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

Kris said:

What remote device will be recommend for the Olympus ?
Not sure if that was tested at Taiko.

I have the 2 older ipads , The newer plays better with Extreme than the older one.
But Win based i7 16GB ram laptop is a way better than both those ipads .
I cant escape feeling that the remote we use is as important as the switch and router together
For ultimate SQ .

Click to expand...

SwissTom said:

@Taiko Audio

Hi Emile,

I finally have some free time...

So I'm preparing for the installation of my Olympus + Omlympus I/O XDMI

As there have been a few changes, I was wondering how I should power the various components.

To power the Taiko Switch + Router + DC Distributor I have a PlixiR Statement.

Each of my audio components have their own socket+cable+breaker.

But I only have 4 sockets (I didn't plan for more when I built my listening room...)

So one socket has to be shared.

What setup would you recommend?

Here's a diagram:

View attachment 132958

Click to expand...

nonesup said:

Of course, it is an enigma how Stavros is going to solve the connection of that “box” to the DAC. And I say that it is an enigma, because I am absolutely convinced that it is not going to do the enormous nonsense of converting the XDMI signal into USB or AES/EBU and that is exactly where the enigma lies.

Click to expand...

cat6man said:

Just speculating.....
If the receiver for AES/ebu is software based, and can be modified in the DAC, the external box could re-use the XLR based connection, with a standard or special new cable, to decode xdmi to a proprietary format carried on the XLR. Just thinking out loud

Click to expand...

Taiko Audio said:

We have investigated that, and it appears to be more about software then hardware.

I'm an apple IOS user, so I'm approaching it from that angle, but it should work similarly for Android:

If you're "suffering" from a high levels of "audiophile nervosa" and financial expenditure and/or environmental impact is off less importance to you, a dedicated tablet with a dedicated apple ID account is the way to go. You can uninstall as many apps as possible, disable background activity as much as possible, and exclusively use this device and ID to control your server. I don't feel the age (/performance) of the remote device matters that much in this scenario.

If you have an IOS device which you use for other purposes, sharing your apple ID with your other devices, with multiple apps, it will sync your data, creating network traffic overhead, which can be audible to a degree. The most extreme case would for example be if you went on an Holiday, took a lot of photos/videos with your IPhone, return home, power on your Ipad, don't have it configured to use Icloud exclusively for your photo content, turn it on, and it will start downloading all those photos/videos in the background while you're listening to music. All your apps and information will be synced to all your devices when you use the same apple ID, apple health, imessage content, whatsapp content, etc etc.

Now if you own the Taiko router, this influence will be reduced but will still be audible depending on the actual amount of traffic generated, however, you can also choose to connect your Ipad to the upstream router's Wi-Fi, NOT your Taiko Router Wi-Fi, and these effects will be irrelevant again as your upstream router will be processing this traffic in stead of your Taiko audio network Router...

Lastly you can choose to ignore all of this of course, which is arguably the healthiest approach, and I don't feel it's actually that significant, but yes, there's ultimately a detectable difference

Click to expand...

Taiko Audio said:

We have investigated that, and it appears to be more about software then hardware.

I'm an apple IOS user, so I'm approaching it from that angle, but it should work similarly for Android:

If you're "suffering" from a high levels of "audiophile nervosa" and financial expenditure and/or environmental impact is off less importance to you, a dedicated tablet with a dedicated apple ID account is the way to go. You can uninstall as many apps as possible, disable background activity as much as possible, and exclusively use this device and ID to control your server. I don't feel the age (/performance) of the remote device matters that much in this scenario.

If you have an IOS device which you use for other purposes, sharing your apple ID with your other devices, with multiple apps, it will sync your data, creating network traffic overhead, which can be audible to a degree. The most extreme case would for example be if you went on an Holiday, took a lot of photos/videos with your IPhone, return home, power on your Ipad, don't have it configured to use Icloud exclusively for your photo content, turn it on, and it will start downloading all those photos/videos in the background while you're listening to music. All your apps and information will be synced to all your devices when you use the same apple ID, apple health, imessage content, whatsapp content, etc etc.

Now if you own the Taiko router, this influence will be reduced but will still be audible depending on the actual amount of traffic generated, however, you can also choose to connect your Ipad to the upstream router's Wi-Fi, NOT your Taiko Router Wi-Fi, and these effects will be irrelevant again as your upstream router will be processing this traffic in stead of your Taiko audio network Router...

Lastly you can choose to ignore all of this of course, which is arguably the healthiest approach, and I don't feel it's actually that significant, but yes, there's ultimately a detectable difference

Click to expand...

matthias said:

Emile's answer:

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/introducing-olympus-olympus-i-o-a-new-perspective-on-modern-music-playback.37939/page-106#post-975215

Click to expand...

cat6man said:

I think you miss my point. The AES format would not be used, but the XLR connector might be used to transmit a different proprietary format....a similar approach might use the unbalanced coax

Click to expand...

matthias said:

I don't think so. I asked about the input, not the format. And Emile mentioned that AES will not be used.

Click to expand...

Taiko Audio said:

I agree with @Kris .

Although there might be more behind your diagram then meets the eye, being aware you tend to research things thoroughly you may already have taken this into account but here's my opinion anyway:

You want to split power your paths as close as possible your devices to minimize your ground loop areas, aka use a power strip close to your devices. Obviously this can also be multiple wall outlets tied together. A ground loop area is for example defined by 2 devices, the interconnect between them, and the 2 power cords containing the ground conductors to the point where those meet. If that is all the way to your distribution box the areas will be unnecessarily large. Now you could run a single ground and split that close to your equipment, and perhaps do the same for your neutral as that is connected to ground somewhere as well, but then you create odd situations for where your return currents would "like to travel", being as close as possible to your live conductors.

This is for example the reason for modern PCB designs to use ground planes in stead of star grounding etc. Return currents can travel where they prefer to travel, there are no obstructions, resulting in overall lower EMI.

Click to expand...

nenon said:

One of the most frequently asked questions I get as a Taiko dealer when I discuss the Olympus XDMI is:
"How can that little DAC card play at the level of the big DACs?"

To address this, I will use a photo of the Audio Note Kits DAC 5.1. It's a tube DAC that I have built and owned 6-7 years ago.
View attachment 132995
View attachment 132996
View attachment 132997
(these are stock photos from their website as I was too lazy to find mine)

At a very high level, we have three main sections in a DAC like this one - power supply, analog section, and digital section.

Power Supply:
There are many power supply designs. They can be switching mode or linear, regulated or unregulated, one rail or multiple rails. For a regulated linear design, you generally have a transformer, rectifier, filtering capacitors, and regulators. You may have multiple rails, multiple transformers, chokes, etc. Rectifiers can be vacuum tube rectifiers, diode-based, FET based, GaN-FET based, etc. I can't really list all of the variations and that's not the purpose of this post.
The ANK5.1 power supply has transformers, rectifiers (vacuum tube rectifier on the B+ and diodes on the rest), chokes, capacitors, and regulators.
I have highlighted the power supply on the ANK 5.1 DAC below:
View attachment 132998

Analog Section:
I'm not going into too many details here either as there are many ways you can design an analog section.
In the case of the ANK DAC, there are I/V transformers, a tube section, and output transformers.
I have highlighted the analog section on the ANK 5.1 DAC below:

View attachment 132999

Digital Section:
The digital section in this particular DAC (and many chip-based DACs) is very simple.
The green board on top is a USB to I2S converter. The converted signal goes to the bottom red PCB.
I have highlighted the digital section on the ANK 5.1 DAC below:
View attachment 133000

So the entire digital section is that little red board there. Let's zoom more into that digital board (okay, I had to dig out photos from my own build for this):
View attachment 133001

About two-thirds of the circuitry you see on the top is for the relay switching between S/PDIF and USB, powering those relay switches, and converting the S/PDIF to I2S. Only a very small portion of the circuitry around the AD1865NK chip has anything to do with the digital to analog conversion. BTW, this DAC weighs 30 lbs, and as you can see only a few small components around the DAC chip are responsible for the D to A conversion. I hope this clearly illustrates how simple the Digital to Analog conversion with a DAC chip can be.

So back to the the question - how does this compare to XDMI?
XDMI Power supply - The Taiko BPS is one of the pinnacle technologies for Taiko. I've heard some comments about the BPS that I cannot share publicly, but this should be as good as anything else out there, regardless of the cost.
XDMI Analog section - Not a lot has been shared publicly about the analog section of XDMI. It's a lot smaller than what you see on the ANK5.1 photos but it uses solid-state components. I happened to see several prototypes of the XDMI analog section and was privately told that when you power these with a BPS, the results were both surprising and shocking. And that has led to some unexpected outcome that has satisfied Emile's requirements. So it all comes down to implementation rather than technology.
XDMI Digital section - that's the secret sauce, and I know absolutely nothing about it (other than it's using a ROHM DAC chip). But from the very few publicly posted photos, these 6-layer PCBs look a lot more sophisticated than the 2-layer PCB you see on the ANK5.1 (which is very similar to what some very expensive tube DACs do).
View attachment 133003

View attachment 133004

View attachment 133005

So, can that little dac card play at that level of the big DACs?
IMO, not only it has the potential to play at the level of the big DACs but also to potentially play better than them due to the innovative way of extracting audio and the BPS. Oh, and that ROHM chip, if implemented properly (should I mention that Emile's standards are much higher than mine), is crazy good!

Well, what about the lack of a huge elaborate tube-based analog section? XDMI can in no way deliver the same sonics as let's say a Lampizator Horizon?
I absolutely agree with that! It can't! I am hoping that the simple solid-state output powered by a BPS is very transparent and gets out of the way. All I need that section to do is to add some gain to the DAC chip analog output and reduce the output impedance as transparently as it can, so I can connect it to a really good tube preamplifier with RCA interconnects. In fact, I would not be surprised if it's a lot more transparent than tube DACs (but lacking the tube magic which I will add in the preamp).
Others will be using the Lampizator XDMI connection. I would love to hear that in my system in the near future too.
I've had some discussions with Lucasz. The two things I gathered from these discussions were that he was very excited about XDMI and that he has done a lot of good work on the Horizon digital section.

I will have a much better understanding once I receive my Olympus XDMI and spend some time testing it in my system. Until then, the question 'Can it?' has a straightforward answer: 'Yes, it can.' However, the question 'Does it?' will remain unanswered until I've had the chance to evaluate it personally.

Click to expand...