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".

 

Very cool, Bob! So, I bet you've got some world class vinyl capability, too. How does the soundstage from it compare?

It's too early to tell. My gut feeling after 8 hours of initial listening is that vinyl is still vinyl, which I did not compare at all last night and had no desire to put on a record to compare. The Olympus and I/O are similar to tape vs vinyl, which is different, although both great. So I think you will have tape, vinyl and the O -I/O sound which depending on recordings played one might prefer one of the three option over the other. But I predict that the O and I/O stand up to vinyl and tape, just different.

I would say that the soundstage is larger than the vinyl soundstage, by a pretty significant margin. Depending on recordings if you close your eyes the width of the soundstage goes about 10' beyond the side walls. As I said earlier the soundstage front to back comes out in front of the speakers and goes way beyond the rear wall. The overall effect is room consuming.

A few notes from the eight straight hours of listening last night-

- Too early to make any concrete statements and things need to settle in.

- Unfortunately I just added $100K worth of Shunyata power devices (Everests, Typhon 30s, Grounding (signal and chassis) to the systems so my comments cannot be taken as valid comparisons of what the O and I/O sound like over what the Extreme sounded like. In my scenario it's what the O and I/O and new Shunyata gear sounds like.

Once you make more than one change at the same time you have no idea what a particular item is doing, it's what your new entire sonic recipe is doing.

- There is SO MUCH information on the soundstage it's mind boggling. It will take some time to acclimate.

- I think that some O users will have to adjust certain other items in their system after the O is installed. The vast amount of noise that has been reduced in the system was covering up certain harsh sounding recordings. You now can hear the deficiencies in some recordings. Not sure about this yet until I have a few weeks of time, then will revisit.

The O is not going to make bad recordings sound euphonic or great. It's going to give more of a view of the recording itself. Great recordings will sound GREAT. Good recordings will sound GREAT. Bad recordings will be very noticeable and not sugar coated to make them sound good.

On many recordings you can tell how close a singer is to the mic. I've never encountered being able to hear and visualize the interactions with a singer and the mic as much as I did listening last night.

Will give periodic updates as I notice changes.

 

Can someone summarize pricing and if there is a trade discount for the Extreme? I saw this mentioned at the start of this thread but don’t want to read through 180 pages.
Thank you.

And is there an option to not have an internal DAC? I don’t think my DAC can be surpassed, nor do I want to replace it, so it would be great if there is a less expensive version of the Olympus with a digital (USB) output.

The comparison between my Aries Cerat Ithaca dac via usb and Olympus analog/ Xdmi has been interesting and perplexing at times. I think I’ve got the gear and my brain adequately burned in by now and my conclusion is I like analog out/Xdmi best.

Each option has a distinct sound difference which is easily recognizable and repeatable on all recordings. Ithaca/usb is more incisive, textured and with the (illusion?) of being quicker on the transients. The analog out/Xdmi is more mid bass centric with a smoother, full bodied sound.

They are both great sounding options!

I may try a more incisive tube on my amps (AC Essentias) to see if that splits the difference.

Ultimately, I’ll wait for Stravos and Emile to work out the AC/ Xdmi interface which I’m pretty confident will end up being the best by a significant margin.

 

On many recordings you can tell how close a singer is to the mic. I've never encountered being able to hear and visualize the interactions with a singer and the mic as much as I did listening last night.

That was my impression as well . The sound stage is so large but yet the imaging is so precise that many times I thought I could see the singers vocal cords. I have hardly played vinyl since receiving the O/IO

Im playing things now in my music library and to me every file just draws me in as I cannot believe this is the same system I have played for years. To my ears everything has been enjoyable to listen to

 

The comparison between my Aries Cerat Ithaca dac via usb and Olympus analog/ Xdmi has been interesting and perplexing at times. I think I’ve got the gear and my brain adequately burned in by now and my conclusion is I like analog out/Xdmi best.

Each option has a distinct sound difference which is easily recognizable and repeatable on all recordings. Ithaca/usb is more incisive, textured and with the (illusion?) of being quicker on the transients. The analog out/Xdmi is more mid bass centric with a smoother, full bodied sound.

They are both great sounding options!

I may try a more incisive tube on my amps (AC Essentias) to see if that splits the difference.

Ultimately, I’ll wait for Stravos and Emile to work out the AC/ Xdmi interface which I’m pretty confident will end up being the best by a significant margin.

Im sure Stavros and Emile's great minds will figure it out. For me I only listen via XDMI native to the Horizon and there is no way I can ever go back to USB

 

For horizon and Olympus users

 

...I don't have a Horizon, but this is a very fine, very helpful video.

 

I just did a comparison with the O and I/O vs the Extreme/Esoteric DAC. The Extreme sounds really great, when you switch to the Olympus I/0 w/analog out, with the same track you say YES, it's probably 300% better, which when I heard the 300% estimate initially it seemed a bit far-fetched to me personally.

I don't think it's a % difference between the Extreme and the O and I/0 it's a totally different listening experience.

 

The comparison between my Aries Cerat Ithaca dac via usb and Olympus analog/ Xdmi has been interesting and perplexing at times. I think I’ve got the gear and my brain adequately burned in by now and my conclusion is I like analog out/Xdmi best.

Each option has a distinct sound difference which is easily recognizable and repeatable on all recordings. Ithaca/usb is more incisive, textured and with the (illusion?) of being quicker on the transients. The analog out/Xdmi is more mid bass centric with a smoother, full bodied sound.

They are both great sounding options!

I may try a more incisive tube on my amps (AC Essentias) to see if that splits the difference.

Ultimately, I’ll wait for Stravos and Emile to work out the AC/ Xdmi interface which I’m pretty confident will end up being the best by a significant margin.

Hi Wil, is it possible to try the Digital out/XDMI to digital in(SPDIF/AES) of Ithaka?

 

I just visited the Taiko page to see the evolution of the Olympus sent and frankly either the page is not updated or new Olympus are not being sent. In any case it is not a pleasant situation. I insist on a previous and unanswered request, to put the date of the last update on the Taiko page, I do not believe it is one of the 12 labors of Hercules.

 

Very cool, Bob! So, I bet you've got some world class vinyl capability, too. How does the soundstage from it compare?

You didn't ask me but thought I would jump in since I have tried to assemble some of the best playback sources for medium, in the quest of finding "the best":
• Extreme / Switch / Router / XDMS / Nagra HD DAC X
• Nagra Reference TT / HD Phono
• Metaxas Papillon / Hachidori preamp [2025]

It's really best not to compare directly and just recognize that each medium has its advantages. I don't think the Olympus will change this conclusion.

 

After 48 hours the O and I/0 are providing noticeable improvements in every possible way. oh-la-la!

Actually listening to the system today makes me feel like it wasn't even close two days ago and it sounded great to me two days ago.

 

You didn't ask me but thought I would jump in since I have tried to assemble some of the best playback sources for medium, in the quest of finding "the best":
• Extreme / Switch / Router / XDMS / Nagra HD DAC X
• Nagra Reference TT / HD Phono
• Metaxas Papillon / Hachidori preamp [2025]

It's really best not to compare directly and just recognize that each medium has its advantages. I don't think the Olympus will change this conclusion.

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.

 

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.

 

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.

I have had my O/IO now for about 4-5 weeks and every day for me is a new and breath taking experience. You're right , it's not vinyl but for me who is using the digital board out to my Horizon 360 with XDMI, this sure as hell ain't digital either. Everything I listen to in my library has me craving for more. Im so. gobsmacked by my daily listening sessions that TBH I haven't listened to my vinyl side in that time. For my ears it's really that good.

Am I the only one who is using the digital card as Im not hearing anyone else discussing the digital card. I think Wil has the digital card but via AES/EBU which does not play Native if DSD is the source . XDMI into the Horizon is native which is the way I have always preferred to listen to the digital side of my system. So it isn't vinyl but it is digital in a way via XDMI that is so different to anything I have ever heard. Am I saying it's as good as vinyl....probably not but I am saying it is so darn good that I have not had a desire to play vinyl. The last time I did was when Christoph (tsaett) was here as the travelling Taiko amabassador and the night before he left we compared XDMI to vinyl ( and as Mike Lavigne rightly pointed out that the album to which we listened was digitally remastered) with and without a great power cord the difference for both of us was damn close.

Im still optimistic that Emile will find his way to my open house Nov 2-3 and we can do this test again for all to hear

 

I have had my O/IO now for about 4-5 weeks and every day for me is a new and breath taking experience. You're right , it's not vinyl but for me who is using the digital board out to my Horizon 360 with XDMI, this sure as hell ain't digital either. Everything I listen to in my library has me craving for more. Im so. gobsmacked by my daily listening sessions that TBH I haven't listened to my vinyl side in that time. For my ears it's really that good.

Am I the only one who is using the digital card as Im not hearing anyone else discussing the digital card. I think Wil has the digital card but via AES/EBU

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.

Edit: I remember now, the AES/Ebu was sent. It’s just not installed, which is why I forgot about it!

 

so am I the only one using the digital XDMI card?

 

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.

 

Very cool, Bob! So, I bet you've got some world class vinyl capability, too. How does the soundstage from it compare?

Dear all, please find below an update on the Olympus shipping status.

We’re working closely with the aluminum supplier and anodizing company to solve the last remaining issues, but today, we’re still short on silver tops. However, there’s no shortage of silver bottoms, so we’re building large quantities of Olympus servers ahead in silver and black. This means that as soon as large quantities of tops arrive, we’ll be shipping a large volume of servers.

We will ship two silver servers, three black servers, and three black I/Os in the coming week, and six more servers are being prepared to ship as soon as we have received the tops.

Now that the holiday period is over, we are again fully staffed. In addition, we will get extra help in assembly, and we're working on further optimizing the production and assembly process.

We are now in a good position and fully committed to ramping up the production to produce more servers per week and fulfil the orders as soon as possible.

Morning Team Taiko - one week further on - any chance of an update? Thank you!

 

I just visited the Taiko page to see the evolution of the Olympus sent and frankly either the page is not updated or new Olympus are not being sent. In any case it is not a pleasant situation. I insist on a previous and unanswered request, to put the date of the last update on the Taiko page, I do not believe it is one of the 12 labors of Hercules.

We've had a string of bad luck with previous batches of silver tops where the quality of the anodizing did not match our requirements. Due to this, the pace of delivery stagnated temporarily. We're now catching up and are currently finalizing a batch of servers and are halfway through building another batch. We will have multiple units shipped today and more next week.