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

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".

 

Absolutely I believe that! Mass loading is all about loading in just the right amount of mass to snuff out just the right vibrations and resonances. With BPS and XDMI, you guys had a near ideal platform to track all this stuff down and really dial things in.

As always with Taiko designs, everything is with insane intention and the result of crazy amounts of listening and experimentation. There is so much to learn about what is important in digital audio by studying these designs. Crazy excited to hear this beast in person and crack the case to get an appreciation of the magic behind the curtain!

(#team-silver-rulz)

 

As the first Olympus servers are making their way to their new owners, we wanted to share some photos for all of those who committed the big mistake of ordering silver units ( just kidding of course... )

Here's a small section of our Olympus storage facility - all customs boards waiting to be deployed. For the curious eye: on the bottom is an earlier Olympus prototype that did not make the cut.
View attachment 133797

Below some charger power supply modules - extremely heavy and non-resonant due to being fully immersed in epoxy resign.

View attachment 133798

More interesting, a shot of a nearly finished unit. Emile listens to every unit that goes out the door in our reference listening room, to ensure every Olympus sounds the same. This unit has the analog output option mounted, but is still waiting for the input/output labeling.

View attachment 133800

Here's a close-up of the XDMI module, base board towards the front, daughter card towards the rear. Every part you see is custom built.
View attachment 133802

This is a shot of the battery supply and the charger supply. Please note that we use many different cable gauges and types throughout the whole design. Every possible combination has been tested by ear, which has been a crazy undertaking.

View attachment 133803

Classic front view - the middle LED is off, as the unit itself is switched off.

View attachment 133804

... And finally, to appreciate the complexity of the design, here's a global shot - this is what you will be receiving:
View attachment 133805


I think it has turned out pretty well

What an incredible achievement. You guys should be incredibly proud!
Love the pictures and the hearing about the quality control going into this.
Many of us have been involved in manufacturing and are aware of how much time it takes to get things out the door. Especially when making every effort to do everything right.
Looks like it was well worth the wait.
Can't wait to hear mine. Good thing I ordered black.

 

Absolutely gorgeous!

(could use some more copper though

The unobtainium alloy more than makes up for the lack of copper.

Steve Z

 

As the first Olympus servers are making their way to their new owners

Clearly, the owners of Black Olympus units are a disciplined lot, as I'm not seeing the usual pages of tracking/customs/delivery talk that have followed previous product launches!

 

The first rule of Black Olympus shipping is you don't talk about Black Olympus shipping

 

The first rule of Black Olympus shipping is you don't talk about Black Olympus shipping

Because we don't want to rile up team silver . They can be kind of noisy.

 

 

Nice one!
I think I know who #1 or #2 is for team black in the US. Maybe he'll say something here? Or he'll choose to remain anonymous? Regardless, I'll visit him for a listen in a couple weeks - hopefully.

We all know who #1 is for team silver US. We don't want to spoil it for him.

 

Something I'll be listening for with the lowered noise floor of the Olympus:
Small low level detail that *startles* me, repeatedly. It's not just hearing things previously unnoticed, but the surprise of hearing things coming organically out of 'nowhere.'

The Jan11 xdms released achieved my personal definition of "magic" in all aspects (soundstage, low level details, bass) except for this startle factor which I had achieved once upon a time (but lost with s/w changes) and never recovered (who knew back then that EFTM with software???).

[Old news below--if you've read the Taiko threads for the past years]
Not mythical system reference was:
Hqplayer playing wav from nas, streamed to micro rendu in NAA mode (very low processing load), USB to sotm USB - AES/ebu converter/reclocker to totaldac. Microrendu and sotm running off of sotm battery supplies. This is also where I first came across the obvious superiority of wav versus flac.

Totally agree.

 

The first rule of Black Olympus shipping is you don't talk about Black Olympus shipping

There's a good reason they can't talk about it

 

As the first Olympus servers are making their way to their new owners, we wanted to share some photos for all of those who committed the big mistake of ordering silver units ( just kidding of course... )
Below some charger power supply modules - extremely heavy and non-resonant due to being fully immersed in epoxy resign.

View attachment 133798

those power supply modules look nicely sized..............can they be dropped into an Extreme in the future?
(rhetorical question at some level, but............maybe a smaller one.............)

 

Update has been posted........

Olympus Order Status – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

 

#17, you're buying beers

Best wishes

#6

 

Congratulations to the next owners of the Olympus project,I have the clear feeling that I am witnessing an evolution/revolution in digital audio. Now I can't wait to hear your impressions, the analysis on the potential quality of the analogue output made by @nenon some time ago is very interesting....

Massimo

 

#17, you're buying beers

Best wishes

#6

Couldn't agree more!

As I don't drink beer a protein shake will do it

#10

 

Hi all, I've joined the club recently and really looking forward to replace my Taiko Extreme with Olympus.
Based on the FAQ pdf provided earlier, there is a section which specifies that during the introduction period all the 'Olympus Server XDMI' will be shipped with 'Enhanced USB Card' included.
However from the pictures posted here it looks like the USB is just the default one from the motherboard.

Can you please explain how it is?

I will for sure use the new XDMI interface with my future purchase of Lampizator Horizon, but also would be great if I still had the option with Enhanced USB card for some DACs, that can't use XDMI (majority for now).

With the Lampizator XDMI card as part of the order will I only get the XDMI Analog card or also the XDMI Digital card? So 2 cards or 3 cards in total.

 

Hi all, I've joined the club recently and really looking forward to replace my Taiko Extreme with Olympus.
Based on the FAQ pdf provided earlier, there is a section which specifies that during the introduction period all the 'Olympus Server XDMI' will be shipped with 'Enhanced USB Card' included.
However from the pictures posted here it looks like the USB is just the default one from the motherboard.

Can you please explain how it is?

I will for sure use the new XDMI interface with my future purchase of Lampizator Horizon, but also would be great if I still had the option with Enhanced USB card for some DACs, that can't use XDMI (majority for now).

With the Lampizator XDMI card as part of the order will I only get the XDMI Analog card or also the XDMI Digital card? So 2 cards or 3 cards in total.

Hi Stefan,

Regarding the daughterboards for the XDMI interface, it all depends on what you've ordered.

You should have a list of what you ordered in the confirmation email.

But I suppose you will get:

- the XDMI daughterboard for LampizatOr
- the analogue daughterboard (DAC)
- the digital daughterboard (AES/EBU - XLR)

But again, it depends on what you've ordered. The best thing to do is to contact the support team.

As far as USB is concerned, and according to what Emile explained here on the forum, the XDMI interface is so much superior that it wouldn't make sense to use the USB.

The Olympus is really designed around the XDMI interface.

As for the technical details regarding the USB interface on the Olympus, Emile (@Taiko Audio ) will be in a better position to answer.

A little research on the forum may also give you some answers.



Hopes this helps,

Cheers,

Thomas

 

Good evening Emile (@Taiko Audio ) , good evening everyone,

I've just realised that there is a missing information.

If I'm not mistaken, the information is neither on the forum nor in the documentation.

What is the impedance of the XDMI digital daughterboard?

75 ohms or 110 ohms?

Cheers,

Thomas

 

Good evening Emile (@Taiko Audio ) , good evening everyone,

I've just realised that there is a missing information.

If I'm not mistaken, the information is neither on the forum nor in the documentation.

What is the impedance of the XDMI digital daughterboard?

75 ohms or 110 ohms?

Cheers,

Thomas

I believe AES/EBU XLR by design is 110 ohms.

 

I believe AES/EBU XLR by design is 110 ohms.

Yes, you're right.

AES is 110 ohms with an XLR connector and 75 ohms with a BNC connector.

If I've read correctly, the digital XDMI daughterboard will have both RCA and AES/EBU.

RCA is 75 ohms.

Hence the slight doubt ...

Cheers,

Thomas