Taiko Audio · Oldenzaal, the Netherlands
Zen Audio · Australia
Taiko is built in small numbers in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands. We bring it into the country and install it — and it is fully supported by the Taiko team regardless of where you are located around the world.
The flagship — Olympus, and Olympus + I/O
Prices on application — ask us about any model.
Flagship
Taiko's flagship source and the start of a new architecture. Olympus runs an AMD Threadripper core on twin lithium-titanate battery supplies, outputs through the proprietary XDMI interface, and can serve as library, streamer and DAC in one fanless aluminium chassis.
Recognition
Flagship · second chassis
The second chassis that takes Olympus all the way. Olympus I/O moves the XDMI output and network cards into a shielded, battery-powered enclosure of their own, linked to the server by twin 400Gbps QSFP-DD cards over passive copper.
Recognition
Availability
Olympus and Olympus I/O are available now, built to order with a genuine waiting list. Taiko also offer an Olympus I/O upgrade path for existing Extreme owners. Talk to us about current lead times.
Inside
Almost none of this is bought in. Copper where heat has to move, milled aluminium where it must not, batteries instead of a mains supply, and not a single fan anywhere in the chassis.
Reference
The server that set the benchmark and still holds it. Dual Xeon processors split Roon's interface from the audio engine, PCIe storage bypasses the chipset entirely, and a 400VA linear supply and fully passive copper cooling keep the whole thing silent.
Recognition
The house
“Fewer stages between the file and the sound.”
Taiko Audio is a high-end audio laboratory in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands, founded by Emile Bok. What it cannot buy to the standard it wants, it designs and machines itself.
The work goes after the root causes rather than the symptoms: noise, latency and mechanical vibration. Chassis are milled from solid copper and aluminium, supplies are built in-house, and nothing ships until it has been listened to as well as measured.
The team came out of science, engineering and IT rather than traditional hi-fi — which is precisely why the Extreme sounded like nothing else when it arrived, and why Olympus has taken it further again.
“The Taiko Audio SGM Extreme is a musical revelation… it pushes far past the limits of what digital audio can do. The best don’t come cheap… but if you want the best in digital audio, this is it right now!”
XDMI — eXtreme Direct Music Interface
XDMI is Taiko's own replacement for USB. Instead of handing the music to a USB stack and letting it be buffered, reclocked and converted along the way, XDMI takes the bitstream straight out of the CPU over PCIe to a card inside the machine, where it becomes I2S and then either analog or a digital output. Fewer stages between the file and the sound.
Beyond the source
The network and power components built around the servers. Each is a substantial piece of engineering in its own right — added when it is the next thing that will make a difference, not because anything is missing without it. Note there is no separate Olympus router or switch: these serve both generations.
Recognition
Mono & Stereo gave its 2023 award to the Extreme Router, DC Power Distributor and Switch together — the parts of the system that are easiest to dismiss until you hear one removed.
Networking
A router carved from a single block of copper. It builds a dedicated audio-only network for the server and hosts its own carefully tuned Wi-Fi for the Roon control point, so household network traffic never reaches the music.
Recognition
Networking
The plug-and-play way into Taiko's network thinking. The same solid-copper chassis cleans the incoming network and lifts packet processing off the music server. No configuration, and it stacks happily with the Extreme Router.
Recognition
Accessory
User-swappable output boards for Olympus and Olympus I/O. Choose an analog RCA DAC module, a digital AES/EBU plus S/PDIF module, or a bespoke direct-connection module for Lampizator or MSB converters. One card runs at a time.
Power
Not a power supply — a splitter. The DCD lets one good DC supply feed the Switch and Router without cross-contamination, and offers three filtered outputs plus a direct one so you can tune the balance of the system by ear.
Recognition
Accessory
A single-connection PCIe network board for the Extreme, replacing the original SFP card. It carries one SFP+ slot that takes either an RJ45 or a fibre module, and pairs naturally with the Extreme Switch.
Press
On the live site each of these links to the published review.
Hear it
A Taiko source changes things you did not know were being lost. That is a conversation, not a spec-sheet decision.
