Olive + Thiel's $7,900 Audio Server

[Dj_AmTraX]

Olive + Thiel's $7,900 Audio Server is the Sheeeeeeeeit - Olive - Gizmodo

[howiebrou]

Originally Posted by Dj_AmTraX

Olive + Thiel's $7,900 Audio Server is the Sheeeeeeeeit - Olive - Gizmodo

Looks interesting Mike. I guess I could do the same by adding the Olive to my Meridian system??

howie

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by howiebrou

Looks interesting Mike. I guess I could do the same by adding the Olive to my Meridian system??

howie

Howie
The Olive 4HD is a very good sounding unit and would be a nice addition to your system. As I have posted elsewhere here regarding the Olive, it is virtually indistinguishable from the MCD-500 playing CD's or the MS-300 using the 500's DAC's. I have begun to download some hi rez tracks 24/192, 24/96 and 24/88 and they also sound very good.
Make sure it is the 4HD and not just the 4, there are differences.
Jim

[g33k]

Out of curiosity, how does it handle the organization of classical music? What is the interface like?

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by howiebrou

Looks interesting Mike. I guess I could do the same by adding the Olive to my Meridian system??

howie

Actually Howie and Jim...in the Olive and Thiel system, the Olive is being used simply as a music server sending the digital out via ethernet cables to the specially modified speakers which house a 200wpc amp (similar to your Meridian speakers Howie) but also house the DAC in each speaker. So the DAC in the Olive is bypassed and the digital conversion is done by the DAC embedded in the speakers. They also combine this system with an ethernet network controller called the Zoet which ensures no data dropouts or any latency issues, so you get a seamless data stream to the DACs in the speaker. In your application Howie you could use the Olive similarly where you could send the digital out stream (again bypassing its onboard DAC) into your 861 processor as another source similar to your 808.2 CD transport. But in that scenario, you are using the Olive simply as a Hard Drive and music management software (which as Jim says) is ok but not great, which is a bit rich for $1,999. Cheers.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by g33k

Out of curiosity, how does it handle the organization of classical music? What is the interface like?

There are four+ ways to manage the server, none of which are really great. I will not go into great detail, so:
1) The touchscreen on the front is not bad, but I don't want to control the unit in the rack. On the touchscreen you can select from album covers similar to iTunes, but you have to scroll thru one at a time. You can choose by genre (which you can edit via their web app), you can choose playlists, you can choose by artist or album title.
2) They have a iPhone/iPod web app that is very similar to the Sonos app but it is still needs some work.
3) You can use the remote if you hook up a monitor (hdmi only). You can only have either the monitor or front touch panel active at one time. That is a hassle. You see very similar to what is on the touch pad.
4) You can use their web app called Maestro. This needs a lot of work. You can use it to hit play but there is no pause or jumping around. You can use Maestro to edit Titles, Artists, genre, add or correct album art. It needs work as you cannot edit or add time info or some other key info.

The last or the + I noted is the stand alone control that looks like a small Olive called the Olvie 2. (see attached) That may be the way to go for some, but a bit pricy at $600.
Jim

[howiebrou]

Originally Posted by cmalak

Actually Howie and Jim...in the Olive and Thiel system, the Olive is being used simply as a music server sending the digital out via ethernet cables to the specially modified speakers which house a 200wpc amp (similar to your Meridian speakers Howie) but also house the DAC in each speaker. So the DAC in the Olive is bypassed and the digital conversion is done by the DAC embedded in the speakers. They also combine this system with an ethernet network controller called the Zoet which ensures no data dropouts or any latency issues, so you get a seamless data stream to the DACs in the speaker. In your application Howie you could use the Olive similarly where you could send the digital out stream (again bypassing its onboard DAC) into your 861 processor as another source similar to your 808.2 CD transport. But in that scenario, you are using the Olive simply as a Hard Drive and music management software (which as Jim says) is ok but not great, which is a bit rich for $1,999. Cheers.

I think you are right about the GUI. It's okay but a little slow and not as good as the Sonos / Qtronix or Sooloos.

[cmalak]

Howie...I still have this on my list of potential music servers. I think it is still a more elegant solution than a clunkier PC-based system. From Jim's review of the unit, the onboard DAC is very solid and if you want to improve upon it, you can always add an outboard DAC, which in your case, with the Meridian gear, will clearly improve on its onboard DAC. The question then becomes, do you really want to pay $8K premium for the Sooloos' slightly more user friendly GUI? I am not sure that is worth it either. Cheers

Jim...Has Olive continued to improve upon the GUI and musice server software with each software update it pushes out to customers? I am assuming that whatever quirks exist with the music server s/w gets communicated by customers back to Olive and these get addressed over time with s/w updates. I may be wrong though

[Still-One]

Cyril

Yes, they continue to work on the interface and when I spoke to them last week they indicated another update should be coming shortly. Here is a link to Release Notes from recent updates.
OLIVE | SAVE THE SOUND.

It will never be as user friendly as the SooLoss, but it almost a good as the SonoS interface.
Jim