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".

 

To all of you, which are still waiting, I assure that you’ll be rewarded by a NEW, FRESH, and REFRESHING sound.
Here, the real event of the recording, has never been so noticeable.
I say: USB is dead. Long live XDMI.

 

Steve, with all your anticipation and enthusiasm, I was expecting maybe you’d have a local shaman/priest/rabbi come and bless the thing before bringing it inside! Such an event surely demands a ritual ;-)

Lord, I ask that you make my Wi-Fi connection always strong and never falter, so I can listen to Qobuz via Roon without any annoying buffering.
May I stay on the green side long enough for all my hifi to run in and please give strength to our lord and savior, Emile upon Olympus...

 

Keep it short and sweet.

O-IO Gozaimasu.

 

頑張れ! (Ganbare!)

 

Burn some sage!

people are messaging me to burn some other herb

 

 

I don't drink but I will buy the first round when Emile makes his trek over here to open up my house and get everyone here who wants to hear the Olympus and IO along with native XDMI. My dilemma at the moment is that the IO is ideally placed below the Olympus and my IO came loaded with the digital board and I have the analogue board safely put away. So I will be listening to Taiko Native XDMI here in the next short while and should people come to visit and want to hear the analogue card we will have to lift the Olympus off to achieve that purpose. I was hoping keep the two on separate shelves but I ran out of shelf space and in fact Joe just delivered a new CMS platform that has no load issues with respect to the weight of both the Olympus and IO and I will continue to use the Center Stage LS Ultra 2.25 footers

Steve, why can’t the IO go on top of the Olympus? And Aren’t you curious to compare analog out to the Lampi xdmi?

 

Steve, why can’t the IO go on top of the Olympus? And Aren’t you curious to compare analog out to the Lampi xdmi?

By the manual, the Olympus needs about 7,5cm free above the top cover for heat dissipation.

 

The assumption is that once one decides on which XDMI daughter card they prefer (digital vs DAC vs XDMI) one wont have get inside the I/O. During that comparison time you will.

 

Steve, why can’t the IO go on top of the Olympus? And Aren’t you curious to compare analog out to the Lampi xdmi?

I reached out to Emile before set up to ask the very same question and was told IO on th bottom is preferred as Olympus on top Gives best vibrational environment. That was indeed my concern because yes I do want to hear raw. analogue board.

Having said that it has been a remarkable first day along with a few glitches

I have to admit that I have not listened to Roon other than through XDMS and yesterday out of habit when I was sitting down to listen the first thing I did was open the XDMS app and wondered why I couldn't connect to the XDMS app. DUH!!

It did take a while tobe able to connect to Roon' and along the way I learned a few things that I can pass on. First heavy expensive power cords do not seem to sit well in the IEC due to gravity as the connection with the Olympus seemed to drop in and out. Until I feel more comfortable with both units I have a pair of Chin Cheng power cords to the Olympus and IO

Secondly I have never used QFSP cable before and they look like DAC cables on steroids. I found that I was dropping XDMI on the BPS app and finally realized that one of the cables was not tightly connected. As Emile told me, if you can pull them out without using the white adapter, they are not seated properly. Once that was done by this feeble mind, the heavens parted and Roon was easily found and suddenly the Taiko XDMI diver appeared in the menu and I could immediately connect and play music.

Getting the Extreme off the CMS platform and removing the old CMS platform and installing the newer sturdier platform Joe ad for me that would support the load without a problem , and then boxing up the Extreme and taking it downstairs and then placing this and then the I=Olymosu took my 2 muscle men that I hired all of 25 minutes. This also included putting the Taiko flight cases and the old CmS platform in our storage garage.

As for the wiring it was honestly very staru=ight forward and took me 3o minutes however I warn everyone that the QFSP cable must be tightly locked as I found I could not connect with XDMI or see the XDMI driver in th Roon menu until the Taiko team suggested I confirm the both were tight. Once I realized that indeed one was a few millimeters out of the locked position and remedied that, the XDMI driver appeared in the Roon menu, selected and the rest was history.

Its still very early here and I need to wrap my head around native XDMI via the Horizon as the bar has been readjusted and set s high now that I need to listen again before I can find the words for which I am hearing. And again this will be the firs of any impressions to Native XDMI thanks to the collaboration between Lukasz and Emile. Alos this is with the Horizon XDMI DAC with the Horizon 360 on order and soon to arrive. So bear with me for a while longer as XDMI is like something I have never heard before and I need a little more time and some caffeine

 

For those getting ready to experiment, anyone can do these measurements with the Taiko app (if they have the system configuration of interest)

If you unplug your Olympus, you’re in battery only. The app will show you system battery voltage and current. Multiply these and you have a power reading for the system.

It will also show you xdmi battery voltage and current. These will give power reading for xdmi

Do this in standby, system on but not playing music, and while playing music to analog/usb/xdmi DAC and you’ll get your power numbers for both the system battery and xdmi battery

Since some folks were asking for power consumption data, I did do some measurements

In my setup (Olympus + XDMI Analog + ethernet going to NIC + internal D: drive), I have the following (very rough) power consumption figures

XDMI card ~8W, regardless of what is playing or not playing. XDMI card has its own dedicated BPS.

The System BPS powers everything else (motherboard+CPU, NIC, drives, etc).

Olympus in standby mode ~22W

Olympus powered on but with no music playing ~63W

While playing music through Roon to XDMI Analog, power consumption varies based on the resolution of the music file and whether it is PCM or DSD.

In VERY rough numbers, PCM from my NAS uses ~2microW per bits/second, and ~3microW per bit/second for DSD

For example, redbook audio is 44.1k sample rate and 16 bits per sample. Power consumption to play it back is ~44100 * 16 * 2microW/bit/sec = ~1.4W. DSD64 is 2822MHz sample rate and 1 bit per sample. Power consumption is ~2822000 x 1 x 3uW = ~8W

These are VERY rough numbers, but an order of magnitude on power consumption for those interested


EDIT:
Some quick updates (for those that are interested in these things). The 4TB D: drive in my system consumed ~5W when installed, and I had a USB cable plugged in when I did these measurements, which is an additional ~2W. Drop those from the baseline Olympus power above if you're NAS only.

 

I've spent the past few days now with the Olympus and IO and I m mot sure if anyone else has gotten this combination. I am not able to put into percentages the amount of gain that has been bantered about over these past several months nor am I able to say what the IO contributes over and above the Olympus as I have not heard the Olympus as a standalone. Further I'll let ray Dude enlighten everyone about power consumption as frankly this doesn't interest me other than to say the BPS is like nothing I have ever heard.Previous guesstimates byEmile was the Olympus + XDMI adds 275% over that of the Extreme and then add an IO with XDMI and there is another 25% uptick .

Roon was a relearning experience for me as I have been so used to XDMS and the control app that I had to relearn Roon. For whatever reason yesterday. was initially a problem trying to have the network find my Roon core on Taiko Audio network. Fing was no help a initially the Olympus was offline, so I bypassed Taiko Audio by removing the RJ45 from my router to the Taiko router , , removed the DAC cable from the Taiko switch to the IO input and inserted the RJ45 from the router directly into the IO. Immediately things came to life and the Olympus was online. I then reattached everything so that I was back on Taiko audio networking and Roon core became quickly identified. What was interesting was the Taiko Audio XDMI driver did not show up, only the Taiko USB driver. With help from Ed and Emile and a resort of the Olympus the XDMI driver was there and my KBL XDMI cable was connected to the Horizon. BTW for those about to do the same the XDMI input on the Horizon is input number 6.

Here are some preliminary comment as things are burning inland I am still wrapping my head around this new XDMI interface. Here is what I can say...the uptick is so huge that initially I could not believe what I was hearing. It's like Extreme XDMS using USB on steroids. The sound is so big, so dynamic and so real that I can honestly say for me this was an audio epiphany. As I have said before I prefer to set the output on my Horizon to 63 which passes the full signal. My preamp gain on my Lamm is typically used way down to the 5th position (there are 24)The sound. was so big that I had to redudce the gain on my Horizon to between 52-55 and I found I was turning the gain on my Lamm preamp to 3-4 as the sound is so powerful that I had to find a level that was comfortable. I spoke to Emile about this and he smiled as he told me that the output volume on the Olympus is IDENTICAL to that of the Extreme yet the sheer power and realism of what I heard truly left me speechless. I am presently letting things burn in and settle and while I was basking in what I heard Emile suggested I have a listen via USB as he promised that although not as good as XDMI it was hugely better than what we hear on the Extreme

The instructions say to use one cable or the other but never to have both attached, so hear is another small caveat...it was easy to remove the KBL XDMI cable from the IO but it was a son of a gun to release from the Horizon. There is a small release clasp at the input of the XDMI port and try as hard as I could, it ws tough to release.I reached out to Lukasz who helped me through messing with that little clasping the cable finally was released. I reinserted my Masterbult Ultra USB cable, switched drivers on Roon and the input on the Horizon from 6 to 4 and I was easily back to 63 output on the Horizon and preamp level 5 . There is no question there is a huge jump up in USB via the Olympus. More detail, more dynamics, better bass and highly enjoyable BUT you cant unring a bell. I can tell you if you are awaiting native XDMI the wait will be worth it as the sound is so vastly superior to USB in every way. Yet, having said that, if you never hear XDMI you will be eternally happy with USB. That's all I am going to say for a while as this needs some burn in time so give me a few more days as I continue to try and put words to what I am hearing.

TBH I have not heard the analogue board as my IO is sitting under the Olympus. By all accounts presented here by other users the analogue board is making people sell their DACs. For me however Native XDMI via a tubed DAC created a sound for me that was so different that I believe XDMI will be adopted in the audio arena as the de facto interface. You're all in for a real treat whichever board you use and Im being narrow-minded as have not heard the analogue board, but I have heard the digital board with XDMI native and for me this is the path I'm betting on for me. I might never hear that analogue board until Emile makes his trip out here but honestly...........

 

I've seen the past few days now with the Olympus and IO and I m mot sure if anyone else gas gotten the combination. I am not able to put into percentages the amount of gain that has been bantered about over these past several months nor am I able to say what the IO contributes over and above the oOlympus as I have not heard the Olympus as a standalone. Further I'll let ray Dude enlighten everyone about power consumption as frankly this doesn't interest me other than to say the BPS is like nothing I have ever heard.Previous guesstimates byEmile was the Olympus + XDMI adds 275% over that of the Extreme and then add an IO with XDMI and there is another 25% uptick .

Roon was a relearning experience for me as I have been so used to XDMS and the control app that I had to relearn Roon. For whatever reason yesterday. was initially a problem trying to have the network find my Roon core on Taiko Audio network. Fing was no help a initially the Olympus was offline, so I bypassed Taiko Audio by removing the RJ45 from my router to the Taiko router , , removed the DAC cable from the Taiko switch to the IO input and inserted the RJ45 from the router directly into the IO. Immediately things came to life and the Olympus was online. I then reattached everything so that I was back on Taiko audio networking and Roon core became quickly identified. What was interesting was the Taiko Audio XDMI driver did not show up, only the Taiko USB driver. With help from Ed and Emile and a resort of the Olympus the XDMI driver was there and my KBL XDMI cable was connected to the Horizon. BTW for those about to do the same the XDMI input on the Horizon is input number 6.

Here are some preliminary comment as things are burning inland I am still wrapping my head around this new XDMI interface. Here is what I can say...the uptick is so huge that initially I could not believe what I was hearing. It's like Extreme XDMS using USB on steroids. The sound is so big, so dynamic and so real that I can honestly say for me this was an audio epiphany. As I have said before I prefer to set the output on my Horizon to 63 which passes the full signal. My preamp gain on my Lamm is typically used way down to the 5th position (there are 24)The sound. was so big that I had to redudce the gain on my Horizon to between 52-55 and I found I was turning the gain on my Lamm preamp to 3-4 as the sound is so powerful that I had to find a level that was comfortable. I spoke to Emile about this and he smiled as he told me that the output volume on the Olympus is IDENTICAL to that of the Extreme yet the sheer power and realism of what I heard truly left me speechless. I am presently letting things burn in and settle and while I was basking in what I heard Emile suggested I have a listen via USB as he promised that although not as good as XDMI it was hugely better than what we hear on the Extreme

The instructions say to use one cable or the other but never to have both attached, so hear is another small caveat...it was easy to remove the KBL XDMI cable from the IO but it was a son of a gun to release from the Horizon. There is a small release clasp at the input of the XDMI port and try as hard as I could, it ws tough to release.I reached out to Lukasz who helped me through messing with that little clasping the cable finally was released. I reinserted my Masterbult Ultra USB cable, switched drivers on Roon and the input on the Horizon from 6 to 4 and I was easily back to 63 output on the Horizon and preamp level 5 . There is no question there is a huge jump up in USB via the Olympus. More detail, more dynamics, better bass and highly enjoyable BUT you cant unring a bell. I can tell you if you are awaiting native XDMI the wait will be worth it as the sound is so vastly superior to USB in every way. Yet, having said that, if you never hear XDMI you will be eternally happy with USB. That's all I am going to say for a while as this needs some burn in time so give me a few more days as I continue to try and put words to what I am hearing.

TBH I have not heard the analogue board as my IO is sitting under the Olympus. By all accounts presented here by other users the analogue board is making people sell their DACs. For me however Native XDMI via a tubed DAC created a sound for me that was so different that I believe XDMI will be adopted in the audio arena as the de facto interface. You're all in for a real treat whichever board you use and Im being narrow-minded as have not heard the analogue board, but I have heard the digital board with XDMI native and for me this is the path I'm betting on for me. I might never hear that analogue board until Emile makes his trip out here but honestly...........

Excellent insight Steve...

 

Steve, on that gain situation; Would you consider playing around with some different tubes? I know you like the combo you have been using...Double Triodes...

 

I've seen the past few days now with the Olympus and IO and I m mot sure if anyone else gas gotten the combination. I am not able to put into percentages the amount of gain that has been bantered about over these past several months nor am I able to say what the IO contributes over and above the oOlympus as I have not heard the Olympus as a standalone. Further I'll let ray Dude enlighten everyone about power consumption as frankly this doesn't interest me other than to say the BPS is like nothing I have ever heard.Previous guesstimates byEmile was the Olympus + XDMI adds 275% over that of the Extreme and then add an IO with XDMI and there is another 25% uptick .

Roon was a relearning experience for me as I have been so used to XDMS and the control app that I had to relearn Roon. For whatever reason yesterday. was initially a problem trying to have the network find my Roon core on Taiko Audio network. Fing was no help a initially the Olympus was offline, so I bypassed Taiko Audio by removing the RJ45 from my router to the Taiko router , , removed the DAC cable from the Taiko switch to the IO input and inserted the RJ45 from the router directly into the IO. Immediately things came to life and the Olympus was online. I then reattached everything so that I was back on Taiko audio networking and Roon core became quickly identified. What was interesting was the Taiko Audio XDMI driver did not show up, only the Taiko USB driver. With help from Ed and Emile and a resort of the Olympus the XDMI driver was there and my KBL XDMI cable was connected to the Horizon. BTW for those about to do the same the XDMI input on the Horizon is input number 6.

Here are some preliminary comment as things are burning inland I am still wrapping my head around this new XDMI interface. Here is what I can say...the uptick is so huge that initially I could not believe what I was hearing. It's like Extreme XDMS using USB on steroids. The sound is so big, so dynamic and so real that I can honestly say for me this was an audio epiphany. As I have said before I prefer to set the output on my Horizon to 63 which passes the full signal. My preamp gain on my Lamm is typically used way down to the 5th position (there are 24)The sound. was so big that I had to redudce the gain on my Horizon to between 52-55 and I found I was turning the gain on my Lamm preamp to 3-4 as the sound is so powerful that I had to find a level that was comfortable. I spoke to Emile about this and he smiled as he told me that the output volume on the Olympus is IDENTICAL to that of the Extreme yet the sheer power and realism of what I heard truly left me speechless. I am presently letting things burn in and settle and while I was basking in what I heard Emile suggested I have a listen via USB as he promised that although not as good as XDMI it was hugely better than what we hear on the Extreme

The instructions say to use one cable or the other but never to have both attached, so hear is another small caveat...it was easy to remove the KBL XDMI cable from the IO but it was a son of a gun to release from the Horizon. There is a small release clasp at the input of the XDMI port and try as hard as I could, it ws tough to release.I reached out to Lukasz who helped me through messing with that little clasping the cable finally was released. I reinserted my Masterbult Ultra USB cable, switched drivers on Roon and the input on the Horizon from 6 to 4 and I was easily back to 63 output on the Horizon and preamp level 5 . There is no question there is a huge jump up in USB via the Olympus. More detail, more dynamics, better bass and highly enjoyable BUT you cant unring a bell. I can tell you if you are awaiting native XDMI the wait will be worth it as the sound is so vastly superior to USB in every way. Yet, having said that, if you never hear XDMI you will be eternally happy with USB. That's all I am going to say for a while as this needs some burn in time so give me a few more days as I continue to try and put words to what I am hearing.

TBH I have not heard the analogue board as my IO is sitting under the Olympus. By all accounts presented here by other users the analogue board is making people sell their DACs. For me however Native XDMI via a tubed DAC created a sound for me that was so different that I believe XDMI will be adopted in the audio arena as the de facto interface. You're all in for a real treat whichever board you use and Im being narrow-minded as have not heard the analogue board, but I have heard the digital board with XDMI native and for me this is the path I'm betting on for me. I might never hear that analogue board until Emile makes his trip out here but honestly...........

tantalizing description Steve. thanks for sharing…. imagining steve at about this stage on his current climb of the actual Mt Olympus…

 

Previous guesstimates byEmile was the Olympus + XDMI adds 275% over that of the Extreme and then add an IO with XDMI and there is another 25% uptick

Steve, there were discussions a few months ago about I/O over O. If Emile's percentage estimates at the beginning of this year are still relevant (probably not given the subsequent changes), the I/O improvement over O would be around 9% (because the base line in Emile's numbers is not 0% but 100%, as one member showed the correct math derived from Emile's percentage numbers). Emile put the I/O improvement around 15% a few months ago. What is 10-15% improvement, big or diminished return? There can be no answer to such question because it varies from person to person based on his ears or priority regarding where to spend the extra $ to get the most bang: $23K (I/O) vs. $11K (upgrade from H1 to H360 including the KBL topline 4K euro Taiko Link cable) vs. amp, preamp, speaker or cable upgrade. The $ numbers are rough estimates not including shipping. (Note: KBL XDMI cables now have 2 versions, the 3k and the 4k euro versions).

 

A famous football coach many years ago stated that statistics are for losers. I said what I said so you can parse it however you want. I said I have never heard the Olympus as a stand alone but I also said that the sound of XDMI iwith the IO is so profoundly better than anything I have ever heard that it is truly difficult to wrap words into the feelings. Everyone makes their own decisions so TBH your analogy is your spin on things. The better question to ask is whether the Olympus/IO with native XDMI is 3 fold better than the Extreme with USB. The answer for my ears is unequivocally yes but a wise man also stated YMMV.

 

A famous football coach many years ago stated that statistics are for losers. I said what I said so you can parse it however you want. I said I have never heard the Olympus as a stand alone but I also said that the sound of XDMI iwith the IO is so profoundly better than anything I have ever heard that it is truly difficult to wrap words into the feelings. Everyone makes their own decisions so TBH your analogy is your spin on things. The better question to ask is whether the Olympus/IO with native XDMI is 3 fold better than the Extreme with USB. The answer for my ears is unequivocally yes but a wise man also stated YMMV.

I didn't spin anything but merely pointed out that the 25% improvement purportedly derived from Emile's numbers was based on incorrect math computing or assumption (quite a few had made such assumption, but numbers are stupid, we all know that). If upon comparison (O vs O + I/O) when you get to it you feel that I/O adds 25% to O alone or even more, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, and we will have no conversation about your own perception.

 

A famous football coach many years ago stated that statistics are for losers. I said what I said so you can parse it however you want. I said I have never heard the Olympus as a stand alone but I also said that the sound of XDMI iwith the IO is so profoundly better than anything I have ever heard that it is truly difficult to wrap words into the feelings. Everyone makes their own decisions so TBH your analogy is your spin on things. The better question to ask is whether the Olympus/IO with native XDMI is 3 fold better than the Extreme with USB. The answer for my ears is unequivocally yes but a wise man also stated YMMV.

Steve,
You have far bigger fish to fry at the moment but when you get the chance I'd be curious to hear what kind of difference the Grid Protector makes with the Olympus and I/O. I'm wondering if the Olympus doesn't accomplish some of the same things with it's isolation and reduction in "noise".

 

I didn't spin anything but merely pointed out that the 25% improvement purportedly derived from Emile's numbers was based on incorrect math computing or assumption (quite a few had made such assumption, but numbers are stupid, we all know that). If upon comparison (O vs O + I/O) when you get to it you feel that I/O adds 25% to O alone or even more, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, and we will have no debate on your own perception.

Like I said, spin however you want. You’re a big boy. We all make our own decisions. I said very simply “ could there be a three fold improvement”. It’s tough for me to say that as I’m sure you’ll say that’s my spin but what I heard listening to native XDMI with the O/IO combo was for my ears a true audio epiphany that sounded like Extreme with USB on steroids. Spending the rest of the day listening to O/IO with USB was hugely netter than the same with the Extreme. One would never go wrong if they follow this path but once again you can’t uniting a bell and for me again I’ll say it was a true epiphany. Beyond that there’s nothing more I feel needs comment until this settles in and burning more