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".

 

Wonderful to read about @SwissTom's visit. Very jealous and hopefully one day I will be lucky enough to pay a visit to Taiko HQ (lifetime pilgrimage?? I dare not even leave the US right now for any international travel so that will have to wait.

I have not seen any updates on the yield from the powder coating process for quite a while now. Do we have an update on that? I was hoping that this would turbocharge chassis production/delivery but from the recent updates it seems like # units per week is slipping backwards rather than accelerating, though that's from @nenon AI projections so...
I have switched my order to the fastest option (black powder coated) as soon as that was made available (#102) but worried this is not going to beat whatever new tariffs may be applied soon depending on the wakeup mood of some people in power.

These projections become more accurate over time, but in the short term, you will see them shifting back and forth.

Your order includes an I/O, and since the number of I/O chassis received is currently less than initially predicted, some orders with I/Os have temporarily moved down the list, while orders for black Olympus servers without I/Os have advanced. As soon as Taiko receives the next sizable batch of I/O chassis, this situation will rebalance.

Additionally, more customers have switched from silver to black, which has pushed those orders to the front as well, further impacting the overall schedule.

The scheduling algorithm continues to improve - for example, it is starting to account for holidays in the Netherlands (such as today and Monday) and planned vacations now.

The Olympus remains a complex build with inherently limited production capacity. While I wouldn't describe the switch to powder coating as "turbocharged," it has clearly helped accelerate overall production. Taiko has completed over 20 Olympus servers recently, many of them with an I/O - more than were completed in a 6-month period previously.

I hope that everyone can see clear improvements in many areas - consistent production, timely updates, clear communication, full transparency, etc. If you have any further questions, please reach out to support, and we will be happy to address them.

 

These projections become more accurate over time, but in the short term, you will see them shifting back and forth.

Your order includes an I/O, and since the number of I/O chassis received is currently less than initially predicted, some orders with I/Os have temporarily moved down the list, while orders for black Olympus servers without I/Os have advanced. As soon as Taiko receives the next sizable batch of I/O chassis, this situation will rebalance.

Additionally, more customers have switched from silver to black, which has pushed those orders to the front as well, further impacting the overall schedule.

The scheduling algorithm continues to improve - for example, it is starting to account for holidays in the Netherlands (such as today and Monday) and planned vacations now.

The Olympus remains a complex build with inherently limited production capacity. While I wouldn't describe the switch to powder coating as "turbocharged," it has clearly helped accelerate overall production. Taiko has completed over 20 Olympus servers recently, many of them with an I/O - more than were completed in a 6-month period previously.

I hope that everyone can see clear improvements in many areas - consistent production, timely updates, clear communication, full transparency, etc. If you have any further questions, please reach out to support, and we will be happy to address them.

Thanks Vassil! Much appreciated.

 

I'm finding Qobuz sounding slightly better on my Olympus than Tidal. What are you all hearing?

 

@Taiko Audio Emile, could you please confirm that the M6 threaded hole for O and I/O is 1.0mm (Coarse, common), not 0.75mm (Fine, less common), in thread space? I once wrongly assumed what was Fine as Coarse for my speaker bases' M6 threaded holes and got them damaged by forcing in Coarse threaded rods (studs). Thanks!

 

@Taiko Audio Emile, could you please confirm that the M6 threaded hole for O and I/O is 1.0mm (Coarse, common), not 0.75mm (Fine, less common), in thread space? I once wrongly assumed what was Fine as Coarse for my speaker bases' M6 threaded holes and got them damaged by forcing in Coarse threaded rods (studs). Thanks!

A question I don’t have an answer to!

If you contact support@taikoaudio.com you may get a reply faster, otherwise I’ll have to verify this myself, but I cannot do that till Tuesday.

 

Maybe u can tell by this picture...these fit perfectly in my Olympus

 

Looks like 1.0mm. But since you have gone that far, which is the hard part, you could just measure it.

.039" = 1.0mm

 

M6x1

 

Maybe u can tell by this picture...these fit perfectly in my OlympusView attachment 149206

Is that a SS or Aluminum slab? Work bench or top of an audio shelf? I love it!!! Custom footers?

 

Al slab. Top of audio shelf, custom made from Herzan. Footers r from MSB M500 amps. They sound very different than the stock Olympus footers. Very nice improvement...

 

 

View attachment 149224

Very nice! I have Been playing around with aluminum in some platforms that I am experimenting with. 1/2" layered between MDF and cork. A friend of mine is Mig welding some 8" pieces together. Now you got me thinking about footers. Interesting the SS footers directly onto the aluminum...

 

The black dots on bottom of footers are Viton

 

I didn't notice at first then I realized after taking a closer look..

 

Interesting, I just did the upgrade.

Directly after the upgrade it did actually sound a bit worse here! After a reboot of the Olympus it sounds the same as before again though. So I’m a bit in the dark here.

We have developed a few “dials” we can adjust to rebalance things if anything drastic changes in Roon, but I’ve not yet come across a scenario where this was necessary (we can actually make these available in the future as part of a BMS app extension we’re working on).

An exception is that sometimes Roon enables a debug mode for a period of time, with verbose logging enabled, to find a solution to a more persistent problem they’re encountering. Like for example the playback queue interruptions (which appear to be largely gone now, in fact completely for me). If they do this there’s an audible impact we cannot compensate for, as this usually goes accompanied by an increase in disk activity, which we only have one option for to “immunise” the system for, being the I/O.

Thank you for this, Emile. My experience with the 1525 build has not been good.

I've been very busy with my conversion of my garage into a music room and by the end of the day haven't had much time for listening. The last two evenings I did take some time and wasn't at all happy with what I was hearing from Roon/Olympus. Which is unusual to say the least. Even "known good" demo tracks that previously were quite engaging sounded thin and somewhat harsh in the top end. Quite uncharacteristic of what I was hearing before from the Olympus and XDMI analog card.

I chalked it up to the Roon update but it could be verbose logging -- in the process of troubleshooting I discovered that I have a disk drive failure in my NAS. But even streaming, which previously was excellent and very difficult to distinguish from NAS storage tracks, sounded like crap.

I will try telling Roon to disable the NAS as a storage location and revisit, but it was quite disappointing.

Luckily, I still have a really good vinyl rig and that was sounding great so all is not lost (though it does accentuate the degraded sound quality from digital!)

Steve Z

 

Thank you for this, Emile. My experience with the 1525 build has not been good.

I've been very busy with my conversion of my garage into a music room and by the end of the day haven't had much time for listening. The last two evenings I did take some time and wasn't at all happy with what I was hearing from Roon/Olympus. Which is unusual to say the least. Even "known good" demo tracks that previously were quite engaging sounded thin and somewhat harsh in the top end. Quite uncharacteristic of what I was hearing before from the Olympus and XDMI analog card.

I chalked it up to the Roon update but it could be verbose logging -- in the process of troubleshooting I discovered that I have a disk drive failure in my NAS. But even streaming, which previously was excellent and very difficult to distinguish from NAS storage tracks, sounded like crap.

I will try telling Roon to disable the NAS as a storage location and revisit, but it was quite disappointing.

Luckily, I still have a really good vinyl rig and that was sounding great so all is not lost (though it does accentuate the degraded sound quality from digital!)

Steve Z

Did you try restarting everything? Router/Switch included? Checked all cable connections?

 

Did you try restarting everything? Router/Switch included? Checked all cable connections?

I've gotten as far as disabling my NAS as a storage location in Roon, shutting down the Roon app on my iPad and then putting Olympus into standby via the Olympus front panel button.

Before I start Olympus again I will check all cable connections (nothing new or changed in my system or LAN), then shut down and sequentially restart the main LAN router, Taiko router and Taiko switch.

I'll keep you posted. Thank you, Emile.

Steve Z

 

I've gotten as far as disabling my NAS as a storage location in Roon, shutting down the Roon app on my iPad and then putting Olympus into standby via the Olympus front panel button.

Before I start Olympus again I will check all cable connections (nothing new or changed in my system or LAN), then shut down and sequentially restart the main LAN router, Taiko router and Taiko switch.

I'll keep you posted. Thank you, Emile.

Steve Z

So, after checking all the cables (nothing amiss found but it never hurts to make sure they're positively seated) and restarting my LAN router, Taiko router and Taiko switch I restarted the Olympus and let everything else in the system warm up for awhile. . .

The gods have returned to Olympus and all is right again in heaven and earth. Evidently the degraded NAS must have been causing verbose logging in Roon.

By setting the NAS to "disabled" in the Settings > Storage page of Roon I noticed that not only did I remove the glitchy and slow loading of tracks from the NAS but streaming performance seemed snappier and more responsive as well. And most importantly, I'm back to enjoying excellent sound quality from the Olympus.

Thanks again, Emile!

Steve Z

 

So, after checking all the cables (nothing amiss found but it never hurts to make sure they're positively seated) and restarting my LAN router, Taiko router and Taiko switch I restarted the Olympus and let everything else in the system warm up for awhile. . .

The gods have returned to Olympus and all is right again in heaven and earth. Evidently the degraded NAS must have been causing verbose logging in Roon.

By setting the NAS to "disabled" in the Settings > Storage page of Roon I noticed that not only did I remove the glitchy and slow loading of tracks from the NAS but streaming performance seemed snappier and more responsive as well. And most importantly, I'm back to enjoying excellent sound quality from the Olympus.

Thanks again, Emile!

Steve Z

You’re welcome!

Interesting behaviour, can you remind me which brand/model NAS you have?

 

So, after checking all the cables (nothing amiss found but it never hurts to make sure they're positively seated) and restarting my LAN router, Taiko router and Taiko switch I restarted the Olympus and let everything else in the system warm up for awhile. . .

The gods have returned to Olympus and all is right again in heaven and earth. Evidently the degraded NAS must have been causing verbose logging in Roon.

By setting the NAS to "disabled" in the Settings > Storage page of Roon I noticed that not only did I remove the glitchy and slow loading of tracks from the NAS but streaming performance seemed snappier and more responsive as well. And most importantly, I'm back to enjoying excellent sound quality from the Olympus.

Thanks again, Emile!

Steve Z

So if I am digesting this correctly. If the NAS is running amiss it has a direct correlation with Roon processing in the most effective fashion? I'm sure this has been covered; Any optimal suggestion as to NAS integration? Roon is going to see the NAS in the network no matter what, unless its disabled as you have done.

Please share with us your results when and if you reintroduce a properly functioning NAS. It "sounds" as though in your network the Olympus/Roon SQ may have improved more so after disabling the NAS.

I hope your making big strides in the "garage project" sounds like an album cover....