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".

 

I am not Emile but this is a great opportunity to back up the music on your Extreme hard drive to an external drive or NAS. Once you do that you can simply attach the drive to your Olympus and copy the files to its internal drive. Win win.

And, later when the router firmware permits, plug it into the USB router port and compare the SQ with the one from the Olympus stored files. It's externally powered too.

 

@Taiko Audio I recall your mentioning of a provided adapter with which we could connect the Extreme and the Olympus storage drives and have the files copied directly from the former to the latter via a computer. The details of my recollection may be wrong, but the provision of an adapter is remembered clearly. I don't have a NAS and do not intend to have one - and I am technically challenged too - to keep life simple (that's the other reason for me to use internal storage exclusively in addition to music listening mode).

 

Like @marty I am also Technically Challenged. Extremely bad specimen! I find it amazing that relatively intelligent people have such a hard time grasping some of this, most of this! So David one can extract the files from the Extreme (breaking it down like I'm a 3rd grader) to the NAS then load it to the Olympus? LOL!! Sad sate of affairs! Then save your files on the NAS?

The Extreme (and Olympus) are computers. The music files in the Extreme reside on a hard drive. You can copy and paste any files from the Extreme hard drive to any other drive you can see in Windows File Explorer.

 

@Taiko Audio I recall your mentioning of a provided adapter with which we could connect the Extreme and the Olympus storage drives and have the files copied directly from the former to the latter via a computer. The details of my recollection may be wrong, but the provision of an adapter is remembered clearly. I don't have a NAS and do not intend to have one - and I am technically challenged too - to keep life simple (that's the other reason for me to use internal storage exclusively in addition to music listening mode).

Emile will have to explain the adapter but you should have your music files backed up on another drive. If you don’t and the internal drives fail your music will be lost.

 

I get it, copy and paste never occurred to me, Thank You for the reply...

It is the reverse of how you add music to your Extreme (or Olympus) drives. I assume you have done that?

 

Yes I did...

Then you are all set!

 

Emile will have to explain the adapter but you should have your music files backed up on another drive. If you don’t and the internal drives fail your music will be lost.

Yes, I have several 5TB USB3 external drives and one 8TB AC-powered external drive. Back up periodically (or need to remind myself to do so) in 2 copies of each 5TBs (so far, I divide composers from A to L for HD1, and from M to Z to HD2). Then what is saved in the Olympus internal HD (contemplated to be 8TB) would be the core of my much bigger library (including loads of unprocessed music files), to be backed by that 8TB powered HD. The back up this way is obviously not in real time, which would involve the use of an NAS/RAID (of which I know little). There are innumerable risks in life - lightning strikes, road accidents, heart attacks.... To think too hard or too much about them would hamper living and listening. Want to keep life simple for simpletons like myself.

 

Maybe, but Emile mentioned that his implementation would most likely require no modification of his DACs in the field.

And it wouldn’t if it was a connection from the Olympus to a separate box which then connected to the DAC - I’m only guessing here but would save people returning DAC’s or trying to deal with retro-fitting inside DACs

 

But the big question is how “that box” is connected to the Aries Cerat DAC. Spdif Emile said no. USB would be going against the XDMI philosophy. Another new entry would involve sending the DAC to Aries Cerat. Intriguing!

 

But the big question is how “that box” is connected to the Aries Cerat DAC. Spdif Emile said no. USB would be going against the XDMI philosophy. Another new entry would involve sending the DAC to Aries Cerat. Intriguing!

I2S is quite capable.
If that's the case there will be no conversion.
USB, AES and Spidf needs conversion from i2s.

 

But that would mean sending the Dac to Cyprus. Apart from that much distance from the box to the DAC chips, it is not ideal for an I2s connection.
Frankly this is an “enigma”

 

The Extreme (and Olympus) are computers. The music files in the Extreme reside on a hard drive. You can copy and paste any files from the Extreme hard drive to any other drive you can see in Windows File Explorer.

I know it doesn't phase a techno competent individual such as yourself, but all operational commands in the Extreme are Windows based.. Since I'm a MAC guy, that's yet another worrisome thing for me. Believe me, cloning a gene is easier!

 

To those who have deep experience of such matters, could you please share your knowledge. Emile informed that certain kinds of hard drive (apparently solid-state ones) may die if not powered on regularly. Other than the solid-state HD in the coming Olympus, all my hard drives are magnetic (USB-powered 5TB bricks and an AC-powered 8TB larger brick). If I leave them on all the time (I can learn to use that 8TB to do real-time backup of Olympus' internal hard drive in a NAS setup), will such magnetic HDs die sooner or live longer?

 

@marty I would feel the same way if it was Mac-based. I am making a copy of my Extreme music database as I write this post.

I bought a 5TB WDRed USB drive and connected it to the Extreme using the USB3 cable that came with the device. Because it was easiest to reach, I used the Lan2 "group" of ports.

I then used the VNC viewer on my laptop to remotely connect to the Extreme. This was/is an existing tool used to get into the Extreme. You may have used it before, or the Taiko guys would have.

Then I navigate using my mouse, which moves the cursor on the Extreme.

In summary, I just connected a USB external drive to a computer (Extreme). The VNC is just a remote control trick. You're just finding your music folder and finding your USB device, and executing the copy command.

Could be a small hitch: you may have to add the driver for the USB drive to the Extreme to make it happen. You will get a prompt to follow...click on the Windows option and in a few seconds, it will download and be ready.

Then copy from "music" to USB drive. I am not the best person to outline this here, but perhaps it will stimulate those with deeper knowledge/ability in this area. Good Luck!

 

For those who have deep experience of such matters, could you please share your knowledge. Emile informed that certain kinds of hard drive (apparently solid-state ones) may die if not powered on regularly. Other than the solid-state HD in the coming Olympus, all my hard drives are magnetic (USB-powered 5TB bricks and an AC-powered 8TB larger brick). If I leave them on all the time (I can learn to use that 8TB to do real-time backup of Olympus' internal hard drive in a NAS setup), will such magnetic HDs die sooner or live longer?

If you're using a NAS, that will be on all the time. That said, any drive, HDD or SSD can die or get corrupted. I might suggest you chose the type of drive you use based upon other factors, e.g., cost, noise, and convenience, and make sure you back up. I back up on portable USB SSDs, a NAS that uses HDD, and AWS Glacier. The latter is inexpensive - a few dollars a month for multiple terabytes, protects you in case of cstastrophe, and has an overwhelminly low chance of being lost. The negative is that should you need to retrieve the data it's slow and usage isn't always intuitive. However, you have peace of mind should anything happen to your home.

 

@marty I would feel the same way if it was Mac-based. I am making a copy of my Extreme music database as I write this post.

I bought a 5TB WDRed USB drive and connected it to the Extreme using the USB3 cable that came with the device. Because it was easiest to reach, I used the Lan2 "group" of ports.

Just an FYI. The USB ports do not correspond to the Lan1 and Lan2. That is just for the ethernet ports.

Everything else you explained is right.

 

...yes, thanks D. That's why I wrote: group...that collection of connections...but yes: use the USB, of course. Thank you, because these things need to be explicit, or they can be frustrating.

 

If you're using a NAS, that will be on all the time. That said, any drive, HDD or SSD can die or get corrupted. I might suggest you chose the type of drive you use based upon other factors, e.g., cost, noise, and convenience, and make sure you back up. I back up on portable USB SSDs, a NAS that uses HDD, and AWS Glacier. The latter is inexpensive - a few dollars a month for multiple terabytes, protects you in case of cstastrophe, and has an overwhelminly low chance of being lost. The negative is that should you need to retrieve the data it's slow and usage isn't always intuitive. However, you have peace of mind should anything happen to your home.

I will say, however, the USB thumb drives I've used have been by far the least reliable. I don't know if that is just bad luck on my part or a more common phenomenon. I've had much better luck with internal and portable hard drives, both SSD and HDD.

 

I will say, however, the USB thumb drives I've used have been by far the least reliable. I don't know if that is just bad luck on my part or a more common phenomenon. I've had much better luck with internal and portable hard drives, both SSD and HDD.

Thanks for the AWS Glacier information. The cheapest is $0.00099 per GB, so for 10TB, the cost would be roughly $10 per month (albeit with glacially slow retrieval, pun intended)? That may be a good option.

 

Thanks for the AWS Glacier information. The cheapest is $0.00099 per GB, so for 10TB, the cost would be roughly $10 per month (albeit with glacially slow retrieval, pun intended)? That may be a good option.

Synology has a Glacier backup app.