Introducing Olympus & Olympus I/O - A new perspective on modern music playback

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For those who just started reading up on Olympus, Olympus I/O, and XDMI, please note that all information in this thread has been summarized in a single PDF document that can be downloaded from the Taiko Website.

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/taiko-audio-downloads

The document is frequently updated.

Scroll down to the 'XDMI, Olympus Music Server, Olympus I/O' section and click 'XDMI, Olympus, Olympus I/O Product Introduction & FAQ' to download the latest version.

Good morning WBF!​


We are introducing the culmination of close to 4 years of research and development. As a bona fide IT/tech nerd with a passion for music, I have always been intrigued by the potential of leveraging the most modern of technologies in order to create a better music playback experience. This, amongst others, led to the creation of our popular, perhaps even revolutionary, Extreme music server 5 years ago, which we have been steadily improving and updating with new technologies throughout its life cycle. Today I feel we can safely claim it's holding its ground against the onslaught of new server releases from other companies, and we are committed to keep improving it for years to come.

We are introducing a new server model called the Olympus. Hierarchically, it positions itself above the Extreme. It does provide quite a different music experience than the Extreme, or any other server I've heard, for that matter. Conventional audiophile descriptions such as sound staging, dynamics, color palette, etc, fall short to describe this difference. It does not sound digital or analog, I would be inclined to describe it as coming closer to the intended (or unintended) performance of the recording engineer.

Committed to keeping the Extreme as current as possible, we are introducing a second product called the Olympus I/O. This is an external upgrade to the Extreme containing a significant part of the Olympus technology, allowing it to come near, though not entirely at, Olympus performance levels. The Olympus I/O can even be added to the Olympus itself to elevate its performance even further, though not as dramatic an uplift as adding it to the Extreme. Consider it the proverbial "cherry on top".
 
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Taiko Audio
Kris said:
Emile.
Sorry for bothering after a very busy time in Munich. I believe this above was not answered.
I hope there is still a chance for fully battery supply Olympus to be implemented into my Olympus.

I know it's a longer story of how you did it
but having it build in would be probably an ultimate solution to the power problems I have.
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There’s only one Olympus, and yes it’s fully battery powered. Will share in depth details when I get a chance.
 
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Taiko Audio
Kris said:
Thank you Emile !
That's all I wanted to know.
I believe most of us will celebrate now as this will be most likely an additional very significant SQ improvement.
Sometimes a short delay in order is a gigantic blessing in the end.
Well worth waiting.
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This doesn’t affect delivery. It has been this way for quite some time, we have basically had 2 Olympus server designs, the version which is shipping won in the end, and is the only one we’ll supply. But I’ll dig into it later, driving back home now!
 
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marty
Taiko Audio said:
Yeah still makes a difference, it doesn’t really make or break the performance to the degree it can do with the Extreme, but it still has a very significant impact on tonality.

I just don’t have an explanation for it, wiring matters, and imho it’s most pronounced in powercords.

We actually had a somewhat overly hot top end on Thursday with a silver powercord, changed it to a tinned copper powercord which created a totally different balance. With the silver powercord Daniele changed the tweeter crossovers to the minus setting, with the tinned copper powercord he changed it to the plus setting.

I’ve almost accepted this may be unsolvable.
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Emile, I know you changed the PC as we discussed at the show, but do you recall if the terminations on the cords were different as well? For example, did the silver wire PC use silver connectors whereas the copper sore PC used copper or brass terminations?
 
fbhifi
Not sure exactly where I’m at on the delivery list, but am most anxious to get my Olympus. In the mean time, I’m curious to know hot hot it runs compared to the Extreme. Hoping to place it on an interior shelf that is 10” high.
 
Taiko Audio
marty said:
Emile, I know you changed the PC as we discussed at the show, but do you recall if the terminations on the cords were different as well? For example, did the silver wire PC use silver connectors whereas the copper sore PC used copper or brass terminations?
Click to expand...

They both looked like Rhodium to me.
 
Taiko Audio
fbhifi said:
Not sure exactly where I’m at on the delivery list, but am most anxious to get my Olympus. In the mean time, I’m curious to know hot hot it runs compared to the Extreme. Hoping to place it on an interior shelf that is 10” high.
Click to expand...

The highest internal temperature we measured was 45 Celcius in a very hot room. That would be around 30 externally.
 
K
I am curious how you were able to get the Olympus supply with BPS only.
There was no space for 4th battery Pack.
But who knows. Three are things that only Emile and his team can create, so 4th bps hidden somwere?

The only other thing that came to my mind is that the 3rd BPS being responsible for powering internal storage could be used for powering Motherboard and processor as the streaming is as good or better than internal storage. But here it would require a lot of watts so quite quick Discharge in comparison to other 2 other BPSes.

Also not sure if that scenario is the same for us ordering Olympus + Olympus IO as here there might be some other alternatives in powering order for Olympus.
For example the 2 pciex XDMI extension cards could be powered together from one bps and that can free the other bps for MOBO and Processor.

But let's wait for Emile to elaborate how he came up with that idea and how he executed it ?
Also how this influenced the overall SQ benefits ?
 
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