Olive 6HD Transport Problem

[Jerome W]

Hi Folks,

I have to inform you that unfortunately, the 6 HD will go back to Olive. That's over for me.
2 days after I got my unit, the cd drive just "died".
It started to make some noise with some discs. Then, it did play discs, but would not open the importation window. Then it stopped working completely : no reading, no importation.
I received a great service from Olive and the french importer.
The new unit was waiting for me at my dealer's store 2 days ago but I have been able to pick it up only today.
This is the message I sent to my friend Dan, it will give you a nice view of what happened and how I feel :
"Hi Dan,

I got the second unit today.

First thing I noticed when I opened it was a very tiny mark on the front side. I thought "that's ok , it is extremely small and we don't live in a perfect world".
I started to import cds. For one cd, the drive made a bit more noise than normal, something looking like the first faulty drive, but less loud.

The 4th cd I put in was Sara K "Don't I know you from somewhere". I imported this cd without any problem with the first unit. Now, it does not read the TOC. After 5 minutes, the drive is still running looking for the Artist name and tracks. You have to eject the cd and try a few times more. When I finally it recognized it, it was only for reading. The normal window which should open each time you load a cd, asking you wether you want to read or import, does not even appear.

Then, I tested the headphone output : when I inserted my jack, my eye was caught by some subtle scratches on the outer screw of the headphone input. Well, it does not smell good I thought. Finally it appeared that the headphone jack was not working at all !!! Obviously this unit has also been returned to Olive (the french importer told me I was the first customer in France so no unit has been returned to them except mine ) and they did not even check what was wrong before selling it again ! Poor, poor way to do !
They provide a good service. They answered my requests on their facebook site. They answered my phone calls. A gentlemen told me that I will get the complete refund when I will return the unit.
But damn, they do have a quality control problem.
2 units, delivered 3 days apart, are faulty. They don't test them at the end of the production chain ? I just can't believe it. Now I understand what I read rather often on the web. "Olive products sound great. When they work !! ".

I was happy to support a young, american, innovative company but that's too much for me now.
By respect for their work, and to let them a chance to do better, especially among the community of AA, I won't publish anything about that on the site, but I have the feeling that, after the great article I posted, it could be rather a selfish and dishonest attitude.

What do you think ?
Thanks a lot my friend !
Cheers "

As you probably understood, Dan invited me to inform you about that.
I do think that AA members should know it.
Olive has to establish a good quality control of their products. If they don't I would not bet a lot on their future as a major brand in Hi-Fi business....

[jdandy]

Jérôme.......I know this must be frustrating for you. It is such a pain in the ass to get something brand new, only to discover it is not working properly, or fails to operate properly after such a short period of time. It takes all the fun and excitement right out of the new purchase. I am sorry this happened to you with the Olive 6HD, not just once but twice. This is totally unacceptable. Fortunately, Olive has agreed to a full refund, as they well should. Many people would not have been willing to even try a second unit like you did. Two faulty Olive 6HD's back to back doesn't give me a great deal of confidence in their quality control.

[Puma Cat]

Unfortunatey, i think Jerome may have received another unit that was returned by a previous customer because it was also faulty. The small cosmetic flaws make me think it was pre-owned and returned. Probably for the same exact failure mode.

Sounds like Olive has a bad batch of optical drives from their OEM supplier. Very possible the same "lot" of drives made it into both players Jerome received.

I had a similar problem last year with a VPI record cleaning machine; the sealing around the cabinet was faulty so that the RCM fluid would leak between the seams and swell the MDF cabinet. Went through three of them until I finally got one from VPI that did not leak. Was also told that another customer had received the fourth unit in the build lot that had the same leaking problem.

Unfortunately, this behavior is all too common. Back when record stores sold LPs, the big stores had a shrink wrapping machine the back. The customer would return a defective, scratched or warped LP, and they would take it, re-shrink wrap it, put a new sticker on it, and put it back in the stacks for resale.

[BearCubinNY]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Unfortunately, this behavior is all too common. Back when record stores sold LPs, the big stores had a shrink wrapping machine the back. The customer would return a defective, scratched or warped LP, and they would take it, re-shrink wrap it, put a new sticker on it, and put it back in the stacks for resale.

All too common and it sucks!

Jérôme, sorry for your troubles with the bad units. I think you've given them a more than fair shake. Best of luck finding a music server. The Sooloos may be the ticket!

Reg

[JSCC]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Jérôme.......I know this must be frustrating for you. It is such a pain in the ass to get something brand new, only to discover it is not working properly, or fails to operate properly after such a short period of time. It takes all the fun and excitement right out of the new purchase. I am sorry this happened to you with the Olive 6HD, not just once but twice. This is totally unacceptable. Fortunately, Olive has agreed to a full refund, as they well should. Many people would not have been willing to even try a second unit like you did. Two faulty Olive 6HD's back to back doesn't give me a great deal of confidence in their quality control.

Hi Dan,

I am one of the few who will even give a THIRD chance. I am an idiot I suppose!

Luckily you woke me up!

Cheers!

[JSCC]

Originally Posted by BearCubinNY

All too common and it sucks!

Jérôme, sorry for your troubles with the bad units. I think you've given them a more than fair shake. Best of luck finding a music server. The Sooloos may be the ticket!

Reg

Hi Jérôme,

I am sorry to hear of your problems with the Olive ... but I must add the "6" is really a nice looking gear, in black especially.

I have been thru much worse than you had - serious, just that I dont say so in this forum - and I surely understand your feeling, pain and disappointment.

Maybe its time you try the Sooloos C15+MS600 if your storage does not go beyond a 500GB and the need to do an external backup. If not, a full C15+Twinstore (2Tb+2Tb)+MS600 would be a great combo. I had mine for quite some time now and seriously, I am touching not one CD and lesser as the days goes by my vinyl, although I try to exercise the Shilabe cartridge as told by my TT dealer.

Its really a great gear to have! So far, plug and play with nary a fault! No dents, scratches however minor ... God forbid for the price they are asking!

Cheers!

[Jerome W]

Hi guys,

Yes, obviously this unit had been returned to Olive and they sent it back to an other customer without checking good function. Too bad for them and for me : they are just loosing one customer but actually a bit more becuse this unprofessional way to make business will make them loose many customers if they don't change quickly...

Jerry, thanks for the Meridian advice. Yes, that could be a nice road to follow.
Anyway I won't buy any more expensive gear from a young company. I believe in McIntosh, Quad, Linn, Meridian, ARC, PMC, Wilson....
I don't believe anymore in Olive, Lyngdorf....

I just bought a Squeezebox Touch on JM's advice. No AES output but I will see how it wounds with the MDA in coax....
I'm also much interested in the Bryston BDP 1....

[JSCC]

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Hi guys,

Yes, obviously this unit had been returned to Olive and they sent it back to an other customer without checking good function. Too bad for them and for me : they are just loosing one customer but actually a bit more becuse this unprofessional way to make business will make them loose many customers if they don't change quickly...

Jerry, thanks for the Meridian advice. Yes, that could be a nice road to follow.
Anyway I won't buy any more expensive gear from a young company. I believe in McIntosh, Quad, Linn, Meridian, ARC, PMC, Wilson....
I don't believe anymore in Olive, Lyngdorf....

I just bought a Squeezebox Touch on JM's advice. No AES output but I will see how it wounds with the MDA in coax....
I'm also much interested in the Bryston BDP 1....

Hi Jérôme,

If the music server main purpose is for easy non critical listening, perhaps a cheaper alternative would be using a Mac (iMac, MacBook) with 500GB storage would do.

Using Apple Lossless to rip the CD's into iTunes, you can then book up the MacBook to the MDA1000 to which it will then playback your music. I have been doing that for years until last year, when I took the leap of faith. Although there are differences between the Sooloos and iTunes, the cost difference between the two is also wide.

Take your time and play around before making the final decision. I have both format and seriously, if I had not found Sooloos (because of my exchange with Howie on the Meridian combo), I would still have been pretty happy with iTunes. More so, the hassle of getting minimum 500x500 density album arts, cause somehow, Apple iTunes can project onto your big TV screen, in my case, big Samsung LED TV, clean clear album art that is only 200x200.

Since you got your money back, Happy hunting.

Cheers!

[Jerome W]

Hi Jerry,

Indeed, my idea with the Olive was to get the same level of sound of my cd drive but with the convenienve of a server. Which I got actually, when "it worked". The sound of the Ikemi drive was probably less neutral by just a very small margin, a tiny bit of warmer and deeper, but the difference was so small that I could forget it easily with the convenience of the server.

The Squeeze Box is a cheap solution and if I don't like it, no problem. My son will get it. I will try that and maybe that, like JM, I will also find very small differences between it and my drive... I will mostly play from my itunes files or I will try to import files with db poweramp or AVS.

The Bryston music player is also very tempting but I will wait for the NAS ability.

Thanks a lot for your comments and advices !

( PS / I did not receive my money back yet cause the unit is still in my home waiting for the french importer rep to pick it up )

[howiebrou]

Jerome,

Sorry to hear about your problems. The re-sale of a returned unit by Olive is imho unacceptable. It should be sold at most as a B unit which clearly states it is a returned unit the way PS Audio or Apple does.

Whilst I don't necessarily wish you to commit to spending a lot of money again you really should just consider perhaps a Sooloos C15 going straight to your MDA. The Sooloos is the best piece of equipment I have ever bought in that it allows me to easily have music in the house all day and all night long.

The operative word is 'easily' because the interface is so good I don't mind using it. I used itunes before and whilst on the surface they look similar with all the nice artwork displayed on the laptop the interface is miles apart.

There are many so called 'audiophiles' who are really only interested in equipment. Those, like yourself, who are interested in music, will find it a god send.

At 3600 pounds for a C15 it is not bad!

howie