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 voted today.

I renewed Roon with a lifetime subscription.

Olympus 2025 or bust!

 

After many years of avoidance, I wrote the big Roon lifetime check earlier this year. One of the many true joys of Olympus ownership is being able to use Roon again (music discovery is just so delightful)

Brings to mind to a favorite poem from Mary Oliver...Joy is not made to be a crumb


If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate.
Give in to it.
There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.
We are not wise, and not very often kind.
And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left.
Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world.
It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins.
Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty.
Joy is not made to be a crumb.

~ Mary Oliver

 

I wrote that check during the intial Roon roll-out some years ago to get the discounted life-time membership.

I finally feel like that decision was validated.

Steve Z

 

Is there a thread where comments about the meeting at Steve's house are being posted?

 

Is there a thread where comments about the meeting at Steve's house are being posted?

Here:
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...ampizator-horizon-360-taiko-olympus-io.39385/

 

Here:
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...ampizator-horizon-360-taiko-olympus-io.39385/

Thank you

 

hopefully in the future there will be a thread where we will be posting about our weekend at my house with Emile

 

Few issues with O + IO
1.
After logging in to my Olympus with Roon I found ZERO of my Playlists.
I have found Ray-dude public test tracks so I use it now .
Great music Ray !
Will ask Ed to help or someone from Taiko Team.
2.
My IO AES works flawless to my Totaldac D-24.
Unfortunately Spdif is dead for some reason. There is no signal nor clock.
3.
BPS app on new android phones such as Fold 6 is not recognizing any of the batteries. Bluetooth sees them as devices but not the app.
Is permanently trying to find them but can't for some reason.
The back door is to use older ipad or phone and it works .

Other than that. OLYMPUS + Olympus IO is crazy good being cold with only 1 hour of burning in.
The potential you hear that is hidden there behind fresh parts is gigantic. Can't wait for that to open up.

 

hopefully in the future there will be a thread where we will be posting about our weekend at my house with Emile

Looking forward to this Steve!

 

On a different but related topic -- I have been successfully playing digital music via SPDIF from the XDMI digital daughter card. However, when I unplug the SPDIF cable and try to use an AES cable my Vivaldi gives me a "Non-Audio" message and no music plays even though Roon says it is playing an active track. dCS advises me that my set up of the Vivaldi for AES is correct.

I will try a different cable to be sure (though the one I have is brand new). Is the XDMI digital daughter card AES output simply in parallel with the SFDIF or are they being processed or routed differently inside the Taiko XDMI digital daughter card?

The reason I ask is that dCS tell me the "Non-Audio" flag is one of several flags in the bit stream, such as "Single-AES", or "Dual-AES" and that it seems strange to them the Non-Audio flag would be set for AES but not for SPDIF.

Regardless, SPDIF to Vivaldi from Olympus sounds great!

Thanks!

Steve Z

Steve, may I ask - when you first started listening to your Olympus with your first remarks on what you were hearing, was that on aes/ebu or spdif? Also, what has been the most recent NAS you’ve been using, if any, and how’s your research on a fanless variant going?

Emile, on an aside, if I choose to use my dcd to power taiko router, switch and twin hard drive NAS of 22W access/running consumption, might a farad super 6 power supply work for all three with sufficient overhead? In line with everything I’ve been reading about power and how too much of it damages sound quality, I’m researching a power supply that is just enough (with peaks) to power the dcd and the threesome it will feed.

Thank you both! - kevin

 

Steve, may I ask - when you first started listening to your Olympus with your first remarks on what you were hearing, was that on aes/ebu or spdif? Also, what has been the most recent NAS you’ve been using, if any, and how’s your research on a fanless variant going?

Emile, on an aside, if I choose to use my dcd to power taiko router, switch and twin hard drive NAS of 22W access/running consumption, might a farad super 6 power supply work for all three with sufficient overhead? In line with everything I’ve been reading about power and how too much of it damages sound quality, I’m researching a power supply that is just enough (with peaks) to power the dcd and the threesome it will feed.

Thank you both! - kevin

Hi Kevin,

If you are asking me -- Steve Z -- I first started listening to Olympus via the XDMI analog daughter card after about 100 hours of letting it play Roon Radio with my system amplifier off. I continued to listen to Olympus analog for a few evenings, then switched daughter cards to XDMI digital (AES and SPDIF). I used SFDIF.

I haven't been using a NAS yet -- that was on the to-do list today but I just stopped working on the higher priority honey-do list to unwind a bit and get ready to fix dinner.

So far all of my listening has been by streaming, primarily from Qobuz with maybe 10% Tidal.

I haven't done a lot of research and may just end up shamelessly copying what David (@dminches) has done -- get a two bay fanless Synology that runs from 12VDC and power it from one of my DCD outputs. But first I'll fire up one of the NAS in my office across the entry foyer from the living room and spend some time listening. The several NAS in my office have one big advantage -- they're long since paid for!

Steve Z

 

I wrote that check during the intial Roon roll-out some years ago to get the discounted life-time membership.

I finally feel like that decision was validated.

Steve Z

Same here. Early lifetime adopter of Roon. Best $500 I ever spent on hifi in the past 40 years. Roon has had its share of teething problems, and I've suffered through numerous issues especially in the early days. But, of late, their updates have become more reliable, and I no longer dread updating to the latest release. Occasionally I have to restart my Roon Rock server, but thankfully I haven't had to reinstall from scratch in a while. All that said, I am in no rush to get rid of my physical media (> 6000 CDs and SACDs, many not on Roon). I still like the bullet proof reliability of physical media playback. With Roon, it's still subject to sporadic wifi outages, playlists and albums disappear all the time. I view Roon much like Netflix. It's a nice sampler of music that I don't have. But if I find an album I really like, then I have to get a physical copy or a download. Roon is no guarantee that the album will be available to you in perpetuity. If you are. long time collector, I can't see Roon being the basis of your music existence. It's too unreliable for that. But, as a convenient way to sample a wide range of music, it's great. To dig deep, you need to get into physical media. That's not changed in 40 years, and likely never will.

 

Hi Kevin,

If you are asking me -- Steve Z -- I first started listening to Olympus via the XDMI analog daughter card after about 100 hours of letting it play Roon Radio with my system amplifier off. I continued to listen to Olympus analog for a few evenings, then switched daughter cards to XDMI digital (AES and SPDIF). I used SFDIF.

I haven't been using a NAS yet -- that was on the to-do list today but I just stopped working on the higher priority honey-do list to unwind a bit and get ready to fix dinner.

So far all of my listening has been by streaming, primarily from Qobuz with maybe 10% Tidal.

I haven't done a lot of research and may just end up shamelessly copying what David (@dminches) has done -- get a two bay fanless Synology that runs from 12VDC and power it from one of my DCD outputs. But first I'll fire up one of the NAS in my office across the entry foyer from the living room and spend some time listening. The several NAS in my office have one big advantage -- they're long since paid for!

Steve Z

Thanks for that Steve, and yes, I did mean you : )

 

@Taiko Audio Emile, did you test having the NAS on the taiko network vs on the home network and, if so, was their a sound difference? Moving it out of the room has some advantage from a shelf space perspective.

 

@Taiko Audio Emile, did you test having the NAS on the taiko network vs on the home network and, if so, was their a sound difference? Moving it out of the room has some advantage from a shelf space perspective.

It appears there’s no noticeable difference, atleast nobody appears to notice any difference relative to qobuz/tidal whichever way they use their NAS.

From a theoratical POV I can think of benefits to each approach, perhaps those simply cancel out, or just don’t matter at all…

If I was in the luxury position to spend time getting to the bottom of this (aka if I was seriously bored) I would analyse how the NAS loads the LAN side versus the WAN side.

In the same manner there can be several degrees of benefits to using the upstream wi-fi to control Roon versus using the Taiko Wi-Fi. For example if you use an Ipad with a lot of installed apps, with a lot of syncing and background activity, creating network load of some significance, and/or you use it for other activities like internet browsing, watching youtube videos etc, WHILE listening to music, you may be better off using your home Wi-Fi.

But a whole other aspect to this is the Olympus + network stack is just much more immune to network traffic then we ever achieved before, this alone may make the actual NAS location irrelevant.

I’m anxiously waiting for someone to report a significant impact from a specific scenario to investigate, that would qualify as a proper use of my time

 

Steve, may I ask - when you first started listening to your Olympus with your first remarks on what you were hearing, was that on aes/ebu or spdif? Also, what has been the most recent NAS you’ve been using, if any, and how’s your research on a fanless variant going?

Emile, on an aside, if I choose to use my dcd to power taiko router, switch and twin hard drive NAS of 22W access/running consumption, might a farad super 6 power supply work for all three with sufficient overhead? In line with everything I’ve been reading about power and how too much of it damages sound quality, I’m researching a power supply that is just enough (with peaks) to power the dcd and the threesome it will feed.

Thank you both! - kevin

I don’t know how much current that can supply but it would need to be 2A continuous on 12V minimum assuming your NAS runs on 12V. I would chose a powersupply without supercaps personally though, if you’re asking me. That is a 180 degree approach to the one we’re taking with our network products and now the Olympus, being to minimise capacitive energy storage.

 

It appears there’s no noticeable difference, atleast nobody appears to notice any difference relative to qobuz/tidal whichever way they use their NAS.

From a theoratical POV I can think of benefits to each approach, perhaps those simply cancel out, or just don’t matter at all…

If I was in the luxury position to spend time getting to the bottom of this (aka if I was seriously bored) I would analyse how the NAS loads the LAN side versus the WAN side.

In the same manner there can be several degrees of benefits to using the upstream wi-fi to control Roon versus using the Taiko Wi-Fi. For example if you use an Ipad with a lot of installed apps, with a lot of syncing and background activity, creating network load of some significance, and/or you use it for other activities like internet browsing, watching youtube videos etc, WHILE listening to music, you may be better off using your home Wi-Fi.

But a whole other aspect to this is the Olympus + network stack is just much more immune to network traffic then we ever achieved before, this alone may make the actual NAS location irrelevant.

I’m anxiously waiting for someone to report a significant impact from a specific scenario to investigate, that would qualify as a proper use of my time

I plan on moving my NAS to my home network and will report back. I have been listening to it connected to the taiko router and DCD.

 

Hi Kevin,

If you are asking me -- Steve Z -- I first started listening to Olympus via the XDMI analog daughter card after about 100 hours of letting it play Roon Radio with my system amplifier off. I continued to listen to Olympus analog for a few evenings, then switched daughter cards to XDMI digital (AES and SPDIF). I used SFDIF.

I haven't been using a NAS yet -- that was on the to-do list today but I just stopped working on the higher priority honey-do list to unwind a bit and get ready to fix dinner.

So far all of my listening has been by streaming, primarily from Qobuz with maybe 10% Tidal.

I haven't done a lot of research and may just end up shamelessly copying what David (@dminches) has done -- get a two bay fanless Synology that runs from 12VDC and power it from one of my DCD outputs. But first I'll fire up one of the NAS in my office across the entry foyer from the living room and spend some time listening. The several NAS in my office have one big advantage -- they're long since paid for!

Steve Z

Steve, do you prefer the the digital aes/Vivaldi dac to the analog card to pre amp?

 

Few issues with O + IO
1.
After logging in to my Olympus with Roon I found ZERO of my Playlists.
I have found Ray-dude public test tracks so I use it now .
Great music Ray !
Will ask Ed to help or someone from Taiko Team.

You will have to create a Roon backup of your Extreme and restore that on your Olympus.

A very quick and easy way to do this is by using a usb drive, plug it into the Extreme, log into Roon and tell it to create a backup on your E: drive, then plug the drive into the Olympus, log into Roon and restore the backup from E: . Do not hesitate to contact us if you need any help with that.

2.
My IO AES works flawless to my Totaldac D-24.
Unfortunately Spdif is dead for some reason. There is no signal nor clock.

That is really baffling, @oldmustang reported something similar but in his case only SPDIF works, not AES/EBU. Perhaps you two should switch output cards Joking aside, SPDIF and AES/EBU are both active, at the same time, there’s no feedback or anything checking if there’s anything connected to either port. If one works, so does the other. We can ship you a different card if you want to try but I very strongly doubt that will make a difference. I assume you did select the right input on the Totaldac reclocker?

3.
BPS app on new android phones such as Fold 6 is not recognizing any of the batteries. Bluetooth sees them as devices but not the app.
Is permanently trying to find them but can't for some reason.
The back door is to use older ipad or phone and it works .

We’ll look into this, any more devices you tried apart from the “Fold 6” ? We did test a recent different Samsung phone.

 

hopefully in the future there will be a thread where we will be posting about our weekend at my house with Emile

Am already thinking of what would be really interesting to demonstrate