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".

 

My vinyl has always been more engaging, although I also enjoyed listening to the Extreme for all of the obvious reasons, including good Sound quality. But after hearing what I heard today from the Olympus, I’m not so sure that it is not gonna be just as involving, albeit possibly in a different way than vinyl. So now I’m just going to wait for a week or two and see where it goes..

Today when I was listening for a while, I was thinking is this as good as my vinyl? I’m not sure but it’s definitely not an obvious no.

Sounds very encouraging, Bob! I can't wait for the Taiko team to speed up the roll out.

 

I don’t have AES/EBU on my Olympus. I’m waiting to hear native Xdmi with Aries Cerat.

As I think about it, I don’t even know what the interface between Oly and Aries dac will actually be? All I have is USB and RCA (analog) outputs.

You didn't receive a spdif/AES-EBU digital card with your Olympus? I thought Taiko's offer for early buyers included this card + the DAC card with RCA output.

 

You didn't receive a spdif/AES-EBU digital card with your Olympus? I thought Taiko's offer for early buyers included this card + the DAC card with RCA output.

You can choose 2 output options. Doesn't have to be spdif/AES, you can also choose Lampizator or MSB Pro for example.

We have MSB Pro working BTW, all we have to do now is have the driver digitally signed by Microsoft and send a system to MSB for final verification

 

Correct.

Hi
Any plans for Taiko to work with DCS to introduce XDMI output to the DCS Varese set ?
Or for that matter , XDMI link with Wadax ?

 

You didn't receive a spdif/AES-EBU digital card with your Olympus? I thought Taiko's offer for early buyers included this card + the DAC card with RCA output.

Actually, I did get the aes/ebu. It comes uninstalled and I forgot about it. I suppose it goes where the analog out card is?

At this point, I’m not really inclined to go to the trouble to listen to it. Maybe I’ll ask Stravos how it compares to usb and if he likes it, give it a try.

And btw, as I go back and forth every couple of days between USB/Ithaca dac and analog out/xdms, I find myself preferring each one as I make the change.

I just switched back to usb/Ithaca and it’s extremely good. I always hear the same thing: more incisiveness, with pace and nimbleness. The analog out/Xdmi by contrast, brings a more lush presentation which may be better at rendering a full orchestra or if a recording is on the thin side. Going from one to the other is akin to changing a tube set or amplifier.

 

Stravos reports that, at Munich, when comparing AES/ Xdmi to USB/Aries dac, he found the USB/Aries dac preferable with significantly greater timing, pace and dynamics.

That pretty well describes the difference I hear between USB to Ithaca and Taiko dac / xdmi to preamp.

(But he did not have Taiko dac / xdmi to compare to the two digital output options, as far as I can gather.)

I may try other tubes in amps to see how that alters the Analog out/xdmi.

 

Hi
Any plans for Taiko to work with DCS to introduce XDMI output to the DCS Varese set ?
Or for that matter , XDMI link with Wadax ?

No plans for that currently and tbh those 2 wouldn’t be very obvious candidates being “complete system” solutions. I doubt it would be in their interest to incorporate XDMI.

The direction we’d take is going to largely depend on customer feedback.

If sufficient people are going to be using the analogue output option it would be worth it to allocate more budget / time to design improved / more elaborate / (even) better performing versions.

For some very unique / specialty DACs which are widely used by our customer base it just makes sense to design custom interface options, aka the nowadays cascaded MSB dacs, Lampizator tubed dacs and Aries Cerat triodefet dacs. Will there be more, perhaps

 

No plans for that currently and tbh those 2 wouldn’t be very obvious candidates being “complete system” solutions. I doubt it would be in their interest to incorporate XDMI.

The direction we’d take is going to largely depend on customer feedback.

If sufficient people are going to be using the analogue output option it would be worth it to allocate more budget / time to design improved / more elaborate / (even) better performing versions.

For some very unique / specialty DACs which are widely used by our customer base it just makes sense to design custom interface options, aka the nowadays cascaded MSB dacs, Lampizator tubed dacs and Aries Cerat triodefet dacs. Will there be more, perhaps

Is XLR out for XDMI analog module being worked on ?

 

Is XLR out for XDMI analog module being worked on ?

Yes.

 

Yes.

Great ! Possible time table for availability?

 

This advice sounds akin to the adage that the way to enjoy your digital is to not listen to analog. My Extreme/Horizon combo sounds very satisfying, indeed. But my vinyl does consistently prove more engaging to me on comparable source material. And we are audiophiles; comparing SQ between components and sources is how we elevate SQ overall, IME. My question to Bob is simply an attempt to gauge what "Wow!" means.

Wise words indeed
I just compared Norah Jones and Dave Brubeck, same albums, on reel tape and on the Extreme (XDMS/Switch/Router). Indeed, analog just sounds more real, more natural, and like a more impassioned performance.
But it’s not a huge difference. And there’s no question that the best “value” if you can only have one world class medium, would be digital as delivered by Taiko. Then you add the contemporary popularity, convenience, simplicity, and low cost of digital media and the case for digital is solidified.

 

It would be great if down the line one could order an Olympus + IO with a USB output. Or is that heresy at this point?

 

The direction we’d take is going to largely depend on customer feedback.

some customer feedback: anxiously waiting for your announcement on upgrades and "learnings from Olympus"
trickle down options for the owners of extreme

 

It would be great if down the line one could order an Olympus + IO with a USB output. Or is that heresy at this point?

My Olympus/IO has both XDMI and USB

 

Is XLR out for XDMI analog module being worked on ?

It's great news for many of us to get the XLR analog (balanced) output of XDMI in near future.
The top solution however would be to incorporate volume control in that.
Than you could avoid not only DAC but to replace the Preamp as well.
In that case Olympus would be the very best one box solution to many.

Is Taiko currently working on XLR analog with or without volume control?

 

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I've just received my Olympus + I/O XDMI

It's like Christmas came early!


A quick tip: make sure you have something to help get the pallet out of the van.

The driver arrived with nothing to unload the pallet or to bring it to my place.

I ended up having to take it out of the van myself with the driver's assistance.

I was a bit worried because the driver was quite... skinny (the pallet is around 112 Kg)

At one point, I almost carried the pallet all by myself, just long enough to carefully place it onto a wooden plate with wheels (which I had anticipated).

This small adventure was just enough to add a little excitement to the joy of receiving the Olympus!

Cheers,

Thomas

Hi Thomas - how about writing up your impressions?

 

You know, it wasn't that long ago I was one of the people begging Emile for a balanced output XDMI analog card too.

My how things change -- my preamp and amplifiers are all unbalanced RCA now, so I hope there is enough real estate on the new and improved XDMI analog to provide RCA jacks as well as XLRs.

Volume control would be cool, but as one who still spins vinyl I'm going to have a preamp for the foreseeable future.

Steve Z

 

It's great news for many of us to get the XLR analog (balanced) output of XDMI in near future.
The top solution however would be to incorporate volume control in that.
Than you could avoid not only DAC but to replace the Preamp as well.
In that case Olympus would be the very best one box solution to many.

Is Taiko currently working on XLR analog with or without volume control?

Both, as a “pre-amplifier” version is quite an elaborate design this will take much longer than “just” a XLR output version.

Great ! Possible time table for availability?

Maybe 3 months for XLR, 9 months to a year for “pre-amplifier” like functionality.

You know, it wasn't that long ago I was one of the people begging Emile for a balanced output XDMI analog card too.

My how things change -- my preamp and amplifiers are all unbalanced RCA now, so I hope there is enough real estate on the new and improved XDMI analog to provide RCA jacks as well as XLRs.

Volume control would be cool, but as one who still spins vinyl I'm going to have a preamp for the foreseeable future.

Steve Z

Yes would definitely have both RCA and XLR, and I’d like to have configurable gain in 2 or 3 steps myself so that’ll likely be on it as well.

 

some customer feedback: anxiously waiting for your announcement on upgrades and "learnings from Olympus"
trickle down options for the owners of extreme

Absolutely on the agenda but we really have to clear the Olympus order backlog first.

 

What is the current price for
Olympus
Olympus IO
(With xdmi.)
Including 21% VAT.
There are few who asked me and was not sure what are the numbers as there was an introduction discount.