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".

 

well done!!! what do you believe the best external storage solution is?

IIRC, (please correct me if Im wrong) Emile said either using the DCD in your sound room or putting a NAS somewhere else in your home are equally effective. I also remember Emile suggested that using internal storage in the Olympus does have a slight negative effect on SQ. As a result I omitted all internal storage and did want to use the DCD with my NAS in the sam room however I my power supply to the DCD, router and switch was not sufficient to also power my NAS . This did cause me some chagrin as I did not want to invest in another LPS to keep my Qnap TS 464 with 16 TB storage in my sound room. I took Emile's advice and moved it downstairs wired into my home router with a cheap RJ45 using port forwarding and to my ears the sound is terrific

 

For those with interest, Part 2 of my Olympus review just got posted:

Reality Quest: Review of the Taiko Audio Olympus Music Server (Part 2 of 2)

Audio: Listen to this article. In Part 1 of this review, I covered what has changed in the Taiko ecosystem in the past four years, dug into the hardware design and more unique aspects of the new Taiko Audio Olympus Music Server, and shared some curious first impressions. In this Part 2, I dig int...

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Great Write up Ray; When you say 1fs or 2fs content regarding Roon configuration. Are you referring to 44/16...96/24 max? With the exception of DSD64...

 

I’m being told by Roon it’s time to update the software to build 1462.

Back in the days before TAS and XDMS and now the Olympus, I approached these Roon solicitations with the utmost caution, Always waiting for other guinea pigs to take the leap first.

Has that paradigm shifted now with the Olympus and I should just go ahead and update?

 

I’m being told by Roon it’s time to update the software to build 1462.

Back in the days before TAS and XDMS and now the Olympus, I approached these Roon solicitations with the utmost caution, Always waiting for other guinea pigs to take the leap first.

Has that paradigm shifted now with the Olympus and I should just go ahead and update?

LOL! I no longer face these updates with trepidation. (maybe a little) However, I don't have the Olympus yet. That situation months ago was an Anomaly. I'm at Build1470 for both the Tablet and Extreme Server...I update whenever I see them without issue...

 

I’m being told by Roon it’s time to update the software to build 1462.

Back in the days before TAS and XDMS and now the Olympus, I approached these Roon solicitations with the utmost caution, Always waiting for other guinea pigs to take the leap first.

Has that paradigm shifted now with the Olympus and I should just go ahead and update?

We highly recommend keeping Roon up to date. That greatly reduces your chance of downtime, a failed Roon update typically only occurs when you skip a number of releases.

 

Great Write up Ray; When you say 1fs or 2fs content regarding Roon configuration. Are you referring to 44/16...96/24 max? With the exception of DSD64...

Yes John, 1fs is 44kHz and 48kHz, and 2fs is 88kHz and 96kHz.

This is how I have XDMI Analog set up in Roon (under advanced)

 

We highly recommend keeping Roon up to date. That greatly reduces your chance of downtime, a failed Roon update typically only occurs when you skip a number of releases.

Less of a concern about failed updates than changes in sound quality Emile. I learned the hard way to wait from an "all clear" from you guys before allowing a Roon update

 

Yes John, 1fs is 44kHz and 48kHz, and 2fs is 88kHz and 96kHz.

This is how I have XDMI Analog set up in Roon (under advanced)

View attachment 138293

Thanks Ray, again GREAT WRITE UP and excellent information that is extremely helpful. Ray you need to get rid of that bottle of Conundrum, it appears you have a nice collection. I saw it again in the photo of when the Olympus arrived...LOL!! Now I'm thinking back, is/was it Conundrum?

 

I’m being told by Roon it’s time to update the software to build 1462.

Back in the days before TAS and XDMS and now the Olympus, I approached these Roon solicitations with the utmost caution, Always waiting for other guinea pigs to take the leap first.

Has that paradigm shifted now with the Olympus and I should just go ahead and update?

I did the update and heard no untoward issues

 

I did the update and heard no untoward issues

Roon sounds pretty damn good. Having said that I must admit that I am missing XDMS

 

Thanks Ray, again GREAT WRITE UP and excellent information that is extremely helpful. Ray you need to get rid of that bottle of Conundrum, it appears you have a nice collection. I saw it again in the photo of when the Olympus arrived...LOL!! Now I'm thinking back, is/was it Conundrum?

Ha, you found my visual pun!

(as an aside, when you have so much wine that you're able to make visual puns with the wine labels, it is time to have people over to enjoy the wine while listening to music)

 

Yes John, 1fs is 44kHz and 48kHz, and 2fs is 88kHz and 96kHz.

This is how I have XDMI Analog set up in Roon (under advanced)

View attachment 138293

Hi Ray,
Great review!
Do you think the same high power draw leading to lack of “magic” apply when using XDMI output to another DAC such as Lampizator HORIZON 360 ?
Would appreciate any insights!

 

Less of a concern about failed updates than changes in sound quality Emile. I learned the hard way to wait from an "all clear" from you guys before allowing a Roon update

Yeah I understand, I guess I was a bit quick on the trigger there.

Those changes are caused by differing network/memory usage patterns, we had to modify OS parameters to adjust to these changes in the past but have now developed hardware solutions to avoid having to do this in the future.

As an added bonus the difference between XDMS and Roon are also more or less gone, though XDMS is currently behind due to it’s file caching mechanism which used to improve SQ in more “old fashioned” designs.

I guess this is not much of a surprise to you falling in line with your conclusions from your incredible deep dive into the workings of the Olympus

 

So awesome, a moat around Roon! Olympus allowing me to use Roon again with confidence is another huge win

 

Hi Ray,
Great review!
Do you think the same high power draw leading to lack of “magic” apply when using XDMI output to another DAC such as Lampizator HORIZON 360 ?
Would appreciate any insights!

I think the high power draw is a proxy for the data processing that is happening in the system. I'm assuming power draw isn't inherently bad, but intense data processing that is causing a lot of interrupts and missed cache hits, etc bring noise to the party

With BPS and XDMI directly wired to i2s for the XDMI analog, we hear that noise directly. The threshold for SQ falling off has me scouring data sheets for the Threadripper + ASUS motherboard chipsets, but this is all speculation right now (no fair pestering Emile about this stuff

I don't know what the XDMI interface to Lamp or MSB or AC looks like. For example, if they are buffering the data input and translating it to what they use internally, I would expect the XDMI impact to be different than XDMI Analog. If they are going direct to their own internal i2s stage, I would expect the impact to be similar.

As usual, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I'm really eager to hear listening reports from XDMI Lamp folks about how it compares to XDMI Analog (does the Horizon 360 have analog input to leverage the same tube stages?)

 

Yes John, 1fs is 44kHz and 48kHz, and 2fs is 88kHz and 96kHz.

This is how I have XDMI Analog set up in Roon (under advanced)

View attachment 138293

Ray...for a dummy like myself why are you not listening to XDMI native. Im using the XDMI digital card direct into my Horizon 360 via the Taiko XDMI port

My preference has always been to listen to a file in the manner in which it is recorded. I have countless files in 24/192 as well as DXD and DSD up to DSD512

 

Steve, I found that with XDMI Analog, any file above 96k or DSD64 sounded worse than the lower resolution version (the XDMI magic started to go away at higher resolutions)

I use Roon to downsample music to 96k and DSD64

Before this, I was listening almost exclusively to DSD512 files, with PGGB for upsampling

As near as I can tell, it takes significantly more processing to play these higher resolution files. This seems to degrade sound quality with XDMI analog

Your experience with XDMI digital may be different. I’m eager to hear XDMI Analog vs XDMI digital in the same system

 

I ordered my Olympus with the minimum internal SSD, and now that I have a SSD NAS, I want to remove the Olympus music SSD. Is there a video or detailed instructions explaining how to safely remove the internal music SSD of the Olympus?

 

any file above 96k or DSD64 sounded worse than the lower resolution version (the XDMI magic started to go away at higher resolutions)

This has always been my experience even with Extreme/Horizon. Higher resolution is pure marketing gimmicks and always sounds worse (because it unnecessarily consumes excessive CPU power, resulting in increased jitters). I believe that optimal format size should be around 24/44.1 or 24/48, but no more than 24/96. (I have many 24/192 albums; they never sound really good; mostly they sound muffled or lumpy; I have in mind the most complex orchestral and choral pieces like Mahler's symphonies and Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem.) Red book format, if done right, should be all we need (because it is well within human hearing range), but margin for errors for the red book format is perhaps smaller. PCM sounds generally better than DSD to my ears even with a delta-sigma DAC like Horizon (because DSD consumes much more CPU and DAC chip power) and uncompressed WAV sounds better than compressed FLAC etc. (because de-compression and conversion in real time with added CPU processing results in increased jitters). Based on extensive experience, I am now convinced that it is the recording quality (no excessive dynamic range compression) or remastering quality (for analog recordings) that is decisive; digital format is of tertiary importance or relevance. I sigh every time I see a 24/192 new or remastered album; hope also that the industry will abandon DSD (which is now limited to small or boutique recording companies largely because, I suspect, they want to sell SACD discs for higher profits).

 

Steve, I found that with XDMI Analog, any file above 96k or DSD64 sounded worse than the lower resolution version (the XDMI magic started to go away at higher resolutions)

I use Roon to downsample music to 96k and DSD64

Before this, I was listening almost exclusively to DSD512 files, with PGGB for upsampling

As near as I can tell, it takes significantly more processing to play these higher resolution files. This seems to degrade sound quality with XDMI analog

Your experience with XDMI digital may be different. I’m eager to hear XDMI Analog vs XDMI digital in the same system

I haven’t heard the analogue card and you haven’t heard the digital card. What I find with XDMI via the digital card is that all formats played native, sound excellent in my system. I don’t look any more nor do I search out formats. I find that with XDMI everything just sounds right to my ears and my analogue board is still in the wrapping in which I received it . When Emile finds time for a week end open house I am looking forward to the comparison of both boards