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".

 

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Hi Cmarin,

The best option is obviously "c". Both devices on a dedicated shelf.

However, if you want to stack them, you should place the Olympus on top of the I/O.

The Olympus heats up and needs to dissipate that heat.

The real question would be :

Is there a significant advantage to having both devices on dedicated shelf???

From what I've gathered here and there, it seems not.

But I believe Emile (@Taiko Audio ) is in a better position to answer this question.

Cheers,

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your reply. Your suggestion that having each unit on a separate shelf would be best from a sonic perspective (even if it is not a significant effect) makes sense.

In my case, I’m very much looking forward to changing/comparing between the digital XDMI (AES) and análog XDMI.

Not having to move the heavy Olympus around and potentially risking damage to the units (or my older back!) while changing between the analog and digital outs would be another major advantage of having the units on separate shelves.

Look forward to hearing from others including the Taiko team as well - as long as it doesn’t delay the shipping schedule!

Cheers

 

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your reply. Your suggestion that having each unit on a separate shelf would be best from a sonic perspective (even if it is not a significant effect) makes sense.

In my case, I’m very much looking forward to changing/comparing between the digital XDMI (AES) and análog XDMI.

Not having to move the heavy Olympus around and potentially risking damage to the units (or my older back!) while changing between the analog and digital outs would be another major advantage of having the units on separate shelves.

Look forward to hearing from others including the Taiko team as well - as long as it doesn’t delay the shipping schedule!

Cheers

Every shelf has some kind of influence so the answer would be it depends on the shelf

If you want to experiment with different output options it would indeed be more practical to have the I/O on a separate shelf, for even faster switching for the quickest A/B scenario you could even place it upside down. It sounds great to me in all of these scenarios, the surfaces / footers we’ve tried so far change voicing / tonal balance more then they do absolute performance.

 

Looks like 5 more shipped. w more to come….

 

To the Taiko team:
Any insight on your timeline to do what’s necessary to enable XDMI connection to Aries Cerat Dac’s? Stavros indicates he is waiting on Taiko before he can complete the XDMI connection protocol on his end, but I’m not sure what he is waiting for Taiko to do.

 

To the Taiko team:
Any insight on your timeline to do what’s necessary to enable XDMI connection to Aries Cerat Dac’s? Stavros indicates he is waiting on Taiko before he can complete the XDMI connection protocol on his end, but I’m not sure what he is waiting for Taiko to do.

Hi @JYACO ,

The hardware design part is finished, PCBs are on order, once those have arrived the software part needs to be finished. Then Stavros can get cracking.

 

To the Taiko team:
Any insight on your timeline to do what’s necessary to enable XDMI connection to Aries Cerat Dac’s? Stavros indicates he is waiting on Taiko before he can complete the XDMI connection protocol on his end, but I’m not sure what he is waiting for Taiko to do.

Hi @JYACO ,

The hardware design part is finished, PCBs are on order, once those have arrived the software part needs to be finished. Then Stavros can get cracking.

Hi @JYACO ,

The hardware design part is finished, PCBs are on order, once those have arrived the software part needs to be finished. Then Stavros can get cracking.

Much appreciated. Thank you.

 

Hi @JYACO ,

The hardware design part is finished, PCBs are on order, once those have arrived the software part needs to be finished. Then Stavros can get cracking.

Hi Emile! Exciting about AC. So will Taiko be selling an AC output card like with MSB or Lampi?

 

Hi Emile! Exciting about AC. So will Taiko be selling an AC output card like with MSB or Lampi?

It’s currently undecided if we or AC will offer this XDMI implementation or if we will. Due to this being a much more elaborate/complex design than others I would expect AC will sell this, but again, this is undecided.

 

Another fantastic Reality Quest artical, RayDude!

On the Olympus ground posts, under what circumstances does Taiko advise it may be a good idea to use (or not use)?

I’m thinking to attach my ground box to the Olympus chassis ground (next to the usb ports) as I have every other component also chassis grounded to the box.

Or is there something in the Olympus tech that would advise otherwise?

As attaching grounding cables is a 2-way street you will just have to try.

In all systems we’ve tried this ourselves our preference has been for leaving them disconnected.

There could be a scenario where you may need to connect the 2 ground posts together, being if you run into ground hum issues.