. By dedicating two processors to Roon and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 interface, they've made Roon's processing "virtually inaudible", addressing a concern most music listeners probably never knew existed.
Perhaps the most striking technical achievement is the server's cooling system, or rather, its complete absence of conventional cooling. Taiko designed a custom 240 W passive cooling solution with absolutely no fans or moving parts. The company machined the CPU interface to a mind-boggling precision of 5 microns (0.005 mm) and opted for solid copper heat sinks instead of aluminium, claiming this will extend component life by 4 to 12 years. The attention to detail extends to the memory configuration, where Taiko takes an unconventional approach. The server uses twelve 4 GB custom-made industrial memory modules, each factory pre-selected with components matched to within 1% tolerance. According to Taiko, this reduces the refresh rate burst current by almost 50% and allows for lower operating temperatures. The PSU that powers the PC is a custom 400 W linear power supply, an in-house development designed specifically for the Extreme's unique needs. It combines premium Mundorf and Duelund capacitors for sonic neutrality, Lundahl chokes selected by ear, and extensive vibrational damping using Panzerholz (a compressed wood composite) for durability, low temperature operation, longevity, and exceptional sound quality.
Even the chassis design seems excessive, with its aircraft-grade aluminium housing featuring 6,000 precisely machined holes acting as "waveguides" that supposedly attenuate emissions by 81 dB—a 10,000-fold reduction. Copper and Panzerholz are strategically placed to control vibrations. Storage starts at a modest 2 TB but can be expanded to 64 TB using PCIe modules that connect directly to the CPU, bypassing traditional SSD limitations. Taiko claims this achieves speeds up to four times faster than conventional SSDs, resulting in "black backgrounds" and "huge space rendition" that supposedly rivals high-end vinyl and tape systems. For the audiophile who has everything (including an extremely understanding financial advisor), the Extreme Server represents either the ultimate evolution in digital audio or the most elaborate example yet of diminishing returns in high-end audio.
Sources:
FanlessTech on X, via Tom's Hardware
Perhaps the most striking technical achievement is the server's cooling system, or rather, its complete absence of conventional cooling. Taiko designed a custom 240 W passive cooling solution with absolutely no fans or moving parts. The company machined the CPU interface to a mind-boggling precision of 5 microns (0.005 mm) and opted for solid copper heat sinks instead of aluminium, claiming this will extend component life by 4 to 12 years. The attention to detail extends to the memory configuration, where Taiko takes an unconventional approach. The server uses twelve 4 GB custom-made industrial memory modules, each factory pre-selected with components matched to within 1% tolerance. According to Taiko, this reduces the refresh rate burst current by almost 50% and allows for lower operating temperatures. The PSU that powers the PC is a custom 400 W linear power supply, an in-house development designed specifically for the Extreme's unique needs. It combines premium Mundorf and Duelund capacitors for sonic neutrality, Lundahl chokes selected by ear, and extensive vibrational damping using Panzerholz (a compressed wood composite) for durability, low temperature operation, longevity, and exceptional sound quality.
77 Comments on $30,000 Music Streaming Server is the Next Audiophile Dream Device
HDPlex does have linear ATX power supply btw:
hdplex.com/hdplex-fanless-500w-atx-linear-power-supply-with-modular-atx-output.html
Their logic is that 30k for a 2TB server is reasonable?
This ignores that "smooth" is not a thing for a digital system...that spits out 1 and 0 values.
This ignores the cables, which might actually introduce some losses to whatever you're actually playing the music on.
This ignores that the power supply to a digital device doesn't need to be linear because the data is store as discrete values.
This ignores that they are using insane-o levels of processing power for less actual data than comes out of the average DVD.
I...cannot believe how stupid some people can be. The amount of RAM is just sickening, because with the demands of an audio server they could remove the need to "balance" this by using a single stick. The dual Xeon processors is more than you could ever need for dozens of audio streams. The motherboard is just a standard affair...so if the thing connecting all of this isn't special then why is everything else? And you top all of this off with sound damping and a passive cooler, which make a silent system...more silent presumably? Anyone looking to spend 30k on a music server is already unhinged. Let's just enjoy that there are actually people out there who will pretend this matters.
I'll do some rough math. 1 person, $100 per ticket. One ticket every other week, as not all weeks of the year have shows. 26*100 = 2600. 30000/2600 = 11.54. 11.54*52 = 600. So, if I went to a concert every other week on average then not buying this would get me 600 weeks of entertainment, probably adult fun times, and I still wouldn't have purchased a DAC/amp/speakers. Consider me a lover of seeing bands at a live show far more than disappearing up my own behind to pretend that the 30k server is better.
I bet one CPU each for the L and R channel. Running at identical clocks all the time, otherwise Id feel cheated! You gotta love the audiophile logic they applied. Its literally a 30K noob trap!You missed a key point here. You cant show off or brag about your tickets for Slayer.
The best case seems to be to buy a decent mid end pair of headphones, while you are young and enjoy your time with them. Because all of the money in the world can't buy back your youth and hearing. Those types of spendings seem to be a part of the mid-life crisis at least in my opinion.
Clock sync isn't nonsense. But for 30k you can get something like this bloomaudio.com/products/dcs-lina-system?variant=40238512177227&country=US¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA6t-6BhA3EiwAltRFGJNXbovKoAFxJJ4KRXvfwC98rDOwkGIpsyQzVtpe9viUWfcfgnd0VBoCes4QAvD_BwE
I just need to purify air in my room, kind of semiconductor lab.
When sound waves hit dust particles suspended in the air, they get distorted.
Even worse for wireless streaming. 0 or 1 can get lost or flipped ☹
There is certainly some quality difference in sound reproduction between different pieces of gear. But the level we're at in this topic isn't that, and there is a huge grey zone before you reach this point, too. This is just built for people who never have enough, and a fanbase that aspires to be just like them for reasons unknown.
I can’t ☹, all I hear is distorted with sound of my ear hair growing.
I have this rare condition when your cells are using masonry tools to build stuff.
BTW, sh.t AI can create is scary, like picture above :-/
There are extremely expensive speaker systems, that hurt my ears, I still use my Nakamichi Soundspace 11 from ages ago, because it has a neutral to warm sounding audio with rich bass, where many modern speaker systems and headphones hurt my ears, they can go loud, but they hurt my listening experience.
Wait until you realise, that cable quality can make a difference too, it's subtle, but it's there, for example, if you get cables made of silver, instead of copper (I haven't personally tried gold yet) but it does make a difference.
Some old Valve amplifiers sound way better than modern junk.
The real question is, how much does sound mean to you, and what do you want to spend on audio equipment?
Some spend more on "graphics" OLED, bigger screen, better GPU, some do both. In the end, they all do matter if you want the best experience, it's just ones wallet, has to, well, run very deep to achieve it, once upon a time, I could claim this, not anymore, but when you got used to the "best" it's hard to downgrade, harder still to explain to someone that never had it to begin with.
Anyways, ranting again. blah blah etc.
And what's even better, with products such as streaming server you can be sure they have right about zero customer support, and right about zero dedicated programmers to actually take care of all the bugs that inevitably show up, and to properly maintain compatibility with other systems. They offer apps for Apple, Android? Be sure very quickly these apps won't even work on newer iterations. New Windows? Application there won't work properly ever again. Etc.
Gotta focus on selling the next pseudo high end product.
Take for instance Michael Fremer, a long time Stereophile reviewer and analog proponent.
He claimed he could hear the difference between various Analog to Digital converters used by studios, because they were so deterimental to the sound, all of them.
Then the Mobile Fidelity scandal broke out in 2023. It became apparent that the main audiophile studio that made bespoke limited edition vinyl pressings that sold for $100+ (and quickly shot well over, because they were limited) had hid they converted ALL their "master tape transfers" to digital before converting them back to analog before making the LP. For more than a decade.
Michael Fremer, who deemed many MoFi records best ever produced, first attacked the guy that spilled the news. Because he wasn't one of them, one from the industry, an established reviewer. But he failed, because technicians of Mobile Fidelity just admitted the conversion step, even when the higher ups were covering it up.
Michael Fremer lost his long time job as a reviewer for Stereophile. But he was quickly hired by their rival, The Absolute Sound. So he can continue to claim to hear minute sonic differences between rhodium, silver and gold plated connectors. While being an old guy that probably doesn't hear anything above 14 kHz.
And Mobile Fidelity? They got sued in a class lawsuit, but settled for 25 million dollars, and anyone who bought their record and thought they can't listen to it now because it was digital in between the master tape and cutting could return it and get their money back. But they continue selling their records, just that they now admit it's not a "pure abalog" path any more.
If you've used drugs while listening to music you know this in a different way. I could have sworn I heard more than just music on some festivals. New frequencies, too, that impacted me in ways I never knew before. And it didn't happen because my body was suddenly capable of something new. It happened because my state of mind was attuned to it. If you want something to exist, or if you seek that something, you will find it. Here's a nice experiment, try a shot from a helium balloon and lie down in between two speakers playing music. Fun times, you'll experience music like never before for as little as 0,20ct.
Its nothing different from religious people finding what they seek in religious places. The mind conjures it.
Similar things occur at extremely high refresh rates in gaming. There is a limit to perception, and that's where imagination starts to take over. Being more 'sensitive' is really not an advantage, it just costs you more money, and you can rest assured you're not enjoying music or gaming more than anyone else. Enjoyment is a mind state. Not a qualitative thing.
What's far more factual is stating that the music industry like every other will do whatever it can to make money. Everything else follows that. You actually said this yourself: 'what does sound mean to you' - that additional meaning of sound, for you, gets converted into spending ungodly amounts of cash on it to get 'some bigger benefit' out of that sound. But I can imagine there are millions on the planet for whom sound (more precisely 'music', and often quite specific music pieces too, its not about their sound quality but the music itself) is an integral part of their lives, while they never even hear a good sound system. Do they enjoy sound less than you? I doubt that. That said there is of course a quality difference in audio gear. But like high refresh, at some point it just doesn't matter, and even before that, our mind is perfectly capable of filling in any 'blanks'.
The bottom line is, no matter how you twist it in your own mind, that you have money to burn and you burn it on this. That's fine. But that's all it is.See this is a whole other category of audio than what's in the topic. Sure, you can spend a few thousand, or even five thousand, on great audio gear and that will certainly pay off. But if you have to start stretching to ten and keep buying? You might want to start reflecting. If you do audio with common sense, you buy stuff once, and you stick with it for a long time - 10+ years at least, or double that, easily, if you buy quality gear. It actually pays off like that simply because its built well and does the job well. If you do more than that, you're practically just in it for buying stuff, not for the audio experience.
Its the same thing as people who upgrade their PC every gen. Its utterly pointless unless you have actual workloads that you make money on, that need speeding up to generate more money for you.
Everything except motherboard, chips, CPU.