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".

 

Emile,

Do you have any clock input/output facilities in XDMI for the benefit of those having DACs with AES/EBU in synchronous systems, either with internal or external clocks?

 

I have no idea how they counted 60% not hearing it but I strongly prefer your numbers Emile because you heard it.
If Extreme USB is 100% than
300% Olympus , 330% Olympus IO

Also not sure why Steve is going to torture himself with 60% (160 in comparison to extreme) if he can hear 330% by getting direct XDMI to his pre .
Curious how long he will resist.
I bet same day switching .

It seems there may be various interpretations of the Olympus 300% and Olympus + O I/O 330% performance estimates. My assumption is if Extreme + Taiko USB card to DAC (Horizon?) = 100% is the reference, then the comparative 300% figure likely refers to Olympus XDMI AES/EBU or SPDIF out to the same DAC. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be an apples to apples comparison, would it? I think Emile is being modestly reticent about the XDMI RCA analog out performance (for now!) and avoiding numerical estimates. Do others see it differently?

 

It seems there may be various interpretations of the Olympus 300% and Olympus + O I/O 330% performance estimates. My assumption is if Extreme + Taiko USB card to DAC (Horizon?) = 100% is the reference, then the comparative 300% figure likely refers to Olympus XDMI AES/EBU or SPDIF out to the same DAC. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be an apples to apples comparison, would it? I think Emile is being modestly reticent about the XDMI RCA analog out performance (for now!) and avoiding numerical estimates. Do others see it differently?

It looks this numbers here were compering
Extreme with USB exit to any DAC
to
Olympus XDMI with RCA exit .
So apples to oranges, but in this case I will love to swich to Oranges !

 

Emile,

Do you have any clock input/output facilities in XDMI for the benefit of those having DACs with AES/EBU in synchronous systems, either with internal or external clocks?

I was wondering about this too given the AES/SPDIF's susceptibility to jitter or does the XDMI technology render an external clock unnecessary?

 

thanks. The

Please do keep sharing your honest views and opinions! Honesty is what serves everybody best in the long run. Much appreciated!

All good, will do! You would be a great therapist, but we are all glad u chose this career.
Curious if there would be a way to go analogue out from Olympus direct to amps w Xlrs, or perhaps in the future?…

 

thanks. The
All good, will do! You would be a great therapist, but we are all glad u chose this career.
Curious if there would be a way to go analogue out from Olympus direct to amps w Xlrs?…

Presently, just RCA to XLR adapters.

Steve Z

 

I was wondering about this too given the AES/SPDIF's susceptibility to jitter or does the XDMI technology render an external clock unnecessary?

I believe that's the question and the answer at the same time. It looks unnecessary.

There is NO clock on a DAC douthter board and Emile confirmed that clock is located on XDMI main board and it looks synchronizes everything around.
That's main benefit additional to clean battery power supply.
You have a kind of a "Vivaldi stack" in one device I believe.

 

I was wondering about this too given the AES/SPDIF's susceptibility to jitter or does the XDMI technology render an external clock unnecessary?

i'm assuming that xdmi (codename: pangloss) will create the best of all possible aes/ebu, but we'll see next year.

 

I believe that's the question and the answer at the same time. It looks unnecessary.

There is NO clock on a DAC douthter board and Emile confirmed that clock is located on XDMI main board and it looks synchronizes everything around.
That's main benefit additional to clean battery power supply.
You have a kind of a "Vivaldi stack" in one device I believe.

Well that's one less thing to worry about!

 

Looks like we are preparing ourselves for tomorrow and we need to prepare desperately for the future at the same time.

 

Hey Emile, may be you should give Thomas Mayer a buzz and see where he does his anodising ?

 

"if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it, and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good, hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be"

Roald Dahl

Last time I tried that, all I got was a restraining order.

 

Hey Emile, may be you should give Thomas Mayer a buzz and see where he does his anodising ?

Seeing as he is in possibly the most bike friendly country on earth. I'd be willing to bet local anodizing company he already uses is top tier. That industry is almost singlehandedly responsible for the current widespread usage.

The problem you are going to have is getting an exact color result without having numerous highly similar samples shipped to you for final sign off.

 

Last time I tried that, all I got was a restraining order.

Public nudity and howling at the moon?

Steve Z

 

Seeing as he is in possibly the most bike friendly country on earth. I'd be willing to bet local anodizing company he already uses is top tier. That industry is almost singlehandedly responsible for the current widespread usage.

The problem you are going to have is getting an exact color result without having numerous highly similar samples shipped to you for final sign off.

I'm just teasing Emile, but having said that if colours were an option I would definitely choose something more dramatic than black or silver.

 

I don't want to derail this thread too much... I2S was indeed designed for short distance digital signal transfer yet it can be used without issues on longer distances with proper care to the design.

@Taiko Audio I connect a set (4) of 1.0m proprietary i2s ribbon cables between a modded Pioneer Elite LX500 Blu-ray DVD player (used as a transport) and a modded Horizon. The i2s connection consists of 4 cables (all SPDIF, RCA plugs into RCA jacks on both ends): master clock, bit clock, L/R (Word) clock and data. The purported short distance is hyped. 1.0m suffers no SQ degradation in my case. Done in a purist way ("direct coupling" at least on the DVD side), the i2s used is not the much inferior PS Audio standard (HDMI or RJ45) and the SQ of the modded DVD player almost rivals the SQ from Extreme to Horizon via USB. Extreme could sound much better without the inferior USB connection; Extreme sounds better than the modded DVD because of its other features. I cannot wait for a dedicated XDMI to XDMI connection between Olympus and Horizon, but unfortunately the prospect is uncertain for both technical and cost reasons.

 

can you share the split between Olympus and I/O?
just curious how the earliest adopters are going at it.

About a 3rd orders the I/O to add to the Olympus. Very few I/O only orders.

 

adding another data point. in my system, and with my ears, the taiko usb board, xdms, router and switch were all clearly audible improvements, however the latest NSM software re-architecture/optimization is the only one i consider a 'game changer'.

if NSM today is the baseline for the XDMI improvements to come, WOW!

There's no doubt software / drivers make up a very big part of the performance.

 

With saving $$ in mind, I find myself hoping the XDMI analog out is so good that the more complex solutions won’t even be tempting. It’s also compelling to keep in mind the Taiko analog out will keep improving from it’s current iteration.

There’s something to be said for simplicity.

It absolutely deserves a serious audition

 

another interesting question for totaldac users and aes/ebu.
currently, many of us use multiple reclockers after the taiko usb card.
many have 1 or 2 totaldac reclockers ahead of the totaldac dac:
usb out => reclocker1 => reclocker2 => dac
where reclocker1 also converts the usb to aes/ebu and the second reclocker has aes/ebu in and out.

it will be very interesting to see if one or both reclockers are redundant with xdmi=>aes/ebu

That would be very interesting indeed.