Introducing Olympus & Olympus I/O - A new perspective on modern music playback

[Di-fi]

Indeed, and with using the very good SEARCH I always found what I was looking for...

Thanks. I’ll leave it at this, but just to clarify—WBF’s search is powerful and definitely helps when you know what to look for. But for a brand like Taiko, with such advanced and evolving gear,, I think search alone doesn’t really cut it.

The real issue is the overall layout and interface—it’s hard to get a clear visual overview of what's current, what applies to which product, or how things have progressed over time. WBF is a mix of great insights, side discussions, and buried updates. It’s just not easy to navigate in a meaningful, visual way.

That’s where a dedicated Taiko team managed forum really adds value. It gives users:

• Pinned, organized updates by product
• Clear firmware/software version tracking
• Structured guides and FAQs
• Separate spaces for support vs. general discussion
• Bookmarks, notes, and timeline tools to keep track of key info
• AI-supported search to help surface relevant info faster and more intelligently

Not saying WBF isn’t valuable—it absolutely is—but a more purpose-built Taiko platform would go a long way in making things easier and clearer for everyone. And of course, all of this is in service of what matters most—enjoying the music.

 

[dminches]

As time goes on I think a lot of what you are asking for will be developed. It just takes time and man power, most of which is likely devoted to building and supporting the current Taiko products.

 

[2ndLiner]

I actually think Taiko has outgrown a purely forum-based platform. Between this thread and the Crème de la Crème thread, there are nearly 5 million views and over 1300 pages. In my opinion, some of this content really needs to evolve into more structured, informational videos.

An "Ask Emile" series - similar to PS Audio’s "Ask Paul" - could be a great direction. Of course, the forum would still remain essential for everything else. Needless to say, all of your feedback is incredibly valuable, even when we occasionally disagree.

The challenge is that Emile doesn’t have the time to take that on. So maybe... “Ask Nenon”?
Just kidding - the two people who want to hear from me already call me daily.

Methinks you need to add a couple of zeroes to that two, Vassil

 

[cmarin]

#92 arrived earlier than expected on Monday. A quick run to Chicago and back lead to a midnight install of the 145 lb. package myself. Oof! This is not a featherweight like the Extreme.

With months of anticipation it was done in a flash. Morning was the first attempt to operate. There was a small glitch to work through and Nenon did not hesitate to assist immediately. A short bit later I was up and running. Much thanks to Nenon and the factory for making this quick work. None better.

I’m running-in with the analog out card. After three plus days of continuous playback, it's improving steadily. It’s been said before, don’t be quick to judge analog out. Initially it was silky smooth, but the sound hit the ditch quickly after. Regardless, it’s easy to hear the potential. Unwavering is the immense spatial presentation with a solid, visceral low end that I’ve never had here before. This will be fun. Micro detail is starting to reappear, but all along I’m hearing new things. Very curious to find out how much farther this goes.

Farther and farther...and beyond

 

[Di-fi]

As time goes on I think a lot of what you are asking for will be developed. It just takes time and man power, most of which is likely devoted to building and supporting the current Taiko products.

Totally agree—it’s clear the team’s focus has to be on engineering and product support. That’s where their expertise really shines. But that’s also exactly why it might make sense to bring in someone with a different skill set—maybe a technical copywriter, content person/strategist—who can help build and maintain a more dynamic, structured layer of info.

Christiaan clearly does a lot—and it shows. But working with PDFs and the WBF forum format has real limits. These tools weren’t really meant for structured, evolving documentation or for quick navigation. And I think that’s something more and more users just sort of expect now.

The TAIKO website looks great, no doubt, but it’s more like a catalog than an interactive platform. With support pages off-site and updates only in PDFs, it’s kinda missing a chance to be a real-time, searchable hub. For Taiko, improving that part could be a real edge—and honestly, it doesn’t seem out of reach at all.

 

[nonesup]

Since Taiko has to increase staff to meet our requests, Olympus will be set at €150,000.

 

[Di-fi]

Ha, ha. Totally get where you're coming from—but I don’t think better communication necessarily means more cost passed on to the product. It’s not just overhead—it’s actually leverage. When people can find clear answers, understand what they're buying, and feel confident using it, it often reduces support load and increases sales. A small investment in structure and clarity can go a long way—for both users and the company.

 

[Di-fi]

Thanks for reading all—I only bring this up because I believe in what Taiko’s doing. Just hoping we keep moving toward even better clarity and support.

 

[oldmustang]

Scale good.
Words bad.
% misleading.
Brevity good.

Four legs good, two legs bad.

Steve Z

 

[matthias]

The TAIKO website looks great, no doubt, but it’s more like a catalog than an interactive platform.

Maybe you can ask Taiko to be their web designer?

 

[Taiko Audio]

I still have faith that when the software of the router will be updated, we can obtain a great SQ from a USB disk attached to it.
Emile, whenever possible, please don’t forget this task on your to do list. Thank you.

Hi @Armsan ,

We completed this update some time ago.

However, since launching it will undoubtedly require substantial initial support, we’ve decided to postpone the launch—alongside several other updates and releases.

Our top priority, and where we must focus our full effort, is serving those who are still waiting for their Olympus.

 

[dminches]

I have had my Olympus for 10 days and I didn’t want to post any impressions too early in the process.

Today’s listen session exposed to me what this technological masterpiece can deliver. What I am hearing today is a more relaxed presentation to the music. More detail in the layers. Bass is tighter. The cymbals are very real sounding with absolutely no harshness. It sounds simple but the music is just flowing. I think there is a lot more to come given that it has only been 10 days and probably only 6 days of real listening. Side note: I am listening to the Horizon via XDMI. I haven’t put in the DAC card yet and probably won’t for a while more.

 

[oldmustang]

Indeed, that is my suspicion as well and there were some instances of slow loading, skipped tracks after time outs and other strange behavior with Roon that, so far, haven't repeated since I disabled the NAS as a storage path in Roon.

When I get a new drive into the NAS and the RAID 6 is rebuilt I'll see what happens.

Steve Z

Circling back to this -- after the first replacement hard drive turned out to be incompatible with my older N5550 NAS I finally found one with the correct edge connector and installed it. One nice thing about the Thecus is that you can simply hot-swap a new drive for old and the RAID automatically starts rebuilding itself with no further action needed.

One of the reasons I opted for RAID6 vice RAID5 is that RAID6 can sustain two simultaneous hard drive failures without loss of data where RAID5 can only sustain one drive failure. Since rebuilding the RAID puts the other drives into a near-100% duty cycle for the duration of the process it is putting max stress on the other drives of the same age as the one that failed, making this a high probability time for another failure occur.

The rebuild completed with no untoward events (I make sure the NAS is on a fully charged uninterruptible power supply, just in case) and after once again activating the path from Roon to the NAS in Roon Settings > Storage and letting Roon completely re-scan the NAS and then doing a forced backup, Roon Settings > Backup > Backup Now, I settled down to listen.

Result, no degradation of sound quality with the NAS being an active storage location again. And in fact I'd say that SQ has taken a nice little bump up, which might be attributable to the newest version of Roon (1528) which was released while I still had the NAS disconnected from Roon.

All's well that ends well.

Steve Z

 

[simorag]

@Taiko Audio , are there going to be rooms at the Munich High End show next week featuring the Olympus?

 

[John T]

@Taiko Audio/@JulienVermeiren forgive my enthusiasm; As last reported by Julien the latest batch (I'm 98) was waiting on a part that was supposed to arrive early last week. Is that "batch" in fact ready/close in heading out the door?

 

[dminches]

Has anyone removed the XDMI card from the Olympus to swap out daughter boards? I have the top off but the card is in so tight. I don’t want to risk damaging anything. Minor force upwards is not causing the card to move at all.

 

[RUIN*ish]

Has anyone removed the XDMI card from the Olympus to swap out daughter boards? I have the top off but the card is in so tight. I don’t want to risk damaging anything. Minor force upwards is not causing the card to move at all.

There are 6 screws behind the back of the card. On the back of the Olympus.
Have you removed those?

 

[John T]

Has anyone removed the XDMI card from the Olympus to swap out daughter boards? I have the top off but the card is in so tight. I don’t want to risk damaging anything. Minor force upwards is not causing the card to move at all.

Can you share a pic?

 

[John T]

There are 6 screws behind the back of the card. On the back of the Olympus.
Have you removed those?

That's why I asked for a pic...

 

[dminches]

There are 6 screws behind the back of the card. On the back of the Olympus.
Have you removed those?

Thank you. I am not sure how I read right over that!