Yep, I’ve used Core Audio racks and stands almost exclusively. His (Arnold’s) latest are really beautiful. I agree, Arnold is the kind of fella most enjoyable doing business with. Just a wonderful guy.
Introducing Olympus & Olympus I/O - A new perspective on modern music playback
- Thread starter Taiko Audio
- Start date
I am currently running pink noise on a loop from a shared network drive (on another windows computer). I see this in Roon (I am remotely connected to the PC with the Roon remote):
The track progression (red box I have highlighted) seems to be stuck, but on the playlist, I see the tiny bars moving up and down (green box I have highlighted)
My question is if the music is really playing or is it paused? Because I am travelling, I do not have a way to remotely confirm if there is sound.
If I hit the pause button, the UI responds and turns to the play triangle, the tiny bars on the playlist go flat. If I hit play, the track progression is still stuck, and the tiny bars start moving again. I want to believe the music is actually being played and the XDMI Analog DAC is burning-in ..
Has anyone else seen this or similar? It has been a couple of years since I used Roon.
The track progression (red box I have highlighted) seems to be stuck, but on the playlist, I see the tiny bars moving up and down (green box I have highlighted)
My question is if the music is really playing or is it paused? Because I am travelling, I do not have a way to remotely confirm if there is sound.
If I hit the pause button, the UI responds and turns to the play triangle, the tiny bars on the playlist go flat. If I hit play, the track progression is still stuck, and the tiny bars start moving again. I want to believe the music is actually being played and the XDMI Analog DAC is burning-in ..
Has anyone else seen this or similar? It has been a couple of years since I used Roon.
Just hit the forward button to advance to the next track. I have “roon radio” playing and occasionally mine stops (without the “connection dropped” message.) I just move to the next track (forward button) and all is well. When I’ve looped like you’re doing it doesn’t seem to have any impact vs Roon radio. Occasionally the song stops. To my knowledge is being researched and/or a fix is already in the works, but rollout hasn’t yet been announced.
I've now set up a direct local burn-in process. Just loaded one album directly on Olympus. I have a version without extra disk, so I had to pull an album from NAS into Olympus. Olympus is not providing a network share when no Music drive is presetn (quite logical).
This way I can run non-stop Roon without being impacted by NAS issues, network issues or some problems with Tidal or Qobuz.
This way I can run non-stop Roon without being impacted by NAS issues, network issues or some problems with Tidal or Qobuz.
It’s been a few weeks now since I got my Olympus (no internal storage) and I/O (fitted w MSB ProISL module) so wanted to share my impressions so far.
My system: Taiko DSD (powered by Uptone JS-2), Router, and Switch > [was Extreme w internal storage + XDMS Alpha software > MSB ProUSB] > Select DAC > Soulution 701+ (upgraded) mono pre-amps in dual mode (Siltech single crystal XLR and speaker cables) > B&W 800 D3s, running off a dedicated subpanel with 50A cabling from main panel through to wall outlets (30A sub-panel breakers).
I was listening to basically red book format content via a mix of local storage and streamed Qobuz files (SQ preference for local storage) having previously used PGGB upsampled files ever since I had a Chord DAVE DAC some time ago (I preferred the red book files with XDMS on Extreme vs the upsampled files).
My first compliment to Taiko is regarding the quality packaging and general productization with the app interface, interactions are slick and it doesn’t feel like a computer at all. FedEx delivered at 3:30pm. I was up and running with music by 5:00pm, including getting the cases from outside the garage down to my basement, associated rests, and taking connecting things up deliberately slowly.
I’d read the manuals the night before (!), and everything worked first time, even connecting Roon via the Taiko Router to the low power single-SSD QNAP NAS powered by the Taiko DSD that is now my ‘local’ storage. I’ve kept the BMS's on the default re-charging schedule and haven't thought about it since day one. I did a ‘practise’ shutdown and re-start after a few days, just so the first time I did it wasn't when a storm is threatening (my very life today), again very easy.
Many others have talked about the qualities of the Olympus, but at the risk of repetition here’s my take.
My first listening impressions after the 90 minute gap between Extreme XDMS Alpha and Roon on the Olympus & IO was of being hit between the eyes by enormous clarity, detail, dynamics, and massive soundstage - the immediate improvements from the Extreme to the Olympus are not subtle ones. I did initially miss some engagement and delicacy I was getting with Extreme & XDMS alpha, but that came along pretty quickly with use.
An additional benefit of the lower noise floor is that I can turn the volume up higher, which further emphasises the dynamics and fantastic bass.
I joked to my friend that its difficult to move in the listening room for all the ‘veils’ that are now lying discarded on the floor. Trying to describe it sounds contradictory: its (in a positive way) very detailed and any particular element of a recording can be followed with ease, whilst also experiencing the flowing, engaging whole of a performance; there is delicacy to be had in the decay of cymbals and piano notes, but also brutality when its called for.
Olympus doesn’t turn the worst recordings into an audiophile dream, but it digs into them and I find makes them more enjoyable.
What the Olympus does do for me is make every other recording into ‘must listen’ experiences - you can effortlessly hear a long way ‘into’ the recorded performance. After that first rush of jumping between well-known ‘demo’ tracks subsided, I now really want to sit down and engage with all music for a much longer time.
Over the last 6 months or so, for reasons that are too long and boring to go into, I’ve experienced my Taiko journey over again in fast-forward, going from Roon on a laptop via USB to the MSB ProUSB (proving the adage rubbish in = rubbish out), using an intermediary BluSound streamer via Toslink, adding in the Taiko Switch, Router, & DCD, then the Extreme via its original USB, then the Taiko USB Card (I mistakenly plugged the USB cable into the original USB connector at first, forgetting about the USB card…), then adding the last iteration of XDMS Alpha to the Extreme in place of Roon.
The Switch / Router / DCD, Extreme itself, USB card, and XDMS were all significant steps forward.
I’d describe Olympus as a leap forward - Olympus / IO, BMS, and XDMI are outstanding achievements by Taiko, and I feel lucky to be able to experience them along with their Switch, Router, and DCD. It’s ‘digital done right’ - huge congratulations to the team!
Now I’ve got used to the Olympus, aside from listening to lots of music new and old, I’ve started getting curious again and been listening to streamed Qobuz FLAC vs FLAC from a Synology NAS with 4 HDDs on my wider network vs WAVs on the single-SSD QNAP NAS connected to the Router and powered by the DCD that’s also powering the Router and Switch. Its early days - I’m only comparing one album so far that I’m pretty sure has the same ‘provenance’ between versions - but I think I like the QNAP version better - livelier, and more focussed bass. I’ll experiment more to figure out whether that is due to WAV, the better DCD power, or both.
If this journey ended where I am now I’d be in a very happy place, but Taiko is obviously on a very productive trajectory and I have a feeling that there is more goodness to come.
I’ve never had a situation where ‘better’ power and lower noise hasn’t improved SQ, so:
My system: Taiko DSD (powered by Uptone JS-2), Router, and Switch > [was Extreme w internal storage + XDMS Alpha software > MSB ProUSB] > Select DAC > Soulution 701+ (upgraded) mono pre-amps in dual mode (Siltech single crystal XLR and speaker cables) > B&W 800 D3s, running off a dedicated subpanel with 50A cabling from main panel through to wall outlets (30A sub-panel breakers).
I was listening to basically red book format content via a mix of local storage and streamed Qobuz files (SQ preference for local storage) having previously used PGGB upsampled files ever since I had a Chord DAVE DAC some time ago (I preferred the red book files with XDMS on Extreme vs the upsampled files).
My first compliment to Taiko is regarding the quality packaging and general productization with the app interface, interactions are slick and it doesn’t feel like a computer at all. FedEx delivered at 3:30pm. I was up and running with music by 5:00pm, including getting the cases from outside the garage down to my basement, associated rests, and taking connecting things up deliberately slowly.
I’d read the manuals the night before (!), and everything worked first time, even connecting Roon via the Taiko Router to the low power single-SSD QNAP NAS powered by the Taiko DSD that is now my ‘local’ storage. I’ve kept the BMS's on the default re-charging schedule and haven't thought about it since day one. I did a ‘practise’ shutdown and re-start after a few days, just so the first time I did it wasn't when a storm is threatening (my very life today), again very easy.
Many others have talked about the qualities of the Olympus, but at the risk of repetition here’s my take.
My first listening impressions after the 90 minute gap between Extreme XDMS Alpha and Roon on the Olympus & IO was of being hit between the eyes by enormous clarity, detail, dynamics, and massive soundstage - the immediate improvements from the Extreme to the Olympus are not subtle ones. I did initially miss some engagement and delicacy I was getting with Extreme & XDMS alpha, but that came along pretty quickly with use.
An additional benefit of the lower noise floor is that I can turn the volume up higher, which further emphasises the dynamics and fantastic bass.
I joked to my friend that its difficult to move in the listening room for all the ‘veils’ that are now lying discarded on the floor. Trying to describe it sounds contradictory: its (in a positive way) very detailed and any particular element of a recording can be followed with ease, whilst also experiencing the flowing, engaging whole of a performance; there is delicacy to be had in the decay of cymbals and piano notes, but also brutality when its called for.
Olympus doesn’t turn the worst recordings into an audiophile dream, but it digs into them and I find makes them more enjoyable.
What the Olympus does do for me is make every other recording into ‘must listen’ experiences - you can effortlessly hear a long way ‘into’ the recorded performance. After that first rush of jumping between well-known ‘demo’ tracks subsided, I now really want to sit down and engage with all music for a much longer time.
Over the last 6 months or so, for reasons that are too long and boring to go into, I’ve experienced my Taiko journey over again in fast-forward, going from Roon on a laptop via USB to the MSB ProUSB (proving the adage rubbish in = rubbish out), using an intermediary BluSound streamer via Toslink, adding in the Taiko Switch, Router, & DCD, then the Extreme via its original USB, then the Taiko USB Card (I mistakenly plugged the USB cable into the original USB connector at first, forgetting about the USB card…), then adding the last iteration of XDMS Alpha to the Extreme in place of Roon.
The Switch / Router / DCD, Extreme itself, USB card, and XDMS were all significant steps forward.
I’d describe Olympus as a leap forward - Olympus / IO, BMS, and XDMI are outstanding achievements by Taiko, and I feel lucky to be able to experience them along with their Switch, Router, and DCD. It’s ‘digital done right’ - huge congratulations to the team!
Now I’ve got used to the Olympus, aside from listening to lots of music new and old, I’ve started getting curious again and been listening to streamed Qobuz FLAC vs FLAC from a Synology NAS with 4 HDDs on my wider network vs WAVs on the single-SSD QNAP NAS connected to the Router and powered by the DCD that’s also powering the Router and Switch. Its early days - I’m only comparing one album so far that I’m pretty sure has the same ‘provenance’ between versions - but I think I like the QNAP version better - livelier, and more focussed bass. I’ll experiment more to figure out whether that is due to WAV, the better DCD power, or both.
If this journey ended where I am now I’d be in a very happy place, but Taiko is obviously on a very productive trajectory and I have a feeling that there is more goodness to come.
I’ve never had a situation where ‘better’ power and lower noise hasn’t improved SQ, so:
- I figure the more things I can get powered by BMS, the better …
- V2 DAC card will be given a serious audition (I ideally want balanced outputs & volume control). Even if V2 turns out not to be 'it', I’m pretty sure some future version will be compelling.
- the Taiko Router and Switch - in a separate IO, maybe...? (total guess)
- the SQ delta of XDMS c.f. Roon on Extreme was significant for me, lower noise resulting in less harshness, better soundstage, more engagement - I was wondering if a similar impact on Olympus would be possible given the different CPU and design changes, and it was great to see @EuroDriver 's recent bullish post about that.
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Update on Networking Gear Production
Quick follow-up to the November 4th update:
We’ve now completed machining for all Routers and Switches. The DC Distributors are next in line and machining has already begun.
On the finishing side:
• All Routers have been fully sanded and polished and are currently with our chemical finishing partners.
• All Switches are now in the sanding/polishing stage.
• DC Distributors will move into finishing as soon as machining is wrapped up.
Overall, everything is moving according to plan, and we remain on track with the projected timeline.
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback, I’ve already passed your congratulations on to the team, and it definitely put smiles on faces
That comparison you’re doing is really interesting. Not many people have tried it in that level of detail, so please keep us posted on what you find. It’s the kind of real-world insight that helps all of us.
And yes, there’s definitely more “goodness” coming. As things calm down on the production side, we’re finally getting to spend more time on R&D again, so we can bring back the steady upgrade flow people are used to
We do hear that a lot, it is a bit more of a "luxurious" finish than plain anodising most appear to feel.
Thank you, that means a lot. The team will be glad to hear it
Stacking like this isn’t really an issue at normal ambient temperatures. It’ll run a couple of degrees warmer, but nothing dramatic, only if the room temperature rises a lot (e.g., during a heatwave) would it become something to keep an eye on.
Just to confirm, no stoppage issues? This was fully caused by your NAS?
Thank you for taking the time to help explaining the inner workings of networking
I can confirm that the router itself doesn’t wait, it replies to DHCP requests almost instantly. The delay usually comes from the devices, as they can take a bit of time to re-initialise their services after a network drop.
What we’re doing about it:
We’ve been working on a new XDMI driver that allows us to use alternative transport methods, adjust the data “pace” or speed, and fine-tune resilience by adding (optional) more and/or larger buffers. All of this will be configurable because, as is probably obvious by now, every change we make affects sound quality. Buffers, footers, cables, they all have an audible impact. We also expect this new driver to bring a further improvement in sound quality, which will be a nice bonus.
On top of that, we’re developing a new support and remote-management system that enables detailed log collection and centralized management for Taiko Servers and Routers. Together, these additions will allow us to dynamically adjust software and driver behavior, not only to increase connection resilience but very likely to further improve sound quality by adapting to each system’s unique environment.
Hi Emile
Any progress to report here?
We’ve been working on a new XDMI driver that allows us to use alternative transport methods, adjust the data “pace” or speed, and fine-tune resilience by adding (optional) more and/or larger buffers. All of this will be configurable because, as is probably obvious by now, every change we make affects sound quality. Buffers, footers, cables, they all have an audible impact. We also expect this new driver to bring a further improvement in sound quality, which will be a nice bonus.
On top of that, we’re developing a new support and remote-management system that enables detailed log collection and centralized management for Taiko Servers and Routers. Together, these additions will allow us to dynamically adjust software and driver behavior, not only to increase connection resilience but very likely to further improve sound quality by adapting to each system’s unique environment.
Hi Emile
Any progress to report here?
Partially, yes, and I should probably give a bit more context so it’s not just “yes, we made progress.”
Somewhat unexpectedly, but very much the right move, we decided to take a detour that gives us far deeper insight:
We’ve now completed a full Linux version of the XDMI driver, along with a Linux-based OS running Roon. The first listening tests and tuning sessions are scheduled for next Wednesday.
Does this mean Olympus is moving to Linux? No. But it lets us isolate and understand exactly which areas of the stack influence behavior and tuning. The same OS/XDMI code runs on both the Olympus and the Router, which gives us a much cleaner comparative view, not just for refining parameters, but also for exploring some interesting directions for future technology.
Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
This is indeed still on the roadmap!
Correct, no stoppages at all since running burn-in from internal drive. And I had to rebuild my NAS as it was in rather bad shape. Now finally back to normalThank you, that means a lot. The team will be glad to hear it
Stacking like this isn’t really an issue at normal ambient temperatures. It’ll run a couple of degrees warmer, but nothing dramatic, only if the room temperature rises a lot (e.g., during a heatwave) would it become something to keep an eye on.
Just to confirm, no stoppage issues? This was fully caused by your NAS?
I think this has been mentioned before, but it's so important to do it that I'm going to repeat it. This afternoon the sound system was terrible; the orchestral "tutti" passages were unpleasant, shrill... I was desperate. I changed signal cables, ground cables... until I remembered that the Taiko router hadn't been restarted in a while. I restarted it, and the sound improved, but not completely. Then I remembered that Roon hadn't restarted it in two weeks, so I did, and voilà, problem solved.
Of course, something that greatly improves streaming playback is turning off the NAS. It would be fantastic if Taiko could ever manage to prevent the internal storage on the Olympus from degrading the SQ rating.
Of course, something that greatly improves streaming playback is turning off the NAS. It would be fantastic if Taiko could ever manage to prevent the internal storage on the Olympus from degrading the SQ rating.
I opted for not having internal storage, and the burn-in process has been somewhat frustrating. Since I am travelling, I am not able to baby sit Roon. I have tried a few things and all of them resulted in Roon stopping at least once to every few hours a day.
In my setup, Roon Radio playing from Qobuz was the worst offender followed by Roon radio playing from my library on a shared network drive. A single album on shared drive played in a Loop has been most stable (still stoppage once a day) followed by single track played in a loop with stoppages once to twice a day.
But for regular listening, these occasional stoppages would be less bothersome.
I placed an order with Taiko's dealer (Volent Hong Kong) back in August 2024 and have been waiting ever since for delivery. Each time I follow up, I’m given the same explanation — that the chassis finishing from their vendor was not up to standard, and new batches continue to fail Taiko’s QC. While I appreciate the commitment to quality, this same reason has been repeated for months with no clear corrective action plan or timeline provided.
For a reputable manufacturer, I would expect concrete steps to resolve the issue and a clear commitment on how and when it will be rectified. Instead, the chassis-finishing explanation keeps resurfacing without any meaningful update, resolution, or sense of accountability toward customers who have supported the brand.
I hope Taiko can address this more transparently and provide a realistic plan moving forward.
For a reputable manufacturer, I would expect concrete steps to resolve the issue and a clear commitment on how and when it will be rectified. Instead, the chassis-finishing explanation keeps resurfacing without any meaningful update, resolution, or sense of accountability toward customers who have supported the brand.
I hope Taiko can address this more transparently and provide a realistic plan moving forward.
Hi @LR319 ,
The explanation you’ve been given is fully accurate, and unfortunately it’s not something we can “work around” on the production side.
To give you a clearer picture:
- Silver Olympus:
There are 12 units left in the queue. Two of these are for Hong Kong, queue numbers #118 and #146, and they are currently #1 and #3 in the remaining silver queue.
The issue is that silver anodised chassis are coming in at a very slow and unpredictable rate. We can assemble immediately once a chassis passes QC, but we cannot give a reliable shipping date until they arrive. - Black anodised:
There are 2 units left in this queue. One of them, #132, is also for Hong Kong and is at the top of that queue. - Black coated:
Three units remain, none of which are Hong Kong orders. Those were placed recently, and black coated will be an in-stock item within the next few weeks.
Hi @Zaphod Beeblebrox ,
Maybe this helps ease the “audiophile nervosa” a bit: you don’t actually need to play music for burn-in to happen, simply having the unit powered on is enough. Unlike interconnects, the ~1.5" of copper PCB tracing that actually carries signal has so little dielectric involvement that any “signal-path burn-in” effect would be vanishingly small, if noticeable at all.
Hopefully that takes a bit of pressure off while you’re traveling
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