Lukasz Fikus – LampizatOr writes: “It’s been a week since I got my Taiko Audio Olympus and in the meantime, I had to fight the weather anomalies, trees falling, electricity blacking out, etc. Anyway, after a week I feel like I am getting a hint of what is happening with the Olympus.
Just to remind you – what I have is an XDMI link to Lampizator DAC and USB ports which are – according to Emile – nonaudiophile, just for technical reasons like inserting HDD or pendrive. Anyway – this USB plays music as well.
My worst problem was that I could not understand why on some occasions I was in a. state of bliss on other occasions – I was just okay. It seems like the sound quality very strongly depends on the battery system voltage which in turn depends on the level of charge. The higher charge the better sound. For my first two days, I was using the Olympus at below 5% charge because from a cold start – it is how high it will go in one hour. If you charge without listening – it goes up faster.
So as soon as the Olympus would show up in Roon – I would IMPATIENTLY listen. That was a wrong approach. The next level of quality is when the Olympus gets charged to 80% or so – things get really interesting. But eventually, the Olympus will charge enough and disengage the charger, and glide without engines – on battery power alone. That’s the real McCoy. My problem is that I don’t know when these things happen because there is no display. I had to learn to use their app which monitors batteries, chargers, currents, voltages, etc. The app is free (the only free thing with Taiko and easy to use.
Another thing I did not have is an Extreme server for reference so I was using Lampizator Gulfstream which I know very well.
Back to the “hated” USB port- say what you want or sue me but it sounds fantastic. It does something that my Gulfstream could only dream of – the bass and space is so awesome, and the presentation is so not-digital that I really love it. As a lover of USB, I can only dream that Taiko would provide the “audiophile-approved” USB card in addition to these USB motherboard ports.
Now switching to XDMI with the (Taikoized) Horizon DAC. We enter different realms. I can only compare it to enhancing the listening session with a small puff of weed. Things become so whooooaaa spooky. To fully appreciate its sound I suggest a completely dark room and a relaxed state of mind. We change the so-called “they are here” experience with “you are there” and it is for me the goal of being in this hobby. (my hobby is listening to music because my business is managing the factory). The idea of having Jimi Hendrix in my room is interesting, but the goal is to travel in time and space and to be in Woodstock in person.
I honestly don’t know if the bass is deeper, if frequency response is wider, if signal to noise is better, if THD is better, if jitter is lower, if dynamic range is improved – I swim in music and don’t have a care in this world.
I can imagine it may not be for everyone, like close encounters with musicians in your room would not be welcome by introverts and sociopaths. For ME and I speak only for myself – this is the ultimate fun machine. We will NEVER agree unanimously – like with my other hobby sailing – some people like sailboats, others prefer motorboats, others love catamarans, or god forbid windsurfing. Similarly, with audio – the endless quarrels between SS versus tube people, horns versus planars, headphones versus speakers, silver cables versus copper, op-amped DACs versus no-feedback – there is never any consensus. I predict that an equal 1/3rd of people will love Taiko analog out, 1/3rd will like XDMI to tubed DAC, and 1/3 will like USB to SS DAC or something like that. If you are a person who “normally agrees with Lukasz Fikus’ idea of sound – you will probably love the Lampizator+Olympus path. I heard before about the Taiko analog output and it was super exciting but I prefer Horizon.
Emile uses also Horizon in his system. If this is telling you something. And I will be fine if many people disagree with me because I can not produce tens of horizons per month anyway. My takeaway advice for the Horizon users: let the Olympus charge and stabilize for a minimum of 24 hrs from unpacking. Get the best XDMI cable you can – these are really important. Don’t expect miracles because miracles don’t happen. Do expect that you will never go back. Tell your family they won’t see you any time soon. Stash food supplies and water.”
