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, I remember you saying you found a BPS solution (the 2x 6 BPS cells) that is vastly „cheaper“ than the original 30 cell version costing as much as a whole Extreme as the former doesn’t need a separate chassis (and of course much less cells).

Now the Olympus due to the new design philosophy needs a chassis (although due to other reasons). I‘m wondering how this all turns out pricewise, but am in good faith since Taiko‘s pricing policy has always been on the reasonable / customer friendly side.

Trading up to the Olympus or adding the Olympus I/O are the most cost effective ways to obtain this technology.

Hoping to be able to announce pricing soon but we have some negotiating to do with our distributor/dealer network over a wide range of time zones.

 

Yes. You have great memory

Arthur

Well I would think the Olympus I/O would bring most to the table in that scenario.

 

In terms of pricing, without giving out any numbers just yet, Olympus IO < 3/4 Olympus < 2 * Extreme ?

Very roughly I expect it to be around 1x Olympus + 1x Olympus I/O > 2x Extreme > 1x Olympus > 1x Extreme + 1x Olympus I/O > 1x Extreme > 1x Olympus I/O (based on USB / without XDMI).

 

Ahh - bummer...

So to leverage XDMI (in my case with the MSB Daughter Card for Pro ISL to remove USB from my stack) I need the Olympus IO and I will then move the Taiko Network NIC from Extreme to Olympus IO and have the new XDMI + MSB daughter card deployed in Olympus IO?

I will trade in (hopefully) the Taiko USB Card.

This will of course provide an even better platform and performance than 'just' adding XDMI + MSB daughter card in the more noisy (relatively speaking) Extreme. And yes, as already pointed out by several, Olympus IO is similar to some degree with MSB's Digital Director from an architectural viewpoint.

Whenever you have bandwidth @Taiko Audio pls elaborate on costs and availability...

Meanwhile, I will enjoy my XDMS.NSM which I got installed yesterday!

Yes, how do you like XDMS.NSM ?

 

Hi - can you expand on (a) how the Olympus interfaces with customers’ existing DACs (incl the Horizon), (b) whether or not there is benefit in using the Olympus with the newly-released router and switch and (c) if there is, are these still best powered by an off-board PS via the distributor or from the Olympus? Some of the info already posted partly alluding to this was not completely clear.

a) Either over USB or over XDMI using AES/EBU. But when using USB I'd say just go for Olympus I/O.
b) yes, that advantage largely remains
c) they cannot be powered from Olympus or Olympus I/O, explanation as to why is in post #84,

 

a) Either over USB or over XDMI using AES/EBU. But when using USB I'd say just go for Olympus I/O.
b) yes, that advantage largely remains
c) they cannot be powered from Olympus or Olympus I/O, explanation as to why is in post #84,

Sorry if redundant but will new XDMI include balanced output?

 

In terms of software interface, wiht ollympus so we all move to XDMS or can we still use Roon?

 

How the 2 are connected ? Extreme to Io and Olympus to Io ?

I use to have and use adnaco pciexpress to isolate usb card and network
with my server 7 years ago .
is that a simmilar concept ?
I used fiber to connect 2 chassiss Because they had separate supplys.

Similar in a way though not comparable in performance. Fiber consumes several times more power then the entire interface.

Perhaps these examples of a board wide DC voltage drop (an indicator of supply stability) analysis will explain why power consumption matters:



If you examine the scale in the left below corner of the 3v3 board wide supply you can see that it scales from 3.29999 to 3.30000V, aka the variation is less then 0.00001V. This would look wildly different when you'd use fiber.

 

Does the Olympus I/O provide the Extreme with all the power it needs, making the current power supply unnecessary, or does the original Extreme power supply continue to be used when the Olympus I/O is connected? If it is redundant does it get removed when the I/O is added?

 

Yes, how do you like XDMS.NSM ?

I don't know yet!

I am away from home atm - will post my impression of XDMS.NSM Friday evening my time!

 

Very roughly I expect it to be around 1x Olympus + 1x Olympus I/O > 2x Extreme > 1x Olympus > 1x Extreme + 1x Olympus I/O > 1x Extreme > 1x Olympus I/O (based on USB / without XDMI).

Dear Emile
I was asking for your sonic diffeence estimate on that.
Was a previous SQ estimation correct ?
Extreme 100%
Extreme + IO at 200%
Olympus at ~300%
Olympus + IO at ~330%.

if so it mans based on your financial estimations someone should get more than the 3x the performance for 2x the money.

 

Also if Extreme has a sonically „better„ CPU than Olympus is it a wise idea to reuse it in Olympus + ?
Or you simply decided to use in Olympus technologies that use specific architecture of a newer CPUs ?

 

Similar in a way though not comparable in performance. Fiber consumes several times more power then the entire interface.

Perhaps these examples of a board wide DC voltage drop (an indicator of supply stability) analysis will explain why power consumption matters:

View attachment 121607

If you examine the scale in the left below corner of the 3v3 board wide supply you can see that it scales from 3.29999 to 3.30000V, aka the variation is less then 0.00001V. This would look wildly different when you'd use fiber.

WOW
This is extremely impressive !
we fight sometimes for 0.01 v fluctuations and consider them top level ……

 

Thank you.
This looks very optimistic.
I am not ranking extreme + Io at 200 % as I had no chance to see it or hear it.
This is estimate based purely on your first introduction chapter.
it looks the biggest improvements are with adding Io to extreme .
But from what you say it is triple the improvement from pure extreme to pure olympus.
Not sure if Emile will find a moment to write his estimates and sady few works about his sonic impresions with new Olympus

We re compared a few output options with a panel of listeners, with the remark it's much more difficult to rank XDMI versus USB, we settled on the following ratings:

Stock Extreme using the USB interface: 100%
Extreme + Olympus I/O with USB card mounted: 150%
Extreme + Olympus I/O with XDMI mounted: 200%
Olympus with USB card mounted: 175%
Olympus with XDMI mounted: 275%
Olympus with Olympus I/O with XDMI mounted: 300%

We also removed end reinserted the switch and router on Olympus + Olympus I/O, ratings as follows:
Olympus with Olympus I/O: 100%
Olympus with Olympus I/O + switch: 110%
Olympus with Olympus I/O + switch + router: 125%

DC distributor preferences unchanged, switch at Default, router at Alt2, powered by LPS.

Hope that helps.

 

a) Either over USB or over XDMI using AES/EBU. But when using USB I'd say just go for Olympus I/O.
b) yes, that advantage largely remains
c) they cannot be powered from Olympus or Olympus I/O, explanation as to why is in post #84,

Hmm - so the ‘bare‘ Olympus will have USB and ‘XDMI using AES/EBU’ outputs? But AES/EBU has been referred to as constrained legacy technology - does that fact that it is supplied by XDMI mean that its constraints are supervened? And what would the physical connection be between the Olympus I/O and a Lampi DAC? Or did I miss this detail? It is good that you shared news, but it seems that waiting until a more comprehensive set of documentation and pricing is available may enabled greater clarity and headed off many questions (thereby creating less work here for you too!).

 

Sorry if redundant but will new XDMI include balanced output?

We currently only have analog stereo RCA out and digital RCA SPDIF, BNC SPDIF and XLR AES/EBU.

 

We re compared a few output options with a panel of listeners, with the remark it's much more difficult to rank XDMI versus USB, we settled on the following ratings:

Stock Extreme using the USB interface: 100%
Extreme + Olympus I/O with USB card mounted: 150%
Extreme + Olympus I/O with XDMI mounted: 200%
Olympus with USB card mounted: 175%
Olympus with XDMI mounted: 275%
Olympus with Olympus I/O with XDMI mounted: 300%

We also removed end reinserted the switch and router on Olympus + Olympus I/O, ratings as follows:
Olympus with Olympus I/O: 100%
Olympus with Olympus I/O + switch: 110%
Olympus with Olympus I/O + switch + router: 125%

DC distributor preferences unchanged, switch at Default, router at Alt2, powered by LPS.

Hope that helps.

Question: in the above assessment of SQ - is the NIC also running in Olympus I/O - or is it only the USB and/or the XDMI?

 

Question: in the above assessment of SQ - is the NIC also running in Olympus I/O - or is it only the USB and/or the XDMI?

The NIC is running in Olympus I/O and a big part of the improvement in SQ.

 

Does the Olympus I/O provide the Extreme with all the power it needs, making the current power supply unnecessary, or does the original Extreme power supply continue to be used when the Olympus I/O is connected? If it is redundant does it get removed when the I/O is added?

There is no power connection between the Extreme and Olympus I/O. When adding he Olympus I/O you replace the USB and Network cards in the Extreme with our QFSP interface cards. The USB and network cards move to the Olympus I/O.

 

This is shaping up to be fantastic Emile, it all makes total sense to me and seems super smart. Although pricing is to be announced, from what you are saying I really appreciate your obvious focus on it. And I fully respect and value the huge amount of effort and expertise that has gone into this step / leap forward. Thank you.