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".

 

Apologies for jumping into the conversation, but I believe Kris was referring to the daughter board needing some burn-in, not the Olympus&I/O.

So the Taiko XDMI DAC daughter board :

View attachment 138366

Cheers,

Thomas

Understood. However with Emile not being present this coming week at the event The XDMI Analogue card wont be used. I mentioned that in my posts on the Lampi thread. Having said that it is my hope that when Emile can find some breathing room and has the time for me to do a Taiko open house, the XDMI analogue board will indeed be used for comparison but I am hoping he will either send a demo IO with the analogue card so that a much quicker A-B comparison can be done. If that becomes difficult for Emile to do JYACO has an O/IO on order where the analogue card will be installed rather than the digital board. He will be here for the coming weekend open house and will also be coming to a Taiko open house and he has offered to bring his IO to my house for purposes of a quicker A-B comparison

 

Thank you!

After the batteries are in shipping mode, what is the best procedure to open the Olympus before removing the board/ssd?

Yes this is an interesting question, because where are the screws that join both parts of the Olympus?

 

Yes this is an interesting question, because where are the screws that join both parts of the Olympus?

RTFM, page 32

 

My Olympus has just arrived. I plan to put my local files in an NAS ( Synology 224+) How critical is the SSD choice. I have a very small library of local files (less than 1 TB) and plan to buy a pair of 1 TB SSD's. The units I have found are from Sandisk or Gigastone. Is there a best choice here? Is the 2 TB disk I bought with the Olympus for internal storage transferrable to an NAS?

Not critical. The internal drive of the Olympus will not fit unfortunately.

 

My experience would emphasize this and that it needs a very long burn in and it will not be an accurate comparison without enough time.

I thought I had enough run-in time on the Taiko Dac board at about 100-150 hrs. At that time I “concluded” it was somewhat slow and mid bass heavy sounding compared to the usb/Ithaka dac.

But now, I think I can safely say that sound signature has disappeared and the Taiko dac/Xdmi sounds quick and incisive. I don’t have any desire to go back and listen to the USB.

Maybe the Taiko dac needs 200+ hours? Curious what others have found?

It does have DC blocking capacitors on its outputs which are directly in the signal path. Those do take 2-3 weeks of continuous playback to lose their “veil”.

 

I managed to remove the Music SSD of my Olympus. It took some patience to remove the four side screws required to remove the top cover, and later put them back.

In my system the improvement was more than 2%. Perhaps 3% to 5%. A nice improvement of dynamics and leading edge.

For anyone who ordered a unit with an internal music ssd, my suggestion is to buy a nice NAS, if you don’t have one already, and to change your order to no internal storage, so you don’t have to remove the ssd yourself later.

 

Apologies for jumping into the conversation, but I believe Kris was referring to the daughter board needing some burn-in, not the Olympus&I/O.

So the Taiko XDMI DAC daughter board :

View attachment 138366

Cheers,

Thomas

Sure I was.
I know how long it takes for any DAC to get to the full performance so Taiko Daughter DAC board is no exception here.

You need a month sometimes to get it fully unveiled.

 

I managed to remove the Music SSD of my Olympus. It took some patience to remove the four side screws required to remove the top cover, and later put them back.

In my system the improvement was more than 2%. Perhaps 3% to 5%. A nice improvement of dynamics and leading edge.

For anyone who ordered a unit with an internal music ssd, my suggestion is to buy a nice NAS, if you don’t have one already, and to change your order to no internal storage, so you don’t have to remove the ssd yourself later.

That's why I asked to remove internal storage from my Olympus + IO order.
Tako Team did it and I will have 3-5% additional performance, not to mention I got some money back !

 

RTFM, page 32

Very grateful for your kindness.
Thank you.

 

Hi Emile/Taiko Audio,
I visited Volent Audio in Hong Kong again this afternoon.



I tried lifting up the Olympus I/O and I feeled that it should be much heavier than stated in the Taiko website.



May I know the correct weights of Olympus Server and the Olympus I/O?

Thanks！

 

Hi @CKKeung ,

Olympus Server = 58 kg
Olympus I/O = 41 kg

Good catch on the website, we’ll update that, thanks!

 

I managed to remove the Music SSD of my Olympus. It took some patience to remove the four side screws required to remove the top cover, and later put them back.

In my system the improvement was more than 2%. Perhaps 3% to 5%. A nice improvement of dynamics and leading edge.

For anyone who ordered a unit with an internal music ssd, my suggestion is to buy a nice NAS, if you don’t have one already, and to change your order to no internal storage, so you don’t have to remove the ssd yourself later.i

tt only proves that we all have to listen to Emile's suggestions. I was very reluctant to go with an NAS let alone have it over 100 feet away from my sound room but I haven't looked back and am enjoying my music library more than ever. Our leader knows what he's talking about and we all need to listen

 

Hi Emile/Taiko Audio,
I visited Volent Audio in Hong Kong again this afternoon.

View attachment 138397

I tried lifting up the Olympus I/O and I feeled that it should be much heavier than stated in the Taiko website.

View attachment 138398

May I know the correct weights of Olympus Server and the Olympus I/O?

Thanks！

Interesting that apparently they have the Olympus on top of a Daiza platform. I have not tried this option yet.

I tried: (a) directly on the floor (wood over concrete), and (b) with Revopods on the floor. With Revopods sounds better.

Besides Steve with his CMS, has anyone tried other alternatives? Tried the Daiza platform alternative?

 

Interesting that apparently they have the Olympus on top of a Daiza platform. I have not tried this option yet.

I tried: (a) directly on the floor (wood over concrete), and (b) with Revopods on the floor. With Revopods sounds better.

Besides Steve with his CMS, has anyone tried other alternatives? Tried the Daiza platform alternative?

Joe made me a special platform for the weight of the O/IO and I still use the Center Stage LS Ultra 2.25 footers

 

 

 

Interesting that apparently they have the Olympus on top of a Daiza platform. I have not tried this option yet.

I tried: (a) directly on the floor (wood over concrete), and (b) with Revopods on the floor. With Revopods sounds better.

Besides Steve with his CMS, has anyone tried other alternatives? Tried the Daiza platform alternative?

I'm now curious regarding placement of the Olympus. My plan was to place it to the right of the 360 vs on the concrete floor platform on this new shelf I built. Feedback will be very helpful...Did Emile mention the Olympus is less fussy than the Extreme??

 

I'm now curious regarding placement of the Olympus. My plan was to place it to the right of the 360 vs on the concrete floor platform on this new shelf I built. Feedback will be very helpful...Did Emile mention the Olympus is less fussy than the Extreme??

Actually Emile stated to beware of footers other than what is on the O/IO so I’m being a bit of a heretic here Not listening to probably very good advice from Emile

 

Actually Emile stated to beware of footers other than what is on the O/IO so I’m being a bit of a heretic here Not listening to probably very good advice from Emile

I followed this advice and put the Olympus feet directly on my platform which is a bamboo cutting board. Under the cutting board, I have some Revopods on thin carpet over concrete slab floor.

 

Actually Emile stated to beware of footers other than what is on the O/IO so I’m being a bit of a heretic here Not listening to probably very good advice from Emile

The main point is if you use footers to put them where the existing footers are. Otherwise, if you have an Olympus + I/O stacked, you will have nearly 100kg. / 220lbs. sitting on some footers on the bottom plate of the I/O. Chances of damaging something are quite big, especially if those footers are tiny and don't have a lot of contact surface area with the bottom plate.

The stock footers are easy to remove. And you can use the reinforced part of the chassis (where the stock footers are mounted) to put your new footers. I see you have already done that, Steve. Nice!

I have been playing with quite a few stands, including Livevibe, Artesania, CMS, HRS, etc. as well as different materials. Everything you put under the Olympus changes the sound. Still collecting data points and don't have anything to report yet. Although, my early impressions are that what @steve williams is doing sounds very good.

Also, how your room is treated / system voiced may be a big factor about what stand / footers you may prefer. For example, in some of my experiments, I lost a little bit of liveliness. And although I saw this as a negative, it could be perfect for someone with a brighter room / system. Some tighten the bass more, and that may work well with tube equipment. I will keep experimenting and if I can collect enough data, I will post my notes/results. They are too chaotic at the moment to share.