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".

 

You cannot have XDMI, analog and digital AES/EBU cards connected simultaneously. Both are “daughter” cards that connect to the “mother” XDMI card in the same place.

Hi Francisco, you are right regarding the daughter cart, but I understand that one can have the XDMI card and the USB card simultaneously in the Olympus XDMI, so I wonder if it will sound better if we take out the USB card (if it is not the best option) and leave only the XDMI card.

 

It’s always gratifying to read Emile’s thinking on future directions and how he plans to pursue them. However there are some very pragmatic issues I’d like to raise. To begin, if we ordered an Olympus, my understanding it will be delivered with a USB output board as well as a combination RCA/analog out and AES/SPIDF board. But the way I see it, that latter option is already unattractive for many of us now that it appears an XDMI out board will being developed to be used hopefully with an XDMI input board by 3rd parties such as Lampizator and others. As you can imagine, this has some of us already rolling our eyes back to our brain in anticipation. So while it might be nice to play with the Analog/AES board that is delivered with the Olympus, it appears that it will be a relatively short-lived option, and thus it doesn’t excite me. Using the Olympus delivered with a USB out that will provide a BPS for both a new I and O board plus the other intrinsic advantages of the Olympus would be more than enough to keep me satisfied until the long term goal of an XDMI in/out to my DAC can be implemented.

What I would prefer to see is to have the Olympus delivered with the USB board, and a to-be-developed XDMI out board so that when other manufacturers develop their XDMI input board, the Olympus is ready to go. Part of my bias for this is that I have to rent a lift every time I take down the Extreme (or the future Olympus) to change a board, install memory, other modifications etc.). I’d much prefer an XDMI output board included upon Olympus delivery even if it can’t be used immediately, thus making the Olympus plug and play waiting for the day Lampi revises their unit (which will surely require a retrofit back in Poland. Ah, the joy of striving for SOA playback!). At least the Olympus can remain on the high shelf unperturbed for the foreseeable future (whatever that may be given Emile’s fertile mind). It is not lost on me that I may have to take down the Olympus at some point in the future anyway for yet to be announced future creations.). That’s my 2 cents anyway.

If the Olympus production is 3-4 mo away, surely, an XDMI output board can be designed and ready to ship with the Olympus by then? If the team requires food delivery in the middle of the night, I’m happy to pitch in for a go-fund-me campaign for midnight food delivery service to help get this done.

 

It’s always gratifying to read Emile’s thinking on future directions and how he plans to pursue them. However there are some very pragmatic issues I’d like to raise. To begin, if we ordered an Olympus, my understanding it will be delivered with a USB output board as well as a combination RCA/analog out and AES/SPIDF board. But the way I see it, that latter option is already unattractive for many of us now that it appears an XDMI out board will being developed to be used hopefully with an XDMI input board by 3rd parties such as Lampizator and others. As you can imagine, this has some of us already rolling our eyes back to our brain in anticipation. So while it might be nice to play with the Analog/AES board that is delivered with the Olympus, it appears that it will be a relatively short-lived option, and thus it doesn’t excite me. Using the Olympus delivered with a USB out that will provide a BPS for both a new I and O board plus the other intrinsic advantages of the Olympus would be more than enough to keep me satisfied until the long term goal of an XDMI in/out to my DAC can be implemented.

What I would prefer to see is to have the Olympus delivered with the USB board, and a to-be-developed XDMI out board so that when other manufacturers develop their XDMI input board, the Olympus is ready to go. Part of my bias for this is that I have to rent a lift every time I take down the Extreme (or the future Olympus) to change a board, install memory, other modifications etc.). I’d much prefer an XDMI output board included upon Olympus delivery even if it can’t be used immediately, thus making the Olympus plug and play waiting for the day Lampi revises their unit (which will surely require a retrofit back in Poland. Ah, the joy of striving for SOA playback!). At least the Olympus can remain on the high shelf unperturbed for the foreseeable future (whatever that may be given Emile’s fertile mind). It is not lost on me that I may have to take down the Olympus at some point in the future anyway for yet to be announced future creations.). That’s my 2 cents anyway.

If the Olympus production is 3-4 mo away, surely, an XDMI output board can be designed and ready to ship with the Olympus by then? If the team requires food delivery in the middle of the night, I’m happy to pitch in for a go-fund-me campaign for midnight food delivery service to help get this done.

Is it possible that the “XDMI out board” is already the board that the daughterboard attaches to? That is, maybe it is already developed?

 

That's my understanding of what the 'base board' that each daughterboard attaches to is, i.e. 'the XDMI hardware interface'. So they would 'just' need to agree on an external connector to use (unless its already decided).

 

Sorry that sounds like a total waste of time/resource imho, even more so than YT videos. To ask Taiko to take the time to make analog tapes and send them to you and others?

Even more so I would vote in Taiko not doing this vs. working on Olympus/I/O, XDMS and the other 30+ projects that they have going on.

Your respectable business perspective, but IMHO opinion the tapes would be very interesting to curious audiophiles, that enjoy this hobby and the opinions of other audiophiles that are not intrinsic members of the Taiko fan club and enjoy debate. This was the original drive of WBF many years ago, unfortunately it seems to be lost. The number of members of WBF owning great systems with top tape and master tape copies is considerable, IMHO such experience would be of great interest.

And again, mixing high quality tape with YT videos looks absurd. Just MO, YMMV.

 

Hi Francisco!

Nice to see you here!

I'm still tripping over "tapes recorded using . . . top digital recordings." What would an analog tape copy tell you about a digital recording?

(Oh, and I agree with others that Emile has better things to do.)

 

(...) What I would prefer to see is to have the Olympus delivered with the USB board, and a to-be-developed XDMI out board so that when other manufacturers develop their XDMI input board, the Olympus is ready to go. (...)

But what is exactly a XDMI input board? Are Taiko going to release the specifications of such interfaces?

 

It’s always gratifying to read Emile’s thinking on future directions and how he plans to pursue them. However there are some very pragmatic issues I’d like to raise. To begin, if we ordered an Olympus, my understanding it will be delivered with a USB output board as well as a combination RCA/analog out and AES/SPIDF board. But the way I see it, that latter option is already unattractive for many of us now that it appears an XDMI out board will being developed to be used hopefully with an XDMI input board by 3rd parties such as Lampizator and others. As you can imagine, this has some of us already rolling our eyes back to our brain in anticipation. So while it might be nice to play with the Analog/AES board that is delivered with the Olympus, it appears that it will be a relatively short-lived option, and thus it doesn’t excite me. Using the Olympus delivered with a USB out that will provide a BPS for both a new I and O board plus the other intrinsic advantages of the Olympus would be more than enough to keep me satisfied until the long term goal of an XDMI in/out to my DAC can be implemented.

What I would prefer to see is to have the Olympus delivered with the USB board, and a to-be-developed XDMI out board so that when other manufacturers develop their XDMI input board, the Olympus is ready to go. Part of my bias for this is that I have to rent a lift every time I take down the Extreme (or the future Olympus) to change a board, install memory, other modifications etc.). I’d much prefer an XDMI output board included upon Olympus delivery even if it can’t be used immediately, thus making the Olympus plug and play waiting for the day Lampi revises their unit (which will surely require a retrofit back in Poland. Ah, the joy of striving for SOA playback!). At least the Olympus can remain on the high shelf unperturbed for the foreseeable future (whatever that may be given Emile’s fertile mind). It is not lost on me that I may have to take down the Olympus at some point in the future anyway for yet to be announced future creations.). That’s my 2 cents anyway.

If the Olympus production is 3-4 mo away, surely, an XDMI output board can be designed and ready to ship with the Olympus by then? If the team requires food delivery in the middle of the night, I’m happy to pitch in for a go-fund-me campaign for midnight food delivery service to help get this done.

Hi Marty, so you want to derail current design, simulations, ordering BOMs, production, on all of the recently announced products that are still in these phases WHICH WILL SURELY DELAY all of the forthcoming already announced products and add more design, simulation/analysis testing and production of a board that will have no use until the other manufacturers have their side of the equation in place?

I would think that by the time the other manufacturers jump on board and design their side of the equation, Taiko will definitely be ready with what is required from them to offer a complete solution.

I respect your opinion of course, but I would rather see all of the Taiko efforts over the next several months be devoted to producing and shipping what already has been planned, announced and is being manufactured. ymmv and all imho.

 

It’s always gratifying to read Emile’s thinking on future directions and how he plans to pursue them. However there are some very pragmatic issues I’d like to raise. To begin, if we ordered an Olympus, my understanding it will be delivered with a USB output board as well as a combination RCA/analog out and AES/SPIDF board. But the way I see it, that latter option is already unattractive for many of us now that it appears an XDMI out board will being developed to be used hopefully with an XDMI input board by 3rd parties such as Lampizator and others. As you can imagine, this has some of us already rolling our eyes back to our brain in anticipation. So while it might be nice to play with the Analog/AES board that is delivered with the Olympus, it appears that it will be a relatively short-lived option, and thus it doesn’t excite me. Using the Olympus delivered with a USB out that will provide a BPS for both a new I and O board plus the other intrinsic advantages of the Olympus would be more than enough to keep me satisfied until the long term goal of an XDMI in/out to my DAC can be implemented.

What I would prefer to see is to have the Olympus delivered with the USB board, and a to-be-developed XDMI out board so that when other manufacturers develop their XDMI input board, the Olympus is ready to go. Part of my bias for this is that I have to rent a lift every time I take down the Extreme (or the future Olympus) to change a board, install memory, other modifications etc.). I’d much prefer an XDMI output board included upon Olympus delivery even if it can’t be used immediately, thus making the Olympus plug and play waiting for the day Lampi revises their unit (which will surely require a retrofit back in Poland. Ah, the joy of striving for SOA playback!). At least the Olympus can remain on the high shelf unperturbed for the foreseeable future (whatever that may be given Emile’s fertile mind). It is not lost on me that I may have to take down the Olympus at some point in the future anyway for yet to be announced future creations.). That’s my 2 cents anyway.

If the Olympus production is 3-4 mo away, surely, an XDMI output board can be designed and ready to ship with the Olympus by then? If the team requires food delivery in the middle of the night, I’m happy to pitch in for a go-fund-me campaign for midnight food delivery service to help get this done.

Hey @marty - my suggestion is find a flexible dealer who would come to your house and install the Olympus and change things for you when you need them to change. Isn't that what dealers are for? No need for you to lift your 60K server, or open it, or change things inside if you are not comfortable with that.

 

Hi Marty, so you want to derail current design, simulations, ordering BOMs, production, on all of the recently announced products that are still in these phases WHICH WILL SURELY DELAY all of the forthcoming already announced products and add more design, simulation/analysis testing and production of a board that will have no use until the other manufacturers have their side of the equation in place?

I would think that by the time the other manufacturers jump on board and design their side of the equation, Taiko will definitely be ready with what is required from them to offer a complete solution.

I respect your opinion of course, but I would rather see all of the Taiko efforts over the next several months be devoted to producing and shipping what already has been planned, announced and is being manufactured. ymmv and all imho.

I think that's a bit of a faulty interpretation of my request. Taiko will and should move forward with what they have planned for release in March. What I am suggesting is a way to avoid my having to buy a board that I will possibly not use for the long term, and rely on the USB output until I can better appreciate the options.. Are there other ways to address my concern? For example, can one get a credit for the XDMI RCA/AES board already included in the Olympus towards a future XDMI output board? That would alleviate my concern about its possible obsolescence (for me). Alternately, why not just provide a blank slot with credit towards a future XDMI digital output? That would work for me also.

 

Hi Francisco!

Nice to see you here!

I'm still tripping over "tapes recorded using . . . top digital recordings." What would an analog tape copy tell you about a digital recording?

(Oh, and I agree with others that Emile has better things to do.)

I personally would find it interesting to know if a digital file could be made of a tape and the digital playback be sonically indistinguishable from the tape. If that were the case, I would say digital has reached a very high achievement.

 

Hey @marty - my suggestion is find a flexible dealer who would come to your house and install the Olympus and change things for you when you need them to change. Isn't that what dealers are for? No need for you to lift your 60K server, or open it, or change things inside if you are not comfortable with that.

I appreciate that suggestion. I already have a very reliable and outstanding dealer in Bob at Rhapsody, who has volunteered to do exactly that. I'm hoping that the two of us can take the Extreme down from the shelf, transfer the memory boards from the Extreme, install the Olympus, and not wind up in the orthopedic ward of the hospital. But it still doesn't address the concern of getting what may be a wonderful XDMI analog RCA/AES board with the Olympus that I may not use for the long term. My guess is that I'm not alone having that concern. Surely there's a path forward to address this concern?

 

I think Marty has a darn good point. Why release a product announcement on Dec 2023 and before the month is out, tell the audience the product is obsolete. Or that something that is supposedly much better is only 6 months down the road.

I don't get you last comment Marty.

But it still doesn't address the concern of getting what may be a wonderful XDMI analog RCA/AES board with the Olympus that I may not use for the long term.

Did you mean to say, may not be used for a long time. As in your won't update the Horizon for a while.

 

can one get a credit for the XDMI RCA/AES board already included in the Olympus towards a future XDMI output board?

Both daughterboards are supplied for free along with the Euro 5.000 discount as an introduction package.

 

I appreciate that suggestion. I already have a very reliable and outstanding dealer in Bob at Rhapsody, who has volunteered to do exactly that. I'm hoping that the two of us can take the Extreme down from the shelf, transfer the memory boards from the Extreme, install the Olympus, and not wind up in the orthopedic ward of the hospital. But it still doesn't address the concern of getting what may be a wonderful XDMI analog RCA/AES board with the Olympus that I may not use for the long term. My guess is that I'm not alone having that concern. Surely there's a path forward to address this concern?

You are in excellent hands in that case and should not need to worry about lifting things and making changes.

From the photos I have seen and what I have read, the real investment is in the main XDMI card (and BPS, BMS, QSFP transport interface, etc.). The AES/SPIDF board is most likely very cheap compared to the overall design. That's why it is provided for free even if you don't need it.
I am not sure the trade-in value will be significant enough to offset much.

 

I would think it might be best if someone has an individual request for their order regarding any specific requirements to add/delete boards send an email to your dealer or if you are purchasing directly from Taiko send an email to Taiko and present your request via this method. In this manner your specific requirements can be addressed appropriately.

I'm sure if something is possible for an individual request and is easily doable it would be considered.

 

Hi Francisco, you are right regarding the daughter cart, but I understand that one can have the XDMI card and the USB card simultaneously in the Olympus XDMI, so I wonder if it will sound better if we take out the USB card (if it is not the best option) and leave only the XDMI card.

No that doesn’t matter.

 

You are in excellent hands in that case and should not need to worry about lifting things and making changes.

From the photos I have seen and what I have read, the real investment is in the main XDMI card (and BPS, BMS, QSFP transport interface, etc.). The AES/SPIDF board is most likely very cheap compared to the overall design. That's why it is provided for free even if you don't need it.
I am not sure the trade-in value will be significant enough to offset much.

Indeed, in case of AES/SPDIF the most expensive part is the unpopulated circuitboard, followed by the XLR plug and RCA socket. AES/SPDIF is really very cheap, it was designed to be just that. Obviously the DAC / analogue stage is not cheap, but we really want people to hear what XDMI is capable of without the existing external interface limitations, so we supply that for free as well for this introduction.

 

Is it possible that the “XDMI out board” is already the board that the daughterboard attaches to? That is, maybe it is already developed?

No it doesn’t exist. But we are more then willing to develop it for market adaptation purposes.

 

No it doesn’t exist. But we are more then willing to develop it for market adaptation purposes.

This is what I would call an incentive to all DAC manufacturers. ....an "if you don't or cannot, we can and we will"