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".

 

Okay? I was just attempting to understand why the different reported lengths of time before things settle in between the two applications I indicated...Now its crystal clear...

 

Okay? I was just attempting to understand why the different reported lengths of time before things settle in between the two applications I indicated...Now its crystal clear...

Most excellent

 

Okay? I was just attempting to understand why the different reported lengths of time before things settle in between the two applications I indicated...Now its crystal clear...

TBH EMILE I don't understand. My attempt at sarcasm failed. I see the linear line. And if I understand, it represents improvement happens in the first 50% of the timeline and smaller improvements happen on the timeline until it is done. But it doesn't show where it ends.
This is NOT a big deal to me (just curious) just attempting to understand why 360 NATIVE XDMI seems to settle in quicker. Its really a MUTE point, whatever amount of time it takes, so be it, its not significant....Again I was just curious...

 

TBH EMILE I don't understand. My attempt at sarcasm failed. I see the linear line. And if I understand, it represents improvement happens in the first 50% of the timeline and smaller improvements happen on the timeline until it is done. But it doesn't show where it ends.
This is NOT a big deal to me (just curious) just attempting to understand why 360 NATIVE XDMI seems to settle in quicker. Its really a MUTE point, whatever amount of time it takes, so be it, its not significant....Again I was just curious...

I don’t think the H360 modules settles faster. Most likely people just stop noticing/caring aka are just enjoying the music. Additionally H360 users tend to roll tubes and are therefore more accustomed to listening through burn-in effects.

 

I don’t think the H360 modules settles faster. Most likely people just stop noticing/caring aka are just enjoying the music. Additionally H360 users tend to roll tubes and are therefore more accustomed to listening through burn-in effects.

Thank You, this makes sense to me...

 

View attachment 146109

Can anyone explain why the curve is not really monotonic (as shown)? Why does performance ever take a step back, then improve further?

Is it one thing getting changing for the better and then taking a step back, then improving again?
Or is it multiple things settling in at different rates and along the way to their final settling points, the ying-yang ratio may go from good to bad until all components settling where the ying-yang is optimum?

 

Happy Friday @Taiko Audio @Christiaan Punter

Would you kindly update the delivery progress?

And My number is 91.1. According to your Jan update, there should be 60+ chassis received from the anodizers. Hopefully mine will be in that batch and get delivered soon.

Thanks for your update.

 

Can anyone explain why the curve is not really monotonic (as shown)? Why does performance ever take a step back, then improve further?

Is it one thing getting changing for the better and then taking a step back, then improving again?
Or is it multiple things settling in at different rates and along the way to their final settling points, the ying-yang ratio may go from good to bad until all components settling where the ying-yang is optimum?

I'm trying to research silicon/nano chemical changes in circuits and how this process effects the short and long term process of run in..
Hard to nail down this info.. looking for multiple papers.. not just one.

 

Happy Friday @Taiko Audio @Christiaan Punter

Would you kindly update the delivery progress?

And My number is 91.1. According to your Jan update, there should be 60+ chassis received from the anodizers. Hopefully mine will be in that batch and get delivered soon.

Thanks for your update.

@JulienVermeiren is posting a big update tomorrow afternoon (Friday / CET)!

 

I'm trying to research silicon/nano chemical changes in circuits and how this process effects the short and long term process of run in..
Hard to nail down this info.. looking for multiple papers.. not just one.

Capacitors usually have the biggest impact on break-in. The best ones require 400-600 hrs. to properly form, then sometimes months to fully stabilize. The break-in roller coaster is the cumulative effect of multiple elements going through their individual growing pains. It's not a linear function. Can be signal caps, PS caps, shunt caps - ALL CAPS

 

All I can say is my Olympus/MSB XDMI took 600 hours to what now seems to be fully settled state. And it was several stages of up and downs, mostly affecting bass, dynamics, loudness and dimension.
YMMV...

 

The break-in roller coaster is the cumulative effect of multiple elements going through their individual growing pains. It's not a linear function.

Bingo! Thanks

The key though isn't that it's not linear (e.g. emile's simplified curve) but that it is not monotonic (so that curve should show some bumps)

It's actually of interest to have estimates of 2 times:
1. When do steps backward end
2. When do further improvements end or significantly decrease in size

Ymmv, of course

 

Taiko Olympus + I/O at the Florida Audio Expo.





(Stay away from glass shelves under the Olympus)

 

What are the stupid footers misplaced under the Olympus???
Clearly Taiko says no misplaced footers under the Olympus, just in-place of the stock footers.

 

What are the stupid footers misplaced under the Olympus???
Clearly Taiko says no misplaced footers under the Olympus, just in-place of the stock footers.

@Kingsrule as always, has a way with words

 

Having just crossed the 3 month mark with my Olympus, I feel confident in saying it has been transformational in the way I experience music. The Extreme was a massive upgrade in my system at the time, but the Olympus is an order of magnitude greater. Why do I say that?

First, everything sounds good on the Olympus. Recordings and masterings that have languished for years, even decades, in my library are now yielding delights I had never realized they had. Second, I cannot begin to describe how profoundly liberating it is to have the power of Roon again. With the Extreme, I was so hung up with extracting the last ounce of SQ with XDMS (and PGGB upsampling), that I satisfied myself with my existing music, without too much exploration. I didn't realize how much I had constrained myself until now. Being freed of those constraints, I find myself making new discoveries every night. And there is such delight in knowing that anything I play from Qobuz, even at the spur of the moment, is going to sound absolutely glorious and with no compromises.

Here is something for headphone users who might be contemplating an Olympus. I get asked this all the time by non-head-fi skeptics:

Isn't the Olympus overkill for headphones? I can see how it would help with high-end speakers like Wilsons or Zellatons, but can you really hear the true benefits with headphones?

In fact, I would not be surprised if there are some in the Taiko community here on this thread who don't wonder about this themselves. I think non head-fi folk, who have not been paying attention to the field, do not realize just how far head-fi has come, and just how good modern headphones, especially the flagship models, sound.

So -- to prospective Olympus buyers with headphones: rest assured that the benefits of the Olympus come through loud and clear on a good headphone rig. Don't just take my word for it. Look at the postings on this thread from other headphone users like @tomas329 and @simorag, who've affirmed just how profoundly the Olympus improved their listening experience.

I am fortunate as a reviewer to have summit-fi gear come through my system on a regular basis. Since the Olympus's arrival, I have had the pleasure of listening to both the T+A Solitaire P and HifiMan Susvara Unveiled flagship headphones on both my reference Vinnie Rossi L2i SE speaker amp and the Danatone Head-Space amp, all driven by a full Taiko chain of DCD. router, switch and Olympus. The improvement over my previous Extreme chain has been almost life-altering. I have had people come through who knew my system well who, after hearing the full Olympus chain, have gone away "haunted by how good it sounds." So haunted that they placed Olympus orders too.

 

Rajiv, are these listening impressions with the analog XDMI cards?

 

What are the stupid footers misplaced under the Olympus???
Clearly Taiko says no misplaced footers under the Olympus, just in-place of the stock footers.

That’s a very good and fair question. The photo was taken at the end of the day when the room was somewhat dialed in (there was no point in playing with footers before that). Just before leaving, I wanted to experiment with isolation between the Olympus and the glass.

I found these Hifistay footers, but we only had three of them. I placed them just to see if they would make a difference, and the improvement was massive - even in a show environment. The importer of these products mentioned that he had more footers, which I’ll be getting in the morning. My plan is to install four today, preferably four under the I/O, and possibly something on the network stack at the bottom. Glass shelves are really bad!

Placing footers anywhere other than under the original Taiko footers is risky, as these chassis are very heavy. I was, of course, careful about where I placed that one footer and ensured it wouldn’t cause any damage, even though it was only temporary. Ideally, footers shouldn’t be positioned like that on the Olympus, but in this case, it’s actually okay. What’s more critical is to avoid doing this under the I/O when the I/O and the Olympus are stacked together.

 

@Kingsrule as always has a way with words

But he is absolutely right. I appreciate the criticism because it prompted me to explain the reasoning behind this.

 

That’s a very good and fair question. The photo was taken at the end of the day when the room was somewhat dialed in (there was no point in playing with footers before that). Just before leaving, I wanted to experiment with isolation between the Olympus and the glass.

I found these Hifistay footers, but we only had three of them. I placed them just to see if they would make a difference, and the improvement was massive - even in a show environment. The importer of these products mentioned that he had more footers, which I’ll be getting in the morning. My plan is to install four today, preferably four under the I/O, and possibly something on the network stack at the bottom. Glass shelves are really bad!

Placing footers anywhere other than under the original Taiko footers is risky, as these chassis are very heavy. I was, of course, careful about where I placed that one footer and ensured it wouldn’t cause any damage, even though it was only temporary. Ideally, footers shouldn’t be positioned like that on the Olympus, but in this case, it’s actually okay. What’s more critical is to avoid doing this under the I/O when the I/O and the Olympus are stacked together.

Thanks for the explanation Vassil, you had many of us wondering "what the Hell is that" At first I thought it was an optical illusion...