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".

 

In my system the sound quality of XDMS is clearly better than Roon.

Hopefully I will get my Olympus XDMI in May, so after I ship back my Extreme, no more XDMS for me for a while, only Roon.

Since many XDMS users/testers will be converting to Olympus, Taiko will probably lose most of the XDMS alpha testers. We will be back months later when testing of the Olympus XDMS becomes available.

Actually not....as I understand it, XDMS will be released about 3 months after release of Olympus when it is tried and true and fully functional. Whether XDMS will continue to be available for Extreme users, I think so but not 100% certain

 

Actually not....as I understand it, XDMS will be released about 3 months after release of Olympus when it is tried and true and fully functional. Whether XDMS will continue to be available for Extreme users, I think so but not 100% certain

Dear Steve, The info that the Olympus XDMS should be released about three months after the release of the Olympus is good news! Thanks

 

I got the same files from Marty and I did feel the .wav was not that noticeably better but my understanding is Marty is using a different tool I converting to .wav which has made the huge sonic improvement. I know Ed visited Marty last week and Ed reports that he was stunned as to how much better Marty's .wav files sounded in comparison to Flac , so much so that there are some plans to delve further into this and make it a reality for XDMS. Right now as I understand it in Qobuz the files are converted to .wav and that is what we hear presently BUT Marty is converting using a different tool which has caught the interest of Ed so thanks to cat6man it seems there we can all look forward to this being implemented

I honestly can't remember what files I gave to whom. But I think I also received files from Steve as well. (I might do a little better if you asked me what I ate for lunch yesterday, but don't count on it!). What I do know is that I do not pay much attention to format any more. After the switch, router and DCD, it's just all music to me and it's all good. Wav, flac, Hi Rez, Red book, I honestly don't pay attention. I do use XDMS about 10% of the time, depending what I listen to, and Roon for the remainder because it works well functionally and allows me to use my playlists which have been crafted over decades. Plus I love the Roon "liner notes" that educate me about the music which is important for my style of listening, especially when exploring new music (even if it's 100+ years old- its often new to me!)

Oops, I just figured out you all are referring to a different Marty. The clue was I had no recollection of anyone named Ed visiting me last week!

 

I just revisited the original 3 files Marty sent me in December
Very close
The Duke Ellington .wav file gets the nod for me
The other 2 a toss-up, especially Baby Blue

thanks!
i've got additional files at the link back a page or so. now there are flac, wav-db and wav-ff to compare.
can you tell us what dac you use and what your dac settings are in xdms? also, which version of xdms are you using?

 

Does that mean we just need to re-encode all our flacs using ffmpeg?

no, the opposite. somehow ffmpeg is worse sounding, even when done batch offline

 

Emile, do you have a back view of the Olympus XDMI with it‘s various outputs and IEC inlet from the assembly line? I want to check, if I need to rearrange the rack / placing of cables due to the inlet being on the other side (compared to the Extreme). I think you mentioned this somewhere… Cheers!

 

Emile, do you have a back view of the Olympus XDMI with it‘s various outputs and IEC inlet from the assembly line? I want to check, if I need to rearrange the rack / placing of cables due to the inlet being on the other side (compared to the Extreme). I think you mentioned this somewhere… Cheers!

Yes correct. Looking at the back side the IEC is on the left side, XDMI on the right side. I wanted to hold out sharing more detailed photos until we can pickup the first batch of chassis parts from the anodising company, which was confirmed to be in the next few days

 

Yes correct. Looking at the back side the IEC is on the left side, XDMI on the right side. I wanted to hold out sharing more detailed photos until we can pickup the first batch of chassis parts from the anodising company, which was confirmed to be in the next few days

Can you share the orientation of the central pin? In other words where the „nose“/narrow part is pointing towards (Up/down/left/right)?
The powercords these days are rather unwieldy…

 

Actually not....as I understand it, XDMS will be released about 3 months after release of Olympus when it is tried and true and fully functional. Whether XDMS will continue to be available for Extreme users, I think so but not 100% certain

Hello,

Long time lurker and considering a used Extreme in the near future. I certainly hope XDMS continues to be available for Extreme users as I don't have Roon nor do I want it.

 

Hello,

Long time lurker and considering a used Extreme in the near future. I certainly hope XDMS continues to be available for Extreme users as I don't have Roon nor do I want it.

perhaps @Taiko Audio or @EuroDriver can provide an answer to your question. I do know it won't be available for the Olympus until it is a finished product. I read recently in a post by one of the Taiko team (Emile I think) that XDMS for the Olympus is somewhat different I. development than the Extreme but I way above my pay grade here so perhaps Emil, Ed or Christiaan could answer this question. I don't think I have read an answer to that in Discord

 

thanks!
i've got additional files at the link back a page or so. now there are flac, wav-db and wav-ff to compare.
can you tell us what dac you use and what your dac settings are in xdms? also, which version of xdms are you using?

and just to be clear, there is no right or wrong answer here. if some hear a big difference and others don't, that is still part of a big clue and we don't know where that will lead since we don't don't know the exact mechanism at play here

 

Can you share the orientation of the central pin? In other words where the „nose“/narrow part is pointing towards (Up/down/left/right)?
The powercords these days are rather unwieldy…

Is the Olympus to be totally battery powered? And if so, wouldn’t the influence of special power cords now be a non factor?

 

and just to be clear, there is no right or wrong answer here. if some hear a big difference and others don't, that is still part of a big clue and we don't know where that will lead since we don't don't know the exact mechanism at play here

I tried to do some research to understand if flac and wav order the bits differently. I couldn’t find anything useful.

 

thanks!
i've got additional files at the link back a page or so. now there are flac, wav-db and wav-ff to compare.
can you tell us what dac you use and what your dac settings are in xdms? also, which version of xdms are you using?

DAC is MSB SII with Digital Director
No XDMS just Roon

 

Is the Olympus to be totally battery powered? And if so, wouldn’t the influence of special power cords now be a non factor?

Some parts are, others like aren‘t. That‘s why the powercord still has an/some influence.

Emile, not to start a futile powercord discussion, just one general question: Does the guideline that the Extreme prefers high-current „amp“ powercords (vs source specific ones) also apply to the Olympus?

 

I tried to do some research to understand if flac and wav order the bits differently. I couldn’t find anything useful.

i have no idea how flac does it, i just found that wav, by design, puts the lsb, then padding, then msb--so it needs to be reconstructed to create a single sample. but i'm much more intrigued by why two WAV files would be different. if you're interested, here are the detailed media info files.

 

from the dbpoweramp users forum, a response from the moderator:

"If you can convert the file with dBpoweramp to WAV, then any program using the standard flac libraries (which is pretty much every audio program, except ffmpeg) will be able read the file."

this implies to me that ffmpeg is using something other than the 'standard flac libraries'

 

Can you share the orientation of the central pin? In other words where the „nose“/narrow part is pointing towards (Up/down/left/right)?
The powercords these days are rather unwieldy…

Safety ground pin points down.

 

Hello,

Long time lurker and considering a used Extreme in the near future. I certainly hope XDMS continues to be available for Extreme users as I don't have Roon nor do I want it.

Participation in the XDMS alpha testing program will only be available for Extreme owners.

Future stable versions of XDMS will be available on both the Extreme and the Olympus.

There will not be a testing program for XDMS on the Olympus, when XDMS for Olympus launches it will be a stable fully functional version, that version will not have gapless / track manipulation "issues" as the sound quality enhancing features causing that are solved in hardware in the Olympus. Aka those need to be stripped from XDMS for the Olympus which will make it stable at the same time.

We have a XDMS meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning, we'll post a larger update after that meeting in the more relevant XDMS thread.

 

Is the Olympus to be totally battery powered? And if so, wouldn’t the influence of special power cords now be a non factor?

Yes, we actually managed to adjust the Olympus to now be fully battery powered. I will dig into the details on how we did that when time permits, aka when the first batch of Olympus servers is powered up and running. Unfortunately the power cord still makes a difference, less impactful then with the Extreme for which it's more or less mandatory, but still very audible. It does sound good with a stock power cord, but still better with something .. better