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 am experiencing an intermittent interruption of music play while using my new Olympus, Roon, and streaming from online. The sound will simply go to zero. But when I look at the Roon app, I see the play bar cursor moving normally. To correct this, I pause, slide the cursor back slightly , then hit play. the system plays normally thereafter right through the area where it stop sound before. This doesn't happen often, but seems to happen once or twice a day. My system is playing a good many hours a day, so this minor problem is a minuscule problem at the moment, and I only mention it to provide the observation. I obviously have no way of knowing whether this is Roon or Olympus, and for completion's sake, there is no accompanying distortion, and certainly no power interruption. As mentioned above, the play activity cursor continues moving normally after the sound stops, suggesting to me that Qobuz has not been interrupted. And, when streaming TV from the same internet source, we never experience any interruptions.
I have the Taiko distributor, router and switch upstream.

 

@Taiko Audio
Emile, the server set up went well, and all is good for #38. The only point of frustration was not having the pairing code on the Quick Start card. Whoah! I went crazy trapped in a loop for a while until dug into the manual.

That should be easy enough to add, @Christiaan Punter can you look into that?

 

@Taiko Audio
Emile, the server set up went well, and all is good for #38. The only point of frustration was not having the pairing code on the Quick Start card. Whoah! I went crazy trapped in a loop for a while until dug into the manual.

Are you referring to the PIN code, as mentioned in the BMS app Manual?

 

I am experiencing an intermittent interruption of music play while using my new Olympus, Roon, and streaming from online. The sound will simply go to zero. But when I look at the Roon app, I see the play bar cursor moving normally. To correct this, I pause, slide the cursor back slightly , then hit play. the system plays normally thereafter right through the area where it stop sound before. This doesn't happen often, but seems to happen once or twice a day. My system is playing a good many hours a day, so this minor problem is a minuscule problem at the moment, and I only mention it to provide the observation. I obviously have no way of knowing whether this is Roon or Olympus, and for completion's sake, there is no accompanying distortion, and certainly no power interruption. As mentioned above, the play activity cursor continues moving normally after the sound stops, suggesting to me that Qobuz has not been interrupted. And, when streaming TV from the same internet source, we never experience any interruptions.
I have the Taiko distributor, router and switch upstream.

I actually have the same issue myself, it started recently. It doesn’t matter if I play Qobuz playlists, or play a single track or album on repeat, the sound cuts out after 6-12 hours while the track seemingly keeps playing. I’ve had Tidal playlists running allover the weekend and today without any issues so it does appear to have something to do with Qobuz.

 

Got my server and I/O today.
It had been a long wait.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get Roon to find the Olympus server
Alll 5 leds are solid and not blinking but just don’t see Olympus on Roon
Hopefully I can get some one from Taiko to help tomorrow

 

Got my server and I/O today.
It had been a long wait.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get Roon to find the Olympus server
Alll 5 leds are solid and not blinking but just don’t see Olympus on Roon
Hopefully I can get some one from Taiko to help tomorrow

Do you see the server on your wifi network? Do you have the Taiko router?

 

I actually have the same issue myself, it started recently. It doesn’t matter if I play Qobuz playlists, or play a single track or album on repeat, the sound cuts out after 6-12 hours while the track seemingly keeps playing. I’ve had Tidal playlists running allover the weekend and today without any issues so it does appear to have something to do with Qobuz.

I have experienced the same thing with Qobuz recently and the timing seems to be similar -- 6 to 12 hours into a session with Qobuz. I haven't yet pulled the plug on my Tidal subscription so I will check that later this evening.

Steve Z

 

Got my server and I/O today.
It had been a long wait.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get Roon to find the Olympus server
Alll 5 leds are solid and not blinking but just don’t see Olympus on Roon
Hopefully I can get some one from Taiko to help tomorrow

@hifirabbit - sorry to hear you ran into issues.
I don't know on what timezone you are but if you want me to help in the next couple of hours, send me a direct message with your number, and I can call you to troubleshoot this together.

 

I have experienced the same thing with Qobuz recently and the timing seems to be similar -- 6 to 12 hours into a session with Qobuz. I haven't yet pulled the plug on my Tidal subscription so I will check that later this evening.

Steve Z

Roon just released an update:

“We’ve resolved an issue in version 2.0.43 that caused disruptions to playback queues in for zones.”

2.0.43 was released 8 days ago so this could be the culprit. I’ve installed the update and will let it run overnight again.

 

Roon just released an update:

“We’ve resolved an issue in version 2.0.43 that caused disruptions to playback queues in for zones.”

2.0.43 was released 8 days ago so this could be the culprit. I’ve installed the update and will let it run overnight again.

I'm confused/perplexed here. I do NOT have the Olympus yet. I've been listening to Qobuz for several days in a row including all of yesterday. No issues whatsoever. Tablet 2.0 (build 1480) Extreme version 2.0 (build 1483). I promptly do all updates upon notifications. No issues on my end. Are you certain yet if this is a Roon issue? Or is this Olympus/Roon Version related?

 

I'm confused/perplexed here. I do NOT have the Olympus yet. I've been listening to Qobuz for several days in a row including all of yesterday. No issues whatsoever. Tablet 2.0 (build 1480) Extreme version 2.0 (build 1483). I promptly do all updates upon notifications. No issues on my end. Are you certain yet if this is a Roon issue? Or is this Olympus/Roon Version related?

Have you been listening all day without modifying your playback queue? Aka not changing tracks / not operating your Roon remote?

 

Roon just released an update:

“We’ve resolved an issue in version 2.0.43 that caused disruptions to playback queues in for zones.”

2.0.43 was released 8 days ago so this could be the culprit. I’ve installed the update and will let it run overnight again.

I noticed an issue with random stoppage as well, but put it down to network outage - interestingly since I did the Roon update 2 days ago, I haven’t had any stoppages in Roon playback as I’ve been burning in some new cables and just had things playing non-stop.

 

In case of interest, here is an extra data point on the Olympus. I have been experimenting with a selection of power cables. Irrespectively of the power cord, the Olympus sounds absolutely marvelous. For me the rubicon has been crossed in terms of realism. I had good success with the Extreme with the Shunyata Omega XC, the Extreme was really scaling well with raw power. Here, I found a pairing made in heaven with the recently upgraded Sablon Prince 2025. I have to say Mark has been really down playing the amplitude of the upgrade: his new cord brings an entire palette to the mid-range that combined with the Olympus agility is really to die for. I can’t imagine a better pairing and the Sablon Prince definitely is here to stay! Hopefully this may be helpful for others to experiment. My only point of comparison as to how power cords affect the Olympus is akin to the Taiko router, dynamics is always there, but the subtle balance between textures, timbre, and the tonal palette remains largely affected by the choice of cord. BTW Mark also has now an excellent DC cable for the router/switch combo that I had missed, another great pairing i am hoping that one day someone will provide an explanation of this elusive phenomenon, electrical wiring tuning the audible properties of a distant magnetic coil, I am scratching my head!

 

i am hoping that one day someone will provide an explanation of this elusive phenomenon.

I was hoping you'd be able to provide the answer to that puzzling question

 

Have you been listening all day without modifying your playback queue? Aka not changing tracks / not operating your Roon remote?

I'm always using the remote, jumping around, exploring, skipping tracks...No issues..BTW I also have Tidal, no problems with that either...

 

I'm always using the remote, jumping around, exploring, skipping tracks...No issues..

Indeed, there is (was) no issue with that. The issue is if you leave it playing unattended, it will (would) stop after somewhere between 6 and 12 hours of continuous playback.

 

Indeed, there is (was) no issue with that. The issue is if you leave it playing unattended, it will (would) stop after somewhere between 6 and 12 hours of continuous playback.

OHHH, got it...Sorry for the confusion...Guys who are breaking the units in...Got it...

 

Samsungs don’t work with the BMS app, we only found out last week, on the todo list to figure out why.

We have Samsung phones and tablets only in my house. Is it necessary to access the BMS app to use the Olympus or can I just let it at factory settings and use it plug-and-play?

 

We have Samsung phones and tablets only in my house. Is it necessary to access the BMS app to use the Olympus or can I just let it at factory settings and use it plug-and-play?

It can be plug&play, we pre-configure it to the timezone we ship to and configure it to charge between 0:00 and 7:00 AM. If that is ok for you there's nothing that needs to be changed. Besides that I don't think it will be very difficult to make it work on Samsung devices, we're on it.

 

...my BMS was set to Dutch Time (which I always thought was time for beer), so in my case I preferred it to local NY/US. But the Taiko fellas are on the fix and it can't be much to resolve.