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".

 

Does the Aries Cerat have an XDMI interface?

 

Does the Aries Cerat have an XDMI interface?

Not ready yet, so they are using XDMI AES/EBU output:

F111 - A4.1
Aries Cerat, Contendo II loudspeakers and more
XDMI AES/EBU to the Homerus DAC

 

XDMI AES/EBU output:

Ahh. So the input being used is the legacy USB.

 

Ahh. So the input being used is the legacy USB.

No, no... To avoid confusion - they were playing their turntable at the time Jason recorded the Aries Cerat video (which is where I took that screenshot from).
It looked like the Olympus was turned off as I did not see the LED lights on the front. But because of the angle and lighting that could have been misleading. Maybe that was early in the morning when they were starting... I have no idea.
But if/when they play the Olympus I would expect to see the DAC on AES/EBU and the lights on the Olympus ON.

Perhaps people in Munich will report soon. We are eagerly awaiting more feedback...

 

Biergarten time!



From left to right:

Ton, Eelco, Christoph, Johannes, Jeroen, Me, Masha, Ed, Ted, Jordy, Dani

 

You guys look like you are having too much fun!

 

Does the Aries Cerat have an XDMI interface?

No not yet.

 

No, no... To avoid confusion - they were playing their turntable at the time Jason recorded the Aries Cerat video (which is where I took that screenshot from).
It looked like the Olympus was turned off as I did not see the LED lights on the front. But because of the angle and lighting that could have been misleading. Maybe that was early in the morning when they were starting... I have no idea.
But if/when they play the Olympus I would expect to see the DAC on AES/EBU and the lights on the Olympus ON.

Perhaps people in Munich will report soon. We are eagerly awaiting more feedback...

They actually prefer to use USB over AES/EBU, I guess implementation plays a role too.. All good, sounds great in that room aswell, like a supercharged Extreme I guess, nothing wrong with that!

 

Biergarten time!

View attachment 130470

From left to right:

Ton, Eelco, Christoph, Johannes, Jeroen, Me, Masha, Ed, Ted, Jordy, Dani

So going to the show is not really about the audio after all, is it?

Steve Z

 

So going to the show is not really about the audio after all, is it?

Steve Z

It’s mainly about Schnitzels and Weizen Beer.

 

I'll shamelessly steal @austinpop's observation that you guys are busy Muenchen on Wurst!

Steve Z

 

It’s mainly about Schnitzels and Weizen Beer.

View attachment 130471

View attachment 130472

 

They actually prefer to use USB over AES/EBU, I guess implementation plays a role too.. All good, sounds great in that room aswell, like a supercharged Extreme I guess, nothing wrong with that!

Strange. I remember the claim that AES XDMI was far superior to USB.

 

Strange. I remember the claim that AES XDMI was far superior to USB.

Surprising.

 

What if?
AC heard xdmi and thought that's as good or better than our new 286k tt?
Ummmm, let's go with usb...

 

What if?
AC heard xdmi and thought that's as good or better than our new 286k tt?
Ummmm, let's go with usb...

Is it 286k? Is that USD or Euro. A bit miffed it isn't 300k if that close.

 

Emile, now with the Olympus running 100% of battery, has the power cord still an audible influence when not recharging?

 

Emile, now with the Olympus running 100% of battery, has the power cord still an audible influence when not recharging?

Here is Emile's answer to that specific question :

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/introducing-olympus-olympus-i-o-a-new-perspective-on-modern-music-playback.37939/post-963707

More usefull info here :

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Olympus-and-Olympus-IO-Introduction-FAQ_v026.x80569.pdf

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Thomas

 

Strange. I remember the claim that AES XDMI was far superior to USB.

It is on the Lampizator Horizon and Totaldac

The thing to remember is how these interfaces are implemented in the DAC.

I wrote about this earlier in the thread, there are some very distinct differences between these interfaces beside practical things like sample rate support.

With AES/EBU and SPDIF the clock is at the source and embedded into the datastream send over the cable. This is then extracted at the receiver, in short, clock jitter will be relatively high.

To address this problem DAC manufacturers can incorporate reclockers on their inputs. Some DACs accept an external clock source, allowing you to use an external masterclock.

A very obvious example is Totaldac, their larger model DACs come with a reclocker by default, you can buy the reclocker seperately to add it to lower priced DACs, some of our customers even use 2 or 3 of these reclockers in series.

With USB I2S is generated inside the DAC, including clock, it’s up to the manufacturer how to further implement this, for which there are multiple options, but obviously jitter can be low to start out with. BUT USB receivers are electrically noisy.

Stavros tells me he optimised his DACs for USB, and yes to my ears it does sound better then AES/EBU, although AES/EBU is smoother, it doesn’t really capture things right in the time domain, as in sounds a bit slow / unexciting. So next up a native implementation for AC dacs!

 

Emile, now with the Olympus running 100% of battery, has the power cord still an audible influence when not recharging?

Yeah still makes a difference, it doesn’t really make or break the performance to the degree it can do with the Extreme, but it still has a very significant impact on tonality.

I just don’t have an explanation for it, wiring matters, and imho it’s most pronounced in powercords.

We actually had a somewhat overly hot top end on Thursday with a silver powercord, changed it to a tinned copper powercord which created a totally different balance. With the silver powercord Daniele changed the tweeter crossovers to the minus setting, with the tinned copper powercord he changed it to the plus setting.

I’ve almost accepted this may be unsolvable.