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 must say, while my order was placed on December 30, 2023… (no current expected time of delivery still at this point, which is honestly quite painful given the substantial deposit that i sure could have used the cash and earned some interest. yes, over 12 months at this point)….

but that’s all fine, that said am surprised that there really aren’t any comparisons between XDMI analog out versus XDMI digital out to either Lampizator or MSB. There have been dozens of Olympus in the wild for months now. I imagine Lampizator concerned about the Olympus DAC and Taiko treading lightly. But all that said, step forward and share your observations. let our ears be the arbiter. that is what this forum is all about

I agree with the annoyance at no real info on delivery. My units were last mentioned on November 20 as "Followed by:". Haven't heard anything since in the ensuing 6 weeks. That silver anodizing must be a huge problem.

 

Last completed server = #65

There are a few gaps due to missing I/Os (which we did actually finally receive this morning).

The anodising queue has grown to around 50 chassis divided over 2 anodisers, but they’re closing today so those won’t arrive this year.

There’s no “cheating” going on.

There’s no further update to the above as everything is closed till next week.

 

...early feedback: the MSB daughterboard workflow is excellent.

Do I prefer it to the Taiko dac? I do, but I would like more time for "burn-in" of my board, and my ears. It's different. It's very different. Very detailed. Good flow. Fast. Very detailed and airy.

Honestly, WBF brothers, I am wondering if it is the best match for my Magicos (A5s). The sound profile is very different. I was already pondering this evolutionary development with the analog card implementation.

My network and system is very "clean" and incisive. Is the bride stripped bare? Another week or two may be needed to re-visit the sonic signature. Or perhaps speaker repositioning/adjustment? I'll be interested to read what MSB honchos report on Magicos and other speakers/systems.

IIRC you have the DC distributor right? Which filters do you use?

 

...looks like "default" is in use, Emile. Since day 1.

 

I hope @Taiko Audio could experiment by daisy-chaining at least 2 DAC chips - using my coming Olympus as a guinea pig.

Done and discarded, nothing works as expected in an environment where even nV or fA increases in noise are very audible.

 

...looks like "default" is in use, Emile. Since day 1.

Try ALT2 perhaps?

 

...I plugged in "Default" based on someone's guidance at the time, and left it alone. That was great at that time.

Having never used Roon before, I had no relationship to the DDC manual guidance re: Roon vs. XDMS and filter selection.

But, I moved the DDC output cable to Alt2, per above. I am not sure how much this workflow has to "burn-in" since it was never used, but I would say initially, this would be a better sonic choice in this system.

Emile, I appreciate you mentioning the filter choices. In this system, the Alt2 option provides a bit more sonic meat. I do not find any loss of detail or speed/pace. But the sound is not so sharp or hygienic in nature.

I should still probably putter around with the speaker toe-in, which is minimal here, to see what's up, but I will let things settle for another week or so. Multiple changes usually end up being confusing to sort out.

It will be interesting to hear about other MSB users and their options and opinions.

Thanks again, Emile. Happy New Year and Happy Listening to all.

 

Done and discarded, nothing works as expected in an environment where even nV or fA increases in noise are very audible.

I find this very interesting that folks are able to hear minuscule changes in a server, despite the fact that the downstream electronics is a tubed Horizon 360 driving tubed amplifiers (which are inherently quite noisy). Perhaps there is a lot more to understand about how computer noise in servers affects the transmission of digital information. Theoretically speaking, and putting my academic hat on, the sole virtue of digital data transmission is that it is inherently robust to the physical media over which it transmits (hence, my English text can be safely transmitted from the Bay Area to every corner of the world tens of thousands of miles away, in an error-free manner). But, perhaps in the conversion to analog, there are subtle effects that are difficult to model theoretically.

 

...my Microsoft Word docs have never sounded better on this fully-optimized network.

 

Ah, but what if you fed your Microsoft Word document to a text-to-speech converter. Would it sound better?

 

Done and discarded, nothing works as expected in an environment where even nV or fA increases in noise are very audible.

Emile, my bad. Sorry I used the wrong word "daisy-chain" (b/c I had no tech knowledge). My "translation" went wayward. The two guys PARALLELLED chips (in their case the vintage Philips R2R chip). The paralleling of chips vastly reduced noise (SERIAL wiring, or daisy-chaining, would greatly increase noise). I talked to the guy who paralleled 8 chips. He said that such paralleling would work only with chips that use current, not voltage. Hope you experimented with the proper paralleling way (that also requires proper power regulation). If you did serial wiring, could you experiment again? I'll discuss with the other, more advanced, guy who currently paralleled 36 chips (and will eventually do 48 chips or so based on his computation). One reported "night-and-day" improvement; the other very significant improvement. Understand that their way of paralleling so many chips would be commercially unviable; they did to their own self-made carbon-battery-powered DACs for themselves. They would not have kept paralleling unless they heard huge improvement. Thanks anyway for your open-mindedness.

 

This is in essence how the Aries Cerat DACs are designed by paralleling 16 R2R ICs (the Analogue Devices AD1865N-K). It’s a hugely heavy DAC, weighs as much as the Olympus (130 pounds).

Kassandra II Reference Product Page – Aries Cerat

It boggles my mind the lengths to which high end audio designers are going in the world of digital.

 

This is in essence how the Aries Cerat DACs are designed by paralleling 16 R2R ICs (the Analogue Devices AD1865N-K). It’s a hugely heavy DAC, weighs as much as the Olympus (130 pounds).

Kassandra II Reference Product Page – Aries Cerat

It boggles my mind the lengths to which high end audio designers are going in the world of digital.

My Modwright modified Sony SCD-777ES player back in 2004 or so had several paralleled and stacked DAC chips. Definitely not a new thing

 

Yes, in fact it goes back far earlier. Check out this 35-year old review of Sony’s top transport and DAC that used stacked DACs by the founder of Stereophile, J. Gordon Holt.

Sony CDP-R1/DAS-R1 CD player

Two of the most cherished terms in the lexicon of high end are "no holds barred" and "cost no object." These are usually applied, together, to the most expensive version of something currently on the market. But is either term really appropriate for an audio product? The answer is a flat...

www.stereophile.com

I think Accuphase and Esoteric have long used stacked DACs as well.

 

Ok, here’s a question for Olympus owners: is it possible to use the Olympus as a Roon server with local file storage? In essence that’s what the Extreme was designed to be. Or is the Olympus to be viewed as a battery-powered Roon endpoint? Does making it a server impose too many demands on the battery charging system that compromise its sonic performance?

 

Of course it can be used with local file storage. It comes stock with 3 TB’s. Having said that we Taiko munchkins have always sought out the best sound quality and Taiko gives the option of ordering it without local file storage as Emile in his due diligence found that local library might not sound as good as files coming from an NAS.

You asked me the same question a few days ago. Answer hasn’t changed AFAIK

If you read this very long thread from its start you will glean from it all of Emile’s recommendations based on his incessant due diligence

There are many users here who ordered theirs with a large storage capacity

 

Right, that’s who I was hoping to hear from. But I hear you loud and clear. Store media files elsewhere is the recommended route, meaning a NAS or another Roon server.

 

I first ordered mine with 12 TB and as things got closer to taking orders Emile continued to tweak and fine tune the Olympus. It seemed with members’ suggestions he had time to do the testing in house and one of those debates was local files as good as NAS. Personally I was surprised by his finding but IME he’s always been correct and he did give a percent as to how much benefit one could squeeze out. It was not a lot IIRC but we are fanatics here as all of us chase the best SQ. I opted to leave out storage and transferred my Extrene library to an NAS which was initially in my downstairs bedroom hard wired into my home router which is easily 100 feet from my Sind room upstairs. I can say in all honesty the SQ was indistinguishable to my ears from local storage. I kept it downstairs until my wife asked me politely to move it back to the sound room where it is now. It is powered by the Taiko DCD via a DC cable into the NAS. The DCD, Taiko router and Taiko switch are powered via an Uptone Audio JS-2. In both places there was no difference in SQ. My guess is those who have internal storage with their Olympus are eternally happy as I’m betting not many of us could pick out the difference in a blind test. As I said the uptick was but a few percentage points different

 

Or is the Olympus to be viewed as a battery-powered Roon endpoint?

Hi @godofwealth ,

Neither the Olympus nor the Extreme are Roon Endpoints, strictly speaking.

They are indeed servers.

To be more precise, both the Roon Core and the Roon Endpoint are located on the same machine.

This is the structure chosen by @Taiko Audio , which allows for the performance you know.


Currently, you can store your music on:

• The Olympus Server
  or
• A NAS connected to your network

One of the standout features of the Olympus, and not a minor one, is its ability to run Roon (which is very resource-intensive) without impacting sound quality.

I am not aware of any other server/streamer capable of achieving this feat.

It’s fair to say that the Olympus is probably the best Roon server currently available on the market.

This is precisely why I ordered the Olympus + Olympus I/O XDMI combo as soon as Emile announced it.


As @steve williams mentioned, the information regarding the Olympus is gathered and organised in the user manual and FAQ available here:

Taiko Audio Downloads – Taiko Audio

taikoaudio.com

Hope this helps and clarifies things a bit.

Cheers,

Thomas

 

Emile, my bad. Sorry I used the wrong word "daisy-chain" (b/c I had no tech knowledge). My "translation" went wayward. The two guys PARALLELLED chips (in their case the vintage Philips R2R chip). The paralleling of chips vastly reduced noise (SERIAL wiring, or daisy-chaining, would greatly increase noise). I talked to the guy who paralleled 8 chips. He said that such paralleling would work only with chips that use current, not voltage. Hope you experimented with the proper paralleling way (that also requires proper power regulation). If you did serial wiring, could you experiment again? I'll discuss with the other, more advanced, guy who currently paralleled 36 chips (and will eventually do 48 chips or so based on his computation). One reported "night-and-day" improvement; the other very significant improvement. Understand that their way of paralleling so many chips would be commercially unviable; they did to their own self-made carbon-battery-powered DACs for themselves. They would not have kept paralleling unless they heard huge improvement. Thanks anyway for your open-mindedness.

No worries, I assumed you meant paralleled.

In the Olympus/XDMI environment we appear to have to reinvent everything. Every single component matters, significantly.

Can I get out of delving into the benefits vs drawbacks of paralleling DACs by just going with the following? :

In the “V2” (RCA) analogue stage we’ve so far reduced the component count from 100 to 70 while adding a second DAC chip turns that 70 into 108. The 70 components version sounds better then the 108 components version.