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".

 

The Olympus has an LPS? I thought it was 100% battery.

 

The Olympus has an LPS? I thought it was 100% battery.

Refer page 7 of the manual where it references LPS

 

The Olympus has an LPS? I thought it was 100% battery.

On the right side, full shielded/covered.
For supplying the GaN modules for battery charging.

 

Refer page 7 of the manual where it references LPS

The bottom of page 7.

 

Do you mean this “ The Olympus I/O contains 2 battery power supplies and a custom power supply for charging the
battery cells. The first battery section powers the Network Card, and the second section powers the
XDMI Output. The batteries are configured to charge in cycles, like a traditional battery. They hold a”

That refers to the I/O, not the main unit. Is there a reference to the main unit LPS which I am missing?

 

I guess anything with a battery also has an LPS for charging.

 

Starting planning for an Olympus (USB+Analog) listening session in San Diego first part of December (I'm tentatively thinking Saturday 12/7 or Saturday 12/14).

My geek cave is decidedly more pedestrian than Steve's wonderful listening room, but I should still have my Extreme on hand then, so we'll be able to have relative comparisons between Extreme USB vs Olympus USB, and Olympus USB vs Olympus XDMI Analog (and for fun, various permutations of the Taiko network stack if of interest)

If you have interest (or potential interest), please drop a direct message to me and I'll send a note when details when finalized.

Folks I think my ambition exceeded reality for this shortened window between Thanksgiving and Christmas (3 weeks!!).

I’m going to postpone this listening session to some time early next year, hopefully with some additional kit that folks can hear as well

Apologies but things are crazy busy this year!

 

Hi QuantumWave,
Let me share with members my experience.
I tried grounding of the Olympus at Volent Audio earlier this month.
Volent doesn't carry any groundbox brands but there was an discontinued and idling Taiko small electric groundbox Setchi D3 in the showroom so I plugged it into the USB socket of Olympus.
The improvement was instantaneous and significant, without any pitfalls. Noise floor further decreased and the layering of the soundstage & resolution of bass was surprises.

According to Ben Lau of Volent Audio, the two grounding posts on the back of Olympus are connected to chassis & the internal LPS only. The circuit board is somewhat "floated".
(Emile please correct us if we are wrong. )

I have got ready my two idling Setchis while waiting for the delivery of my Olympus & Olympus I/O.

View attachment 140800

I have two of these I’m not using if anyone wants to buy.

 

The Olympus has an LPS? I thought it was 100% battery.

Olympus-Server-and-IO-Manual-v008.x80569.pdf
--> page 15






Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Thomas

 

Perhaps the Qobuz "problem" of periodic play stoppage has cured itself somehow. This is the second morning I've gotten up and checked Roon to find it played through the night > 12 hours continuously and is still playing. Not aware that Qobuz has issued a fix, but I've never gotten anything from them in the past about other problems, either.

Steve Z

Yes looks like, I’m at 66 hours now.

 

I guess anything with a battery also has an LPS for charging.

Yes the “Charger power supply” is a Linear power supply.

 

Yes the “Charger power supply” is a Linear power supply.

Just wondering what the normal temperature range for System and XDMI batteries is...?

 

Just wondering what the normal temperature range for System and XDMI batteries is...?

You can find information on the operating temperature on page 47 of the manual.

No temperature range is suggested, but rather a maximum operating ambient temperature (32°C).

I assume that at 0°C or even below there won't be a problem. On the contrary

Cheers,

Thomas

 

Just wondering what the normal temperature range for System and XDMI batteries is...?

As charging/discharging has a negligible effect on the temperature of the batteries we use, they will be at the same temperature as the chassis, between roughly +12 and +20 Celsius over environment depending on usage, like redbook or dsd512 playback, surrounding airspace etc. The recommended working range for full capacity is between -30 deg.C to 60 deg.C, however the system motherboard will start throttling and shut down before you can reach that temperature, it will top out at 52-55.

 

You can find information on the operating temperature on page 47 of the manual.

No temperature range is suggested, but rather a maximum operating ambient temperature (32°C).

I assume that at 0°C or even below there won't be a problem. On the contrary

Cheers,

Thomas

Thanks Tom, but a different question was asked - the BMS app provides a temperature readout for each battery unit and I was asking about the normal range.

EDIT - that’s the answer I was looking for - thanks Emile.

 

For burn in processes, is continuous qobuz any more effective than repeating one local track?

I would expect no, but I did not actually compare burn in methodologies for efficiency/effect.

 

Yes looks like, I’m at 66 hours now.

Same here. For three days the O has been playing Qobuz with no stoppage, where it had been stopping intermittently over the previous few weeks.

 

Hi QuantumWave,
Let me share with members my experience.
I tried grounding of the Olympus at Volent Audio earlier this month.
Volent doesn't carry any groundbox brands but there was an discontinued and idling Taiko small electric groundbox Setchi D3 in the showroom so I plugged it into the USB socket of Olympus.
The improvement was instantaneous and significant, without any pitfalls. Noise floor further decreased and the layering of the soundstage & resolution of bass was surprises.

According to Ben Lau of Volent Audio, the two grounding posts on the back of Olympus are connected to chassis & the internal LPS only. The circuit board is somewhat "floated".
(Emile please correct us if we are wrong. )

I have got ready my two idling Setchis while waiting for the delivery of my Olympus & Olympus I/O.

View attachment 140800

Hi @CKKeung

I guess I should add that by grounding I'm actually referring to creating an additional path to "ground" and/or (additional) path(s) between 2 or more devices, as is most common amongst ground "tweaks". The Setchi, as you know of course, is a battery powered floating device/tweak, it does not create additional paths to ground and/or between devices. Specifically these additional "ground" / conductor paths are what I would consider to be negative when applied to the Olympus, at least in my own experiences thus far.

 

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.

I'm not sure if your quick question was answered, but in case it was not, the Olympus serial number can be found around the back on a small sticker underneath the PCI ports section on the right.

 

I have two of these I’m not using if anyone wants to buy

DM me.