Introducing Olympus & Olympus I/O - A new perspective on modern music playback
- Thread starter Taiko Audio
- Start date
The highest number reported as shipped that I can remember off the top of my head is 65. But there has been some backfilling of orders since. Guessing shipments into the high 60’s have occurred. Anxiously awaiting official updates on Monday or so.
The anger and frustration of buyers paying more than 12 months still not receiving is understandable. In my opinion, unless there is some insider information you want to share, it is better keep quiet. The only updates should really come from Taiko.
Like others, I’m in the queue awaiting news my Olympus is being built & shipped. In the meantime my Extreme does not suck. And I have joy of having a Vyger to listen to the black plastic. Life is good.
I do hope the whole issue of anodizing and powder coating gets resolved for team Taiko, I try to have empathy having owned a small business deeply dependent on outsourced parts. Some of the biggest frustrations I had (that really got me spun up at times) were with vendors, reliability, and consistency. F’ me I am glad that part of my life is now in the rear view mirror.
I do hope the whole issue of anodizing and powder coating gets resolved for team Taiko, I try to have empathy having owned a small business deeply dependent on outsourced parts. Some of the biggest frustrations I had (that really got me spun up at times) were with vendors, reliability, and consistency. F’ me I am glad that part of my life is now in the rear view mirror.
The way I recall all the anodizing issues is that silver is more problematic than black
And consider that with an Olympus the top and bottoms need to match, with I/O that adds a third piece to match. That 3rd match is probably why silver Olympus with I/O orders are so slow.
And consider that with an Olympus the top and bottoms need to match, with I/O that adds a third piece to match. That 3rd match is probably why silver Olympus with I/O orders are so slow.
so, it will be bizarre to add I/O in the future as they may never match the colour
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It’s one thing having sympathy for Taiko but imo that is a completely different issue and has no relevance whatsoever.
Emile as a the owner needed to plan for and even expect these issues. The fact that he wasn’t aware of “dangerous goods” protocols prior to taking orders is just ridiculous imo.
Taiko keeps a record of every chassis - everything from the material used to who did the finishing is tracked.
I ordered a black Olympus + I/O. They were produced about 4 months apart (per my request) and they matched 100%.
I can confirm the same for silver Olympus and I/O - these two units were produced 6 months apart, and my eye cannot see any difference.
(I know - I should have used two footers on the back of the Olympus placed where the original feet were, but I did not have a fourth footer)
I was going to get i/o after receiving my #142. Not sure whether they CAN use the same method of coating in the future. A bit loss of faith in Taiko atm..
I totally get it, the situation is rather frustrating.
That said, it all comes down to perspective.
One can see the glass as half full or half empty…
@Taiko Audio is facing some unexpected and frustrating challenges, sure. But it's the fate of any growing company, isn’t it!?
But once again, one can either dwell on delivery delays or choose to focus on the product, which is, believe me, exceptional.
The Taiko Olympus is, without a doubt, an outstanding piece of gear. One might even say out of the ordinary, stricto sensu!
I will take the time to write a review when the time comes (I have the O+I/O , with the network stack).
All I can say, for now, especially to those awaiting their orders, is that the wait is truly worth it. You will not be disappointed.
In the meantime, enjoy the spring!
Music is everywhere, not just in our systems!
Cheers,
Thomas
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Hi Julien, Emile/Taiko,
I cannot accept that an audio manufacturer continues to lie and reply irresponsibly which causing many music lovers to turn their joy into frustration. It is ridiculous that only 1 item could be delivered to Hong Kong customer and keep other customers waiting for so long while I am one of them. I have never seen pre-ordering can be such chaotic before. To be honest I know some people are interested in Olympus and want to pre-order before, they would like to take a step back and considering it seriously after knowing such a long waiting time. As well as the deposit is quite expensive comparing to others.
I cannot accept that an audio manufacturer continues to lie and reply irresponsibly which causing many music lovers to turn their joy into frustration. It is ridiculous that only 1 item could be delivered to Hong Kong customer and keep other customers waiting for so long while I am one of them. I have never seen pre-ordering can be such chaotic before. To be honest I know some people are interested in Olympus and want to pre-order before, they would like to take a step back and considering it seriously after knowing such a long waiting time. As well as the deposit is quite expensive comparing to others.
Dear customers, dear WBF members,
Dear customers from Hong Kong joining the forum,
I wish your reasons for joining were in better spirits, like sharing your experiences with your Olympus server. Nevertheless, I wish you all a warm welcome here.
Let me start with a recap of what’s been going on to get you up to speed without having to read back the whole thread:
The December 2023 Olympus introduction announcement was met with an overwhelming response, followed by an unprecedented number of orders, not just for us, this would be mayor for virtually any boutique manufacturer, reaching around 150 in just 2 or so weeks! For some context, we have built and shipped around 500 Extreme servers, but spread over a 6 year period. Absolutely incredible and I cannot even begin to express how proud and honoured we all felt and still do.
Of these around 110 ended up being firm orders, the counter is at around 160 right now, but those orders have been placed over the course of 2024, averaging at about 1 a week. We’d have little to no trouble producing 1 Olympus a week, the problem is in the first huge batch of 110. Of these we have now shipped 76 (28 of these with an I/O). We have assigned queue numbers but following those does not give a completely accurate picture, some are double / ordered same time, there are also gaps / unallocated queue numbers of people ending up not committing, etc. Fact is of the initial 110 there are now 34 orders remaining to be fulfilled, which are your, by now, 14-month-old orders.
We have faced, and solved, many issues over the past 14 months producing the Olympus, which have been shared in this forum thread, but 1 remains, being a rate limitation in the anodising / finishing of the Olympus chassis. The company who has been doing our anodising for years did the first few chassis, then refused to continue due to the amount of labour involved. As it turns out, the mechanical size and complexity of the Olympus chassis parts exclude it from automated / robotised finishing. Each part takes 4 hours of (skilled) manual labour to finish, that is 8 hours for an Olympus server, 4 hours for an I/O. Europe being Europe, artisan labour has become a precious, hard to find commodity, let alone in quantity.
Now we did manage to find a company willing to finish the Olympus chassis for us, at an exemplary quality level to boot. The owner of this company is an audiophile, he understands the quality requirements and has been willing to invest the time and energy to work with us. They keep records of every part they finish, the colour is the same, even if you’d switch your aluminium alloy, they can produce the same colour. They are perfect for the job. However, a quick calculation shows a very long time required to get through the backlog. They have 2 skilled labourers (his sons) who can produce this finish quality, but obviously they were already allocated to already existing contracts. They offered to work evenings + Saturdays for the remainder of 2024, with an output of 12 chassis parts a week, 2 people, 4 evenings + Saturdays, being for example 6 servers, or 4 servers and 4 I/Os a week.
Unfortunately, we subsequently ran into the, at the time, unexplainable phenomenon of a high chassis rejection rates, which turned out to be caused by mixing issues / contamination in the raw aluminium blocks. This has been “solved” recently, we’re now at a 15% rejection rate. But in 2024, “only” 180 chassis parts have passed QC and have been shipped in the form of the 76 Olympus servers and 28 I/Os mentioned before.
Although the work-in-overtime deal is over, the anodising company has expanded their facilities over the past few months, ordered and installed additional machinery, and has now offered the same 12 chassis parts (being for example 6 servers, or 4 servers and 4 I/Os a week, and now with a ~15% rejection rate).
Next to this we have found another anodising company and a coating company, both of which look like they can produce the quality we’re after.
As for communication, or lack thereof, we have absolutely been struggling with that. Probably not everybody knows that before the launch of the Olympus, Taiko Audio was largely operated by unpaid volunteers, out of passion. Any profit made was invested in R&D and capabilities, which is probably why it’s said we appear to have been moving faster than some others. @Christiaan Punter was the first (and in 2023 only) (part-time) employee under contract / with a salary. Over time, with a slowly but surely growing customer base, it was already starting to be increasingly difficult to keep up with communication. This however got completely out of control with the Olympus announcement. Leaving us no other choice but to aggressively start hiring people. We now have 11 full time employees on the payroll and have purchased and installed a professional helpdesk/ticketing system. 4.75 of the 11 are currently allocated to customer communication, we are now able to reply e-mail/WhatsApp/text enquiries reasonably fast, and we have now started an e-mail list to provide regular updates to everyone who has ordered an Olympus directly. This staff allocation has to be a temporary measure as our sales do not cover an overhead like that, which is why we are in the process of moving towards supplying exclusively to distributors, outsourcing sales and first line customer support to distributors and their respective dealers.
This has become a somewhat longer post then intended, I hope it clarifies what’s been going on behind the incredible response on the launch of the Olympus and the challenges we’ve had to deal with as a result. We’re fully aware the wait has been excruciating long, I do hope you can muster up a little more patience, I would hate to lose you as a customer.
Dear customers from Hong Kong joining the forum,
I wish your reasons for joining were in better spirits, like sharing your experiences with your Olympus server. Nevertheless, I wish you all a warm welcome here.
Let me start with a recap of what’s been going on to get you up to speed without having to read back the whole thread:
The December 2023 Olympus introduction announcement was met with an overwhelming response, followed by an unprecedented number of orders, not just for us, this would be mayor for virtually any boutique manufacturer, reaching around 150 in just 2 or so weeks! For some context, we have built and shipped around 500 Extreme servers, but spread over a 6 year period. Absolutely incredible and I cannot even begin to express how proud and honoured we all felt and still do.
Of these around 110 ended up being firm orders, the counter is at around 160 right now, but those orders have been placed over the course of 2024, averaging at about 1 a week. We’d have little to no trouble producing 1 Olympus a week, the problem is in the first huge batch of 110. Of these we have now shipped 76 (28 of these with an I/O). We have assigned queue numbers but following those does not give a completely accurate picture, some are double / ordered same time, there are also gaps / unallocated queue numbers of people ending up not committing, etc. Fact is of the initial 110 there are now 34 orders remaining to be fulfilled, which are your, by now, 14-month-old orders.
We have faced, and solved, many issues over the past 14 months producing the Olympus, which have been shared in this forum thread, but 1 remains, being a rate limitation in the anodising / finishing of the Olympus chassis. The company who has been doing our anodising for years did the first few chassis, then refused to continue due to the amount of labour involved. As it turns out, the mechanical size and complexity of the Olympus chassis parts exclude it from automated / robotised finishing. Each part takes 4 hours of (skilled) manual labour to finish, that is 8 hours for an Olympus server, 4 hours for an I/O. Europe being Europe, artisan labour has become a precious, hard to find commodity, let alone in quantity.
Now we did manage to find a company willing to finish the Olympus chassis for us, at an exemplary quality level to boot. The owner of this company is an audiophile, he understands the quality requirements and has been willing to invest the time and energy to work with us. They keep records of every part they finish, the colour is the same, even if you’d switch your aluminium alloy, they can produce the same colour. They are perfect for the job. However, a quick calculation shows a very long time required to get through the backlog. They have 2 skilled labourers (his sons) who can produce this finish quality, but obviously they were already allocated to already existing contracts. They offered to work evenings + Saturdays for the remainder of 2024, with an output of 12 chassis parts a week, 2 people, 4 evenings + Saturdays, being for example 6 servers, or 4 servers and 4 I/Os a week.
Unfortunately, we subsequently ran into the, at the time, unexplainable phenomenon of a high chassis rejection rates, which turned out to be caused by mixing issues / contamination in the raw aluminium blocks. This has been “solved” recently, we’re now at a 15% rejection rate. But in 2024, “only” 180 chassis parts have passed QC and have been shipped in the form of the 76 Olympus servers and 28 I/Os mentioned before.
Although the work-in-overtime deal is over, the anodising company has expanded their facilities over the past few months, ordered and installed additional machinery, and has now offered the same 12 chassis parts (being for example 6 servers, or 4 servers and 4 I/Os a week, and now with a ~15% rejection rate).
Next to this we have found another anodising company and a coating company, both of which look like they can produce the quality we’re after.
As for communication, or lack thereof, we have absolutely been struggling with that. Probably not everybody knows that before the launch of the Olympus, Taiko Audio was largely operated by unpaid volunteers, out of passion. Any profit made was invested in R&D and capabilities, which is probably why it’s said we appear to have been moving faster than some others. @Christiaan Punter was the first (and in 2023 only) (part-time) employee under contract / with a salary. Over time, with a slowly but surely growing customer base, it was already starting to be increasingly difficult to keep up with communication. This however got completely out of control with the Olympus announcement. Leaving us no other choice but to aggressively start hiring people. We now have 11 full time employees on the payroll and have purchased and installed a professional helpdesk/ticketing system. 4.75 of the 11 are currently allocated to customer communication, we are now able to reply e-mail/WhatsApp/text enquiries reasonably fast, and we have now started an e-mail list to provide regular updates to everyone who has ordered an Olympus directly. This staff allocation has to be a temporary measure as our sales do not cover an overhead like that, which is why we are in the process of moving towards supplying exclusively to distributors, outsourcing sales and first line customer support to distributors and their respective dealers.
This has become a somewhat longer post then intended, I hope it clarifies what’s been going on behind the incredible response on the launch of the Olympus and the challenges we’ve had to deal with as a result. We’re fully aware the wait has been excruciating long, I do hope you can muster up a little more patience, I would hate to lose you as a customer.
Quick question regarding the RCA XDMI output board: if one is currently using a preamp with only balanced inputs, is there any theoretical advantage to having an RCA cable designed with RCA outputs and balanced inputs (as opposed to just using an RCA to XLR converter at the end)? I realize this isn't a straight-forward question, apparently, because some "balanced inputs" are actually single-ended, I've been told. And I guess the impedance and voltage values of the single-ended outputs come into play. Obviously, I don't understand some of the technical factors involved. But I know some of you do! So, thoughts, please.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
Indeed, the server and its output boards will burn in as long as the cables are connected. In essence, the connections just need to be terminated at the receiving end so they present a load, whether that is a preamp, DAC, or integrated amplifier. Whether these receiving components are on or off, does not matter for the running in process. The only exception is USB, which requires an active receiver. With most brands, that means the DAC needs to be on.
Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
XLR uses a positive signal, a negative signal (inverted), and ground. To use a balanced input on a preamp with an unbalanced signal, the negative input pin of the preamp (usually pin 3, but it can be pin 2 on some equipment) needs to be connected to ground (pin 1). This can be done at the source end of the destination end, which, technically does not make a difference. It should also not make a difference whether an adapter connector is used at the source (along with a balanced cable), or at the destination (along with a single-ended cable). Obviously, the adapter connector does introduce a contact transition which in itself will be audible.
However, when using an RCA to XLR cable with the pin connection done at the source end, there are two conductors between the termination, and when done at the destination end, it is more like connecting with a single-ended cable. The properties of the cable that is used will have an influence on this and the audible effect can be different when used one way versus the other. Ultimately, this is a matter of personal preference.
On a related note, we are working on an output stage with Balanced XLR connections. It will be modular, so easy to swap later.
Hi Emile,
Thanks for your long reply.
However I don't think all the Hong Kong customers are satisfied.
You have given us detailed explanation of the causes of the production delay.
However what the HK customers, and maybe all overseas customers really need is Taiko's plan to clear the backlogs!
Currently Volent Audio, the Taiko dealer in Hong Kong is subjected to tremendous pressure from the HK customers who had placed pre-orders & paid down-payment.
I guess Nenon will soon be in the same situation.
Communication by individual emails is inadequate.
In fact I have not received any such update email up till now, despite I gave my email to Taiko's communication team last Thursday (6th March).
IMO the communication must be fast, regular, open & transparent. It should preferably be directly from you or Edward because we trust only the two of you.
Please consider to update us regularly on WBF instead of sending info to dealers or individual customers.
Many thanks!
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