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".

 

Ok, if that doesn’t help we can examine your Roon logs and see what’s causing the interruptions. Could you be so kind as to open a support call by emailing support@taikoaudio.com ? If you include your Olympus serial number and symptoms the crew can take a look.

I am interested in the resolution of this too, as in my first listening session with my Olympus (hooray!) last night, Roon would suddenly stop in mid-track for no apparent reason. I just had to hit play to continue. It happened several times in just an hour of listening.

With the same build (iPad 1480, server 1483), I had no such issue on the Extreme.

Quick question: where is the Olympus serial number? I think it was in the name of the Roon server when it first came up, but then it got overwritten when I restored from Roon backup.

 

For those of you Olympus owners who are restoring Roon from backup, here is a trick, perhaps already known to all, but just in case...

After the restore from backup is complete, you know that the Storage locations for you music in Settings > Storage are stale. For example in my case, my storage locations were pointing to my Extreme's local D drive.

The trick is this. Do NOT create new storage locations for your Olympus drive or NAS. Instead, cure the existing storage location by hitting Edit and then editing the path within the edit window. This seems to retain all the customizations and even the analysis (dynamic range, level, etc) you may have had on the Extreme. This made the import of my library finish in just a few minutes.

If you create a new storage location, and delete the old ones, then that I think (haven't done it in a long time) seems to trigger a full scan, and can take hours as you'd expect.

 

Ok, if that doesn’t help we can examine your Roon logs and see what’s causing the interruptions. Could you be so kind as to open a support call by emailing support@taikoaudio.com ? If you include your Olympus serial number and symptoms the crew can take a look.

I updated Roon yesterday on my Olympus, and left Roon Radio playing overnight. This morning when I checked the status play was stopped. Looking at the Roon Queue, the last song played about five hours previously.

I don't want to put more of a load on Taiko support, however if you care to take a look I'm certainly willing, at your convenience.

Steve Z

 

I updated Roon yesterday on my Olympus, and left Roon Radio playing overnight. This morning when I checked the status play was stopped. Looking at the Roon Queue, the last song played about five hours previously.

I don't want to put more of a load on Taiko support, however if you care to take a look I'm certainly willing, at your convenience.

Steve Z

That happened here repeatedly a few weeks ago as well when I was trying to burn in round the clock.

 

Not sure if this is helpful or not. Go into setup and clear cache/restart after each session...Not for Austinpop's isse but for stoppages while burning in the O

 

I am interested in the resolution of this too, as in my first listening session with my Olympus (hooray!) last night, Roon would suddenly stop in mid-track for no apparent reason. I just had to hit play to continue. It happened several times in just an hour of listening.

With the same build (iPad 1480, server 1483), I had no such issue on the Extreme.

Quick question: where is the Olympus serial number? I think it was in the name of the Roon server when it first came up, but then it got overwritten when I restored from Roon backup.

That is not the same issue as the “queue” issue. Do you have more then 1 output enabled by any chance?

 

I updated Roon yesterday on my Olympus, and left Roon Radio playing overnight. This morning when I checked the status play was stopped. Looking at the Roon Queue, the last song played about five hours previously.

I don't want to put more of a load on Taiko support, however if you care to take a look I'm certainly willing, at your convenience.

Steve Z

Ah bummer, yeah sure let’s take a look and see if we can compile a bug report for Roon support.

 

That is not the same issue as the “queue” issue. Do you have more then 1 output enabled by any chance?

Let me check. Yup, I did. Fixed that. This one below is not active, but can't be disabled. Should I just remove it?

 

Let me check. Yup, I did. Fixed that. This one below is not active, but can't be disabled. Should I just remove it?

View attachment 140468

That must be a remnant from your Roon restore, remove!

 

O+I/O #39 arrived on Friday. From the time I received the FedEx email that it had shipped to the time it was in my front door was just three days. I let them acclimate in the flight cases in my front hall over the weekend. Had some helping hands here yesterday to get it in the rack. I plugged it into the mains power and turned on the rear switches. Downloaded the BMS app and the O+I/O showed right up. I was able to set the charge cycle to my preferred timing. Super easy so far.

It's not mandatory but I wanted to let the O+I/O charge overnight before wiring into my system. Enjoying my Extreme for one more day.

This morning, I powered down the Extreme, router and switch. Wired the O+I/O into my system, powered up the router, and waited a few minutes. Powered up the switch, waited a minute. Then powered up the O with its front switch. Restarted my Ipad, signed into Roon, then Quobuz and Tidal. Selected the Olympus as the Roon server and selected the Taiko USB output. I queued up one of my favorite recordings both musically and sonically (Chick Corea - Trilogy - live from 2013, 96/24) and VOILA I was listening to sweet music again! That was super easy!

What was with all the trepidation on my end? I find that I almost go into panic attack mode when my stereo system is down. So, I put on a CD to break the silence when the Extreme was offline, and the O+I/O was being wired. Just the possibility of removing the Extreme from my system and then not being able to get the O+I/O working had me sweating throughout the process. As it turned out the worrying was for no reason. The whole unwiring of the Extreme, rewiring of the O+I/O and O setup process took less than a half hour.

I’m starting out using USB to the DAC. It will take me at least a few days of listening to get a good idea of the difference in sound between the Extreme and O+I/O. Even though it has only been running for about an hour, I can already say there is a significant improvement in definition, imaging, transient response, dynamics and detail. The imaging is much larger in every dimension which tells me that the Dac is receiving even more detailed and accurate information than it was previously. I remember the Extreme improving in sound quality for about a month or so when it was new. So, I expect a similar burn in period for the O+I/O. Once I’ve spent some time listening to the USB output, I’ll give a listen to the I/O XDMI analog out. After reading the comments that others have posted, I’m really looking forward to that!

Fun times ahead for sure!

 

O+I/O #39 arrived on Friday. From the time I received the FedEx email that it had shipped to the time it was in my front door was just three days. I let them acclimate in the flight cases in my front hall over the weekend. Had some helping hands here yesterday to get it in the rack. I plugged it into the mains power and turned on the rear switches. Downloaded the BMS app and the O+I/O showed right up. I was able to set the charge cycle to my preferred timing. Super easy so far.

It's not mandatory but I wanted to let the O+I/O charge overnight before wiring into my system. Enjoying my Extreme for one more day.

This morning, I powered down the Extreme, router and switch. Wired the O+I/O into my system, powered up the router, and waited a few minutes. Powered up the switch, waited a minute. Then powered up the O with its front switch. Restarted my Ipad, signed into Roon, then Quobuz and Tidal. Selected the Olympus as the Roon server and selected the Taiko USB output. I queued up one of my favorite recordings both musically and sonically (Chick Corea - Trilogy - live from 2013, 96/24) and VOILA I was listening to sweet music again! That was super easy!

What was with all the trepidation on my end? I find that I almost go into panic attack mode when my stereo system is down. So, I put on a CD to break the silence when the Extreme was offline, and the O+I/O was being wired. Just the possibility of removing the Extreme from my system and then not being able to get the O+I/O working had me sweating throughout the process. As it turned out the worrying was for no reason. The whole unwiring of the Extreme, rewiring of the O+I/O and O setup process took less than a half hour.

I’m starting out using USB to the DAC. It will take me at least a few days of listening to get a good idea of the difference in sound between the Extreme and O+I/O. Even though it has only been running for about an hour, I can already say there is a significant improvement in definition, imaging, transient response, dynamics and detail. The imaging is much larger in every dimension which tells me that the Dac is receiving even more detailed and accurate information than it was previously. I remember the Extreme improving in sound quality for about a month or so when it was new. So, I expect a similar burn in period for the O+I/O. Once I’ve spent some time listening to the USB output, I’ll give a listen to the I/O XDMI analog out. After reading the comments that others have posted, I’m really looking forward to that!

Fun times ahead for sure!

Your Psychoanalysis part rings so true!

 

Found on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1760146194920794

 

O+I/O #39 arrived on Friday. From the time I received the FedEx email that it had shipped to the time it was in my front door was just three days. I let them acclimate in the flight cases in my front hall over the weekend. Had some helping hands here yesterday to get it in the rack. I plugged it into the mains power and turned on the rear switches. Downloaded the BMS app and the O+I/O showed right up. I was able to set the charge cycle to my preferred timing. Super easy so far.

It's not mandatory but I wanted to let the O+I/O charge overnight before wiring into my system. Enjoying my Extreme for one more day.

This morning, I powered down the Extreme, router and switch. Wired the O+I/O into my system, powered up the router, and waited a few minutes. Powered up the switch, waited a minute. Then powered up the O with its front switch. Restarted my Ipad, signed into Roon, then Quobuz and Tidal. Selected the Olympus as the Roon server and selected the Taiko USB output. I queued up one of my favorite recordings both musically and sonically (Chick Corea - Trilogy - live from 2013, 96/24) and VOILA I was listening to sweet music again! That was super easy!

What was with all the trepidation on my end? I find that I almost go into panic attack mode when my stereo system is down. So, I put on a CD to break the silence when the Extreme was offline, and the O+I/O was being wired. Just the possibility of removing the Extreme from my system and then not being able to get the O+I/O working had me sweating throughout the process. As it turned out the worrying was for no reason. The whole unwiring of the Extreme, rewiring of the O+I/O and O setup process took less than a half hour.

I’m starting out using USB to the DAC. It will take me at least a few days of listening to get a good idea of the difference in sound between the Extreme and O+I/O. Even though it has only been running for about an hour, I can already say there is a significant improvement in definition, imaging, transient response, dynamics and detail. The imaging is much larger in every dimension which tells me that the Dac is receiving even more detailed and accurate information than it was previously. I remember the Extreme improving in sound quality for about a month or so when it was new. So, I expect a similar burn in period for the O+I/O. Once I’ve spent some time listening to the USB output, I’ll give a listen to the I/O XDMI analog out. After reading the comments that others have posted, I’m really looking forward to that!

Fun times ahead for sure!

Give the Xdmi/analog out a good long burn in! It seems to just keep getting better

 

Taiko Olympus from 4 mins in.

 

Give the Xdmi/analog out a good long burn in! It seems to just keep getting better

Thanks for the heads up on the burn in time. Makes sense especially with the analog section involved.
I've been captivated by the sound with just the USB output of the Olympus & I/O. Everything sounds so solid and calm, it's a whole new paradigm.
@Steve williams - That bell rang loud and clear!
People here are saying that XDMI is even a bigger step up.
I'm really looking forward to that! I'll make sure to give it plenty of play time when I get there.

 

NASA released a photo from the ISS flying over @austinpop 's house, showing Mt Olympus




(actually Olympus Mons on Mars, but the other story is better

 

NASA released a photo from the ISS flying over @austinpop 's house, showing Mt Olympus

View attachment 140501


(actually Olympus Mons on Mars, but the other story is better

Who knew they had boobs on Mars?

 

In my case (OP), my interruptions do occur in the course of a session where I am regularly selecting new albums, always from Qobuz ( I have not set up my local files yet and I do not use Tidal). I do sometimes interrupt those albums, and change to another. I have noticed no correlation between what I am playing, or how long the playlist might be. My interruptions are not requiring 6-12 hour playlists. My Qubuz has the latest version.

As a follow up to this. I have run multiple tests over multiple days. This appears to be a Qobuz issue. I have uninterrupted local file and Tidal playback (tested up to 24 hours), but Qobuz fails regularly, it doesn't even need to be queue based playback, it can even stop during an individual manually selected track. Roon logs show timeout errors in the network stream in that case.

I'm not going to spend more time on this now as this is out of our control anyway, and we're busy enough as is!

 

there is/was a Quobuz issue, skipping and or stopping after a while of streaming.

(I did report it, we'll see)

 

Another option for running in...
Normally does not time out..

http://stream.radioparadise.com/flac

Add to my live radio