This week, hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger start by taking a look at The Absolute Sound’s coverage of the Taiko Audio Extreme music server and evaluate some claims made by the manufacturer and reviewer alike (4:48 to 20:43). Does a glorified hard drive really need 700,000µF of capacitance? And should your music server really serve double duty as a space heater?

Next up (21:43 to 43:40), they check out a recent video by YouTuber Cheapaudioman in which he blind-tested a mid-level power cable and compared its performance to a stock cable with the same model of amp. More importantly, they dig into the comments section, which is surprisingly constructive.

Wrapping things up this week (44:23 to 56:28), Brent and Dennis skim the surface of a new article by Joseph Taylor on SoundStage! Xperience titled “XTC, Curated,” and also discuss other entries in the series, which dig deep into the history and output of a variety of musical artists. 

Sources:

“2022 Golden Ear: Taiko Audio Extreme Music Server” by Matthew Clott: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/2022-golden-ear-taiko-audio-extreme-music-server/

"The Art of Electronics, 3rd Edition" by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill: https://amzn.to/3Pmno96

"Do Power Cables Make a Difference? The Results Surprised Me - Blind Testing the Audioquest NRG-Z3" by Cheapaudioman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im1aKrc3A6E

“XTC, Curated” by Joseph Taylor: https://www.soundstagexperience.com/index.php/features-menu/curator/1087-xtc-curated

“Curator” category page on SoundStage! Xperience: https://www.soundstagexperience.com/index.php/features-menu/curator