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".

 

Hi Emile, you mentioned that the powercord still matters with the Olympus.

Would the quality of the power coming in from the AC also matter since it’s really only feeding the battery charger?

Well beside the galvanic isolation by means of batteries its also triple regulated and has 5 filtration stages. Although 100% immunity does not exist its about as immune as it gets, let’s call it 98%

 

Well beside the galvanic isolation by means of batteries its also triple regulated and has 5 filtration stages. Although 100% immunity does not exist its about as immune as it gets, let’s call it 98%

This is one of the most important things to me. Bad power impacts very significantly my listening pleasure. Midnight is the best time to go and listen.

Also are the components powered together isolated (filtered) from each other?
Like those 2 pci express cards in the main Olympus being on one battery could be filtered from interfering each other by using your technology from the DC distributor.
And they could have a separate voltage regulators.
Just curious how this is optimized.

 

The updated Olympus Introduction and FAQ document is now available from the Downloads section on the Taiko Audio website. As always, it will continue to be updated periodically, if and when new info becomes available.

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/taiko-audio-downloads

 

This is one of the most important things to me. Bad power impacts very significantly my listening pleasure. Midnight is the best time to go and listen.

Also are the components powered together isolated (filtered) from each other?
Like those 2 pci express cards in the main Olympus being on one battery could be filtered from interfering each other by using your technology from the DC distributor.
And they could have a separate voltage regulators.
Just curious how this is optimized.

Feel free to have a close up look inside when you receive yours

 

The updated Olympus Introduction and FAQ document is now available from the Downloads section on the Taiko Audio website. As always, it will continue to be updated periodically, if and when new info becomes available.

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/taiko-audio-downloads

Maybe highlight changed documents with a different color or in bold or with an update date...

 

Yes. Aka you don’t unplug the powercord.

So the battery charging app is not necessary anymore I guess? Because Olympus needs to be charging all the time.

Just curios what’s the best way to use Olympus XDMI server.

 

So the battery charging app is not necessary anymore I guess? Because Olympus needs to be charging all the time.

Just curios what’s the best way to use Olympus XDMI server.

The BPS powering the interface card(s) does not charge continuously, it recharges once a day in a user configurable window, for which you need the app.

 

Feel free to have a close up look inside when you receive yours

I prefer your pictures.
Please add closer look picks if you find a moment.

My Olympus will not be opened.
Prefer to keep it as from factory.
The only exception will be IO to exchange the daughter boards
DAC / AES / Lampi XDMI
And that only to verify what works best in my case. I am quite confident I will return AES after that.
Hopefully build in DAC will be my final solution. If not the XDMI Horizon will be the only other option.

 

I prefer your pictures.
Please add closer look picks if you find a moment.

My Olympus will not be opened.
Prefer to keep it as from factory.
The only exception will be IO to exchange the daughter boards
DAC / AES / Lampi XDMI
And that only to verify what works best in my case. I am quite confident I will return AES after that.
Hopefully build in DAC will be my final solution. If not the XDMI Horizon will be the only other option.

My Horizon XDMI DAC is sitting on the shelf awaiting the arrival of the Olympus ad IO. I too anxiously await hearing Native XDMI and yet having said that by all accounts the analogue board is also quite amazing

 

I prefer your pictures.
Please add closer look picks if you find a moment.

My Olympus will not be opened.
Prefer to keep it as from factory.
The only exception will be IO to exchange the daughter boards
DAC / AES / Lampi XDMI
And that only to verify what works best in my case. I am quite confident I will return AES after that.
Hopefully build in DAC will be my final solution. If not the XDMI Horizon will be the only other option.

Kris, I think Emile doesn't want specific internal pics floating around at this juncture? I could be wrong...

 

My Horizon XDMI DAC is sitting on the shelf awaiting the arrival of the Olympus ad IO. I too anxiously await hearing Native XDMI and yet having said that by all accounts the analogue board is also quite amazing

Will try and compare those two myself.
But need a good preamp for that.
I believe pilium Olympus could be a good pick as many have used their 3 chassis pre in Munich including Taiko room.
Also borrowing Horizon XDMI from Lukasz should not be an issue. I am only 3h drive from his place.

 

Kris, I think Emile doesn't want specific internal pics floating around at this juncture? I could be wrong...

Good point John.
I feel sometimes we are isolated here but in fact there are thousands of people reading and following all of that.
I could imagine the other manufacturers could figure out from everything that is shared here some priceless tips and incorporate them into their designs.

Hopefully with Extreme it was demonstrated it is far ahead of anyone else.
Olympus will be over horizon for the others especially with Horizon XDMI.....

 

Given all the coming gains with the Olympus, not to mention the ones already accomplished with the Router/Switch, I am considering trying something that I haven’t seen discussed.

Soon I am getting a new speaker designed by Mark Porzilli who designed the Pipedreams, Scaena, etc. It is called the Grand Note, and has not been formally released yet. It is essentially a 7' tall omindirectional line array with 140 drivers per speaker front and back in a coaxial design. It goes down to about 35hz and incorporates dual subs, so six channels. Mark says it’s his best speaker yet: super fast, dynamic, ultra low distortion, omnidirectional/linear dispersion. He greatly prefers it with an active crossover.

Given the lengths Taiko has gone to for signal control and purity and given the speaker's somewhat similar overlapping goals, I was curious about what the best active crossover implementation might be with XDMI and whether anyone else was considering this. I am guessing @Taiko Audio will stay from doing this on the Olympus but curious if any active crossover manufacturers like DEQX are in discussion to allow XDMI input.

 

Given the Olympus, not to mention the Router/Switch, I am considering trying something that I haven’t seen discussed.

Soon I am getting a new speaker designed by Mark Porzilli who designed the Pipedreams, Scaena, etc. It is called the Grand Note, and has not been formally released yet. It is essentially a 7' tall omindirectional line array with 140 drivers per speaker front and back in a coaxial design. It goes down to about 35hz and incorporates dual subs, so six channels. Mark says it’s his best speaker yet: super fast, dynamic, vanishing distortion, omnidirectional/linear dispersion. He greatly prefers it with an active crossover.

Given the lengths Taiko has gone to for signal control and purity and given the speaker, I was curious about what the best active crossover implementation might be with XDMI and whether anyone else was considering this. I am guessing @Taiko Audio will stay from doing this on the Olympus but curious if any active crossover manufacturers like DEQX are in discussion to allow XDMI input.

That sounds very impressive. Clarisys has been using an active crossover solution which appears to work very well.

 

Given the Olympus, not to mention the Router/Switch, I am considering trying something that I haven’t seen discussed.

Soon I am getting a new speaker designed by Mark Porzilli who designed the Pipedreams, Scaena, etc. It is called the Grand Note, and has not been formally released yet. It is essentially a 7' tall omindirectional line array with 140 drivers per speaker front and back in a coaxial design. It goes down to about 35hz and incorporates dual subs, so six channels. Mark says it’s his best speaker yet: super fast, dynamic, ultra low distortion, omnidirectional/linear dispersion. He greatly prefers it with an active crossover.

Given the lengths Taiko has gone to for signal control and purity and given the speaker, I was curious about what the best active crossover implementation might be with XDMI and whether anyone else was considering this. I am guessing @Taiko Audio will stay from doing this on the Olympus but curious if any active crossover manufacturers like DEQX are in discussion to allow XDMI input.

If you consider the top solution than probably digital active crossover with DAC could be the answering your call.
Vincent of Totaldac offers active crossovers with DAC.
Contact him. He is very open person.
He can give you some ideas how to set this all together.

 

Given all the coming gains with the Olympus, not to mention the ones already accomplished with the Router/Switch, I am considering trying something that I haven’t seen discussed.

Soon I am getting a new speaker designed by Mark Porzilli who designed the Pipedreams, Scaena, etc. It is called the Grand Note, and has not been formally released yet. It is essentially a 7' tall omindirectional line array with 140 drivers per speaker front and back in a coaxial design. It goes down to about 35hz and incorporates dual subs, so six channels. Mark says it’s his best speaker yet: super fast, dynamic, ultra low distortion, omnidirectional/linear dispersion. He greatly prefers it with an active crossover.

Given the lengths Taiko has gone to for signal control and purity and given the speaker's somewhat similar overlapping goals, I was curious about what the best active crossover implementation might be with XDMI and whether anyone else was considering this. I am guessing @Taiko Audio will stay from doing this on the Olympus but curious if any active crossover manufacturers like DEQX are in discussion to allow XDMI input.

Hey Alex, check this if you haven't yet: https://www.csport.audio/products/products-active_crossover_acn400-en.html
Perhaps discuss with Mark Porzilli if this will work or not.

 

Thanks everyone. I’ve always been curious about TotalDAC. I hear super good things. For now I am committed to Taiko’s DAC implementation and/or Aries Cerat (I have a Kassandra—so hoping I can retrofit XDMI once that happens). That’s why an active crossover in the middle of all this is hard to parse. @nenon thanks have you used that option? Looks good!

 

Thanks everyone. I’ve always been curious about TotalDAC. I hear super good things. For now I am committed to Taiko’s DAC implementation and/or Aries Cerat (I have a Kassandra—so hoping I can retrofit XDMI once that happens). That’s why an active crossover in the middle of all this is hard to parse. @nenon thanks have you used that option? Looks good!

This is the solution as employed/recommended by Clarisys audio as an upgrade over passive crossovers.

 

For those who missed it, @Daniel Gullman started a new thread about the MSB / Taiko cooperation here:

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/msb-and-taiko-lets-go.38824/#post-971373

 

In other news, The Olympus has passed all certification tests which are required to ship by airplane. Admittedly we caught this requirement a bit late, having already passed all safety tests, this actually needs to be performed by a certified Authority specifically for airfreight. For those interested these are the tests:

T1 – Altitude Simulation (Simulation to 50,000 ft altitude atmosphere)
T2 – Thermal Test (12-hour dwell times at -40°C and 72°C, repeated 10 times)
T3 – Vibration (1G from 7Hz to 18Hz, 2g from >18Hz to 200Hz, 3-hour test in each axis)
T4 – Shock (34.6g shock pulses in positive and negative direction)
T5 – External Short Circuit (Pack conditioned at 57C, short maintained for 1-hour or more)
T6 – Impact (dropped from 61cm)
T7 – Overcharge (Charge at twice manufacturer’s recommended current)
T8 – Forced Discharge (12 V power supply connected in series at maximum recommended current)

You have to submit 4 completed products on which all these tests are performed.

Further to this the Battery Management app should appear in the Apple Store / Google Play Store on the 3rd of June.