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".

 

"There's already a version that sounds significantly better than this"

At 5:35

@Taiko Audio what significantly better version is he taking about?

 

Maybe the V2 onboard DAC card that has been alluded to before?

 

"There's already a version that sounds significantly better than this"

At 5:35

@Taiko Audio what significantly better version is he taking about?

The Olympus is a platform - a super-fast computer architecture powered by the absolute best power supply for the application. It runs on batteries, so it's not affected by your mains AC the way other digital components are (or at all).
The XDMI interface card is modular, and there are already four different daughter boards available: analog out, Lampizator Link, SDIF + AES/EBU, and MSB Pro ISL, with a fifth one for Aries Cerat in the works...
Many updates are on the way - some in the form of free software, firmware, driver, or OS updates, and others as hardware upgrades. Taiko has been developing a new XDMI analog daughter board with fully balanced XLR output. But, as with everything Emile works on, once he starts, he doesn’t stop - so the result will be a significant improvement in sound quality for both balanced and unbalanced outputs. That’s what I was referring to in the video.

As for the next big question - when will that XDMI analog upgrade be available? Hopefully by the end of the year, but we don't know for sure yet. Finishing all Olympus orders is the current top priority, and navigating tariffs while ensuring a great customer experience and timely updates is equally important for Taiko right now.

Speaking of tariffs - they already start showing a negative impact on the supply chain, and while Taiko is stocking up, we are hoping the supply chain won't be too disruptive.

Lastly, a quick note: we couldn’t get the weekly email update out on time today, but you’ll receive it tomorrow. I just finished running the projection model for the week and will be sending those to Julien shortly.

 

The Olympus is a platform - a super-fast computer architecture powered by the absolute best power supply for the application. It runs on batteries, so it's not affected by your mains AC the way other digital components are (or at all).
The XDMI interface card is modular, and there are already four different daughter boards available: analog out, Lampizator Link, SDIF + AES/EBU, and MSB Pro ISL, with a fifth one for Aries Cerat in the works...
Many updates are on the way - some in the form of free software, firmware, driver, or OS updates, and others as hardware upgrades. Taiko has been developing a new XDMI analog daughter board with fully balanced XLR output. But, as with everything Emile works on, once he starts, he doesn’t stop - so the result will be a significant improvement in sound quality for both balanced and unbalanced outputs. That’s what I was referring to in the video.

As for the next big question - when will that XDMI analog upgrade be available? Hopefully by the end of the year, but we don't know for sure yet. Finishing all Olympus orders is the current top priority, and navigating tariffs while ensuring a great customer experience and timely updates is equally important for Taiko right now.

Speaking of tariffs - they already start showing a negative impact on the supply chain, and while Taiko is stocking up, we are hoping the supply chain won't be too disruptive.

Lastly, a quick note: we couldn’t get the weekly email update out on time today, but you’ll receive it tomorrow. I just finished running the projection model for the week and will be sending those to Julien shortly.

Thank you for this swift reply @nenon !

Any info whether we can trade-in our analog v1 card towards the newer analog v2 card with XLR output?

Any ballpark figure for the price of the v2 card? Below 1k, 1-5k, over 5k?

 

Thank you for this swift reply @nenon !

Any info whether we can trade-in our analog v1 card towards the newer analog v2 card with XLR output?

Any ballpark figure for the price of the v2 card? Below 1k, 1-5k, over 5k?

All excellent questions. And I would really like to know the answers as much as anyone else here.
Unfortunately, we would not know before the product is finished.

 

Hello! I didn’t see this in the manual and I haven’t been paying the closest attention on WBF lately so apologies if I missed a long discussion on this here, but I would love to hear any feedback / stories on grounding the Olympus. I am aware that Emile has not heard an implementation that he thought made anything better. I have the option to try so I thought I might experiment. @Taiko Audio feel free to elaborate if any of you have since found one that you do like.

Related, and to that end, in the FAQ doc (thanks for sharing @nenon), there is a photo which doesn’t match my Olympus with two ground posts side-by-side next to the IEC. On mine, one is located there (chassis ground?) and the other one (ac/dc power supply?) is more in the middle, close to the USB. Can you reconfirm which does what?

In the FAQ, it says to experiment with the AC/DC post first, not the other one (which is not mentioned again) and: “connect your ground tweak of choice to the ac-dc supply ground will have an effect which may be positive in that particular system or to that particular set of ears.” Ground tweak! Haha. I can feel the judgment!

But seriously, I am curious and think some more explanation would be good. If nothing else, why include dual ground posts that only have negative effects with not a ton of explanation of what they do or intention, etc. Thanks!

 

Good morning everyone:

1) Regarding the order queue: We will maintain the current queue order as is.

2) Regarding tariffs: Since these appear to be highly variable, we’ll determine the most appropriate solution when your order is ready to ship.

3) We would like to politely request that communication be limited to what is absolutely necessary, at least until we’ve worked through the backlog. We are currently in a situation where we’ve managed to achieve a reasonable balance between staff allocation for assembling products and handling support calls in a timely manner. We’d really like to maintain this momentum.

 

Hello! I didn’t see this in the manual and I haven’t been paying the closest attention on WBF lately so apologies if I missed a long discussion on this here, but I would love to hear any feedback / stories on grounding the Olympus. I am aware that Emile has not heard an implementation that he thought made anything better. I have the option to try so I thought I might experiment. @Taiko Audio feel free to elaborate if any of you have since found one that you do like.

Related, and to that end, in the FAQ doc (thanks for sharing @nenon), there is a photo which doesn’t match my Olympus with two ground posts side-by-side next to the IEC. On mine, one is located there (chassis ground?) and the other one (ac/dc power supply?) is more in the middle, close to the USB. Can you reconfirm which does what?

In the FAQ, it says to experiment with the AC/DC post first, not the other one (which is not mentioned again) and: “connect your ground tweak of choice to the ac-dc supply ground will have an effect which may be positive in that particular system or to that particular set of ears.” Ground tweak! Haha. I can feel the judgment!

But seriously, I am curious and think some more explanation would be good. If nothing else, why include dual ground posts that only have negative effects with not a ton of explanation of what they do or intention, etc. Thanks!

Hi @Alex G ,

There's a good reason for these "dual ground posts" as there are 2 separated isolated grounds. The only function of the AC/DC power supply is to charge the battery packs. The battery packs power the electronic circuitry of the Olympus. The battery packs are floating, meaning there is no connection to the AC (safety) ground. You can however create this connection by connecting the 2 ground posts together, this would connect the Olympus circuitry to your AC ("safety") ground.

In the "grounding universe", there are often different tweaks connecting to AC(safety), chassis or signal ground. AC ground tweaks you would therefor connect to the AC ground post (near the AC inlet), signal and chassis ground tweaks you would connect to the signal/chassis ground post (near the USB connector).

Usually, with floating battery power circuitry, you'd like to keep this floating, as this is one of its key advantages.

 

Hi @Alex G ,

There's a good reason for these "dual ground posts" as there are 2 separated isolated grounds. The only function of the AC/DC power supply is to charge the battery packs. The battery packs power the electronic circuitry of the Olympus. The battery packs are floating, meaning there is no connection to the AC (safety) ground. You can however create this connection by connecting the 2 ground posts together, this would connect the Olympus circuitry to your AC ("safety") ground.

In the "grounding universe", there are often different tweaks connecting to AC(safety), chassis or signal ground. AC ground tweaks you would therefor connect to the AC ground post (near the AC inlet), signal and chassis ground tweaks you would connect to the signal/chassis ground post (near the USB connector).

Usually, with floating battery power circuitry, you'd like to keep this floating, as this is one of its key advantages.

Good to know there is a AC ground. Otherwise, I may have connected to my Telos active ground system to both of them.

 

Will Olympus be shown at this week's Axpona ?

 

Will Olympus be shown at this week's Axpona ?

I believe there will be one in Room 1105 but @nenon should confirm.

 

Black coated Olympus + I/O displayed by Ultimate Audio Elite in Portugal the past weekend.

 

Will Olympus be shown at this week's Axpona ?

I believe there will be one in Room 1105 but @nenon should confirm.

There are two Olympus servers at Axpona.

One is in Schaumburg D.
One is in a small room on the 11th floor - room 1105.

 

Black coated Olympus + I/O displayed by Ultimate Audio Elite in Portugal the past weekend.

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They are using Revopods on the Olympus. I am also using Revopods on mine, nice improvement on the sound.

 

I am unfamiliar with the speaker in this room but it sounded amazing. One of the few rooms here where they was no sign of digital smear. The music sounded great, absent of any notion of what source, analog or digital, was being played. And, the analog card was not broken in. Tomorrow we will hear one that is fully broken in.

 

I am unfamiliar with the speaker in this room but it sounded amazing. One of the few rooms here where they was no sign of digital smear. The music sounded great, absent of any notion of what source, analog or digital, was being played. And, the analog card was not broken in. Tomorrow we will hear one that is fully broken in.

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did you have the name of the speakers ?

 

hatten Sie die Namen der Sprecher?

Stenheim Alumine Five

Alumine Five — Stenheim Deutschland

www.stenheim.de

 

Stenheim Alumine Five

Alumine Five — Stenheim Deutschland

www.stenheim.de

Sorry, I made a mistake, it is the Alumine Five SX

Alumine Five SX — Stenheim Deutschland

www.stenheim.de

 

Black coated Olympus + I/O displayed by Ultimate Audio Elite in Portugal the past weekend.

Black coated Olympus + I/O displayed by Ultimate Audio Elite in Portugal the past weekend.

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Based on Ultimate Audio's presentation of the Olympus +I/O + internal DAC, this is the review of "Audio Cinema em Casa”
https://www.audiopt.com/equipamentos/noticias/879/ultimate-sessions-extreme-no-palace-hotel

 

Based on Ultimate Audio's presentation of the Olympus +I/O + internal DAC, this is the review of "Audio Cinema em Casa”
https://www.audiopt.com/equipamentos/noticias/879/ultimate-sessions-extreme-no-palace-hotel

Very interesting impressions, I am also familiar with the Stenheim and the reviewer nails down some of their peculiar features quite accurately. As for what might be the Olympus 'contribution' to the sound, a comment that resonates especially well to what I am hearing here is when he mentions the capability of that system to be very transparent without sounding cold or overly analytical.

This is a major asset of the Olympus (and of the Horizon 360), and in my opinion it strongly relies - among several things - on the body it conveys to sound, across the whole frequency spectrum. Acoustic instruments or the human voice, for example, sound full, weighty, palpable, compact, without being sluggish or overly warm / foggy.

This character gives even to inferior recordings a direct, visceral channel to emotional and physical engagement, evoking listening enjoyment despite conditions not being technically ideal.

Example:

​