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".

 

A couple more observations with my Olympus - better interconnect cables DO make quite a difference with XDMI analogue out. I only had some cheap RCA cables initially and just managed to source some decent (not expensive) Bocchino RCA cables - maybe no surprises but worth noting. XDMI out is damn good!

The other influence is the XDMI battery charge level - for some reason my XDMI battery wasn’t charging when set to auto charging and I noticed it was sitting around 60%. I then set the charge to manual charge and let it get to 100% before playing any more music - wow, quite a difference in my system, so just make sure you’re charged up before sitting down for any critical listening.

FWIW after a solid 3.5hrs of playing XDMI via Roon, XDMI charge was sitting at 90% and still sounded excellent. I seem to recall seeing something about ideally it being above 80% for critical listening.

Powercord also made a huge difference!

 

Powercord also made a huge difference!

Absolutely. —-huge difference indeed. I was astounded by that

 

Amen to that. I still listen to physical media (vinyl, SACD, CD), so a preamplifier is essential. In over my 35+ years of buying high end audio, I’ve never found an “integrated” solution that bests separates, and I’ve tried a lot of such products. There’s a lot of seemingly compelling arguments about minimizing the signal chain complexity, but even if I could restrict myself to one digital source, I’m not sure I want an analog preamplifier to be inside a computer with its many sources of intrinsic noise, even one as extremely well-built as a Taiko. Yes, adding a lot of separates does add costs, including cables, space, heat etc. (see attached pic, those are 10-feet ceilings!). It would be nice to reduce clutter. But each time I try one of these integrated solutions, I invariably go back to separates.

I do have a nice Mola Mola MAKUA integrated preamplifier that combines a class A solid state preamp, a highly flexible phono stage, a world-class DAC, and a Roon endpoint. I use it in extremely hot weather with its matching Kaluga class D monoblock amplifiers, like in the current never-ending 100+ degree days that the Bay Area is suffering through. But once cooler weather returns, I’m sure I’ll switch back to my separates ARC/Lampi tube gear!

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Never say never.
I was similar thinking long ago.
My totaldac 24 has NO output stage . Pure Vishay resistor ladder exits directly to XLRs and amps.
Internal volume control of totaldac must be very sophisticated as It was much better with Direct totaldac to amps than with respectable Kondo M1000 MK2 on the way.
So after 2 years of trying I sold Kondo becuse direct was simply way better.

Recently some friends were bringing many top preamps Including Audio Research , Gryphons , AudioNet and those always take some of the good stuff away.
I am still open to experiment and try new stuff. But so far direct is way better