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".

 

Yes, I'm assuming it is the same card in the I/O but we'll know soon enough!

 

What are the two ground posts on the back grounding? Chassis and XDMI card?

 

What are the two ground posts on the back grounding? Chassis and XDMI card?

From the Taiko Olympus Manual, page 15

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Olympus-Server-and-IO-Manual-v002.x80569.pdf

Grounding posts

Grounding is not required or recommended but to facilitate certain use cases, there are 2 binding posts for grounding purposes. Looking at the back, the left grounding post grounds the chassis which floats by default. The right binding post connects to the charger AC-DC power supply, which is grounded through the IEC inlet ground pin as well, which is a safety requirement, but the entire AC/DC charger supply does not connect to the rest of the Olympus chassis, it truly floats.

There is also a post or two from Emile in this thread that says essentially the same thing. You can find it with the Search function at the top of the WBF page.

Steve Z

 

If Steve's I/O gets redirected to San Diego, happy to post a picture of that as well

It's not happening so no worries there

 

Hi @Christiaan Punter ,

I plan to glue felt or leather discs (or a sandwich of both) under each foot of the Olympus Server before placing it on the I/O.

Which material would you choose? Felt, leather, chamois leather, alcantara (or equivalent), other... ?

As I'll be stacking the two machines, a shorter QSFP cable would be more practical.
Is it possible to use a 50 cm cable? Or is it too short?

Cheers,

Thomas

Hi Thomas, it really depends on your preferences and what parts of the spectrum you value most. I personally always prefer a hard coupling because I value tightness and transient behavior highly, but that does not lead to the most fluid or organic sound. Between leather and felt, I would personally opt for the latter. Even though you lose some bass control with felt, it comes across as more neutral to me than leather, which tends to add bloom, warmth, or thickness. I've not experimented with leather versus fake leather. Perhaps a very thin felt layer might offer the best compromise, but it remains a matter of trying it out.

50cm might be possible (need to check), but I would advise against it as it will prevent you from ever positioning the units differently than stacked on top of one another.

 

HDMI for video diagnostics?

Yes, that is a service port.

 

I would really like to see a rearview photo of the Olympus and IO with analogue out with all the connections in the photo.
If there is one I have not seen it.

Yes, I'm assuming it is the same card in the I/O but we'll know soon enough!

Here's a pic of the Olympus I/O with the Digital Daughter module fitted:

The Daughter Card modules are the same for Server and I/O. So, analog or other modules would occupy the space now occupied by the S/PDIF and AES/EBU slots.

 

Here's a pic of the Olympus I/O with the Digital Daughter module fitted:
View attachment 135390
The Daughter Card modules are the same for Server and I/O. So, analog or other modules would occupy the space now occupied by the S/PDIF and AES/EBU slots.

Still no chance for IO inside pictures?

 

From the Taiko Olympus Manual, page 15

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Olympus-Server-and-IO-Manual-v002.x80569.pdf

Grounding posts

Grounding is not required or recommended but to facilitate certain use cases, there are 2 binding posts for grounding purposes. Looking at the back, the left grounding post grounds the chassis which floats by default. The right binding post connects to the charger AC-DC power supply, which is grounded through the IEC inlet ground pin as well, which is a safety requirement, but the entire AC/DC charger supply does not connect to the rest of the Olympus chassis, it truly floats.

There is also a post or two from Emile in this thread that says essentially the same thing. You can find it with the Search function at the top of the WBF page.

Steve Z

But the grounding problem is a little bit deeper than is mentioned .
Actually if you use AES cable Olympus or Olympus IO MIGHT not be floating ground anymore as it will become grounded via AES cable.

Same with Analog Audio RCA exit .
We will have 2 grounding lines to preamp.

Please correct me if this is not the case.

OR by design this might be fully flouting with no ground connections to the digital or Analog Audio exits.

 

Hi Thomas, it really depends on your preferences and what parts of the spectrum you value most. I personally always prefer a hard coupling because I value tightness and transient behavior highly, but that does not lead to the most fluid or organic sound. Between leather and felt, I would personally opt for the latter. Even though you lose some bass control with felt, it comes across as more neutral to me than leather, which tends to add bloom, warmth, or thickness. I've not experimented with leather versus fake leather. Perhaps a very thin felt layer might offer the best compromise, but it remains a matter of trying it out.

50cm might be possible (need to check), but I would advise against it as it will prevent you from ever positioning the units differently than stacked on top of one another.

The real question I believe is to have Taiko Team honnest opinion if shorter QSFP cable is any better than longer or other way around.
It's question about what YOU tested to be the best SQ length.

I wanted to know as I know Emile was using 0.5m lenght DAC cables to Taiko switch and from the switch in the end.
Was that changed since ???

For my system 1m DAC cable was offering a more forgiving presentation so I use thoes as a default DAC cable.

But those cables might be to expensive to experiment with length.
Those are many thousands of Euros each so we would like to get the correct lengths first time.

 

The real question I believe is to have Taiko Team honnest opinion if shorter QSFP cable is any better than longer or other way around.
It's question about what YOU tested to be the best SQ length.

I wanted to know as I know Emile was using 0.5m lenght DAC cables to Taiko switch and from the switch in the end.
Was that changed since ???

For my system 1m DAC cable was offering a more forgiving presentation so I use thoes as a default DAC cable.

But those cables might be to expensive to experiment with length.
Those are many thousands of Euros each so we would like to get the correct lengths first time.

We have compared various cables and selected the one that sounded best. These are the ones that we supply. Alas, I have no intel on the impact of cable length.

 

Still no chance for IO inside pictures?

 

We have compared various cables and selected the one that sounded best. These are the ones that we supply. Alas, I have no intel on the impact of cable length.

Minimum recommended length is 1 meter. Not hearing anything significantly different between 1, 2 and 3 meters.

 

Minimum recommended length is 1 meter. Not hearing anything significantly different between 1, 2 and 3 meters.

Thank you Emile !
This is extremely important and will surely avoid future exchange or swapping issues.

 

View attachment 135420

View attachment 135422

I asked for those pictures as I could not find a way to keep the battery vertical and be able to fit in the so slim chassis.
Now I see how clever design the IO is
With battery horizontal placement.

How many regulators are in the IO ?
There are 8 in the Olympus I believe.

 

Last question is in regards to the very front compartment of the IO
( closer to the front than the barreries are )
What is located there ?
Battery Charger ?

 

How many regulators are in the IO ?
There are 8 in the Olympus I believe.

2 regulators, just for the chargers, obviously the interface cards and mounted cards contain a number of regulators. The exact amount depends on the card mounted / used.

 

Last question is in regards to the very front compartment of the IO
( closer to the front than the barreries are )
What is located there ?
Battery Charger ?

That contains the battery charger power supply, minus the power transformer, which is located on the side of the chassis.

 

View attachment 135420

View attachment 135422

Looking at these pictures, if the network card is kept in the Olympus, and the I/O unit used only for the XDMI/Analog Mk2, there is a lot of space for a NOS discrete DAC or any other implementation. So the I/O unit becomes exclusively the battery-powered XDMI DAC mk2.

 

Looking at these pictures, if the network card is kept in the Olympus, and the I/O unit used only for the XDMI/Analog Mk2, there is a lot of space for a NOS discrete DAC or any other implementation. So the I/O unit becomes exclusively the battery-powered XDMI DAC mk2.

Well yes we did specifically design the Olympus platform this way to be as flexible as possible.

Future features could be largely determined by customer reception / demand / desire.

If we’re strictly thinking DAC directions you could create multiple setups.

You could dedicate 1 I/O to XDMI and either leave the network card inside the Olympus or dedicate a second I/O to that.

You could even use 2 I/Os, 1 digital, 1 analogue, and/or you could split them into left/right.

But obviously this would need to make sense.

Much to my annoyance our shipping rate is still low while feedback is more or less limited to our customers communicating with us here on WBF. This is only about 15-20% of our order volume so it will take some time before we have the feedback we’re looking for.