Comments on: Sound Galleries Monaco Server (SGM2015)

By: Sound Galleries SGM2015

Sound Galleries SGM2015 — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 02:41:02 +0000

[…] to go to Bill Malcolm's excellent evaluation back in September of 2016; you'll find his comments HERE. I would strongly recommend that you read Bill's article before going any further with this […]

By: Edward Hsu

Edward Hsu — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 15:06:00 +0000

In reply to Edward Hsu.

Dear Bill,
Just wanted to update you with the results we have been getting with the SGM feeding PCM data to the TotalDAC D1-6, the Chord DAVE and the Trinity DAC.
The processing being performed by HQP Player doing PCM to PCM upsampling is bringing these very good DAC's to an even higher level of performance than can be achieved by the best bit perfect transport systems. We think the removal by HQ Player of the original A>D artifacts is a big part of the improvement, together with the black background facilitated by the low RF from the SGM
Best Regards
Edward

By: Geoff Armstrong

Geoff Armstrong — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 07:24:00 +0000

Dear Bill,

Thank you for such a beautifully written and thorough first review of the SGM, which we all feel justly proud of!

Your experiences with computer based audio parallel my own, in many respects. Like me you’ve recognised the enormous potential in both sound quality and convenience; but have been frustrated by a number of factors which have hampered both; until now!

The team have designed the SGM and engineered the hardware to fully meet the challenges posed when running roon through hqplayer. This has also involved creating a customised and fully tweaked version of Windows 10 as explained in your review. The lion’s share of the credit for this goes to Emile Bok of Taiko audio.

At a meeting with roon following the launch of the SGM in Munich earlier this year, we suggested they add a feature to allow different filters and modulator/ditherer combinations to be applied from within roon, using the iPad or Android app. Hopefully we’ll see this in the near future which would negate the need for going in through Teamviewer (or similar) to experiment with these.

Our view is that the SGM will indeed get the best out of any DAC, whether PCM or DSD. In fact we would say to any potential customer that “you haven’t heard your DAC until your’ve heard it with the SGM!

Best regards,

Geoff

By: Edward Hsu

Edward Hsu — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:40:00 +0000

Dear Bill,

Thank you for the time, effort and insight of your review. On the SGM project team, we have acquired a Lampi Golden Gate, and are having it upgraded with the PCM R2R board and the DSD512 board.

We have also had sonically glorious results with a Lampi Siebener with Kron 45's and the DSD512 module

Last month in Hong Kong we did extensive tuning and testing of the SGM feeding the TotalDAC D1-6 doing 24/176 PCM and achieved extremely good results as well. We are getting a D1-6 loaner from Vincent this week, and will let you know how this combo sounds in our workshop in Holland.

These are exciting times in digital audio playback !

Best Regards,

Edward