Olive O6HD Music Server - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by kboe 

That's an awesome breakdown Ben.  And so true, a system you build yourself is wildly flexible and tweak-able.

Thanks!  Honestly, I think the major drawback with that system is the build quality.  The remote is rather cheaply built - but considering the features and the price, there is absolutely nothing that comes close to it.  That's why I plan on getting one myself for all my non vinyl and SACD listening.

Maybe in the future we'll see someone come out with a similar device - you can already use an iPod Touch with the Apple Airport Express, but that has no digital out, a shi***y DAC, and limited file support.  But a nicer remote would be good indeed, at least for the high-end crowd.  As it is now, it's a little like driving a Corvette Z06 instead of a Ferrari F430 - it may be faster on the track, easier to drive, and a lot cheaper - but it sure isn't anywhere near as pleasurable to drive.

For an 'nth degree, lets be anal about this' take on the 'ideal' audiophile music server, I think its hard to beat Chris Connaker's list of requirements:

01. Absolutely silent.
02. Capable of great sound.
03. Great looking.
04. No moving parts.
05. Fairly inexpensive.
06. No legacy components.
07. Easy to operate.
    a.Directly or
    b.Remotely
08. Easy to assemble / install
    a.Assembly / installation by one's self or
    b.Assembly / installation by local computer shop, son, daughter, neighbor, or friend.
09. Small size.
10. Low power consumption.
11. Low heat.
12. Accept an add-in card for audio or additional capabilities. Hardware & Software must accept appropriate add-in cards.
13. Play 16/44.1, 24/44.1, 24/88.2, 24/96, 24/176.4, and 24/192 all bit perfect.

I have bolded the requirements that might make it hard to just take any PC/laptop, install some software and call it a music server. End of the day, its whatever makes you happy, but there are some dingdong battles at Computer Audiophile when people start arguing over exactly what will and wont work inside that $50 case ....

Quote:

Originally Posted by estreeter 

For an 'nth degree, lets be anal about this' take on the 'ideal' audiophile music server, I think its hard to beat Chris Connaker's list of requirements:

 

01. Absolutely silent.
02. Capable of great sound.
03. Great looking.
04. No moving parts.
05. Fairly inexpensive.
06. No legacy components.
07. Easy to operate.
    a.Directly or
    b.Remotely
08. Easy to assemble / install
    a.Assembly / installation by one's self or
    b.Assembly / installation by local computer shop, son, daughter, neighbor, or friend.
09. Small size.
10. Low power consumption.
11. Low heat.
12. Accept an add-in card for audio or additional capabilities. Hardware & Software must accept appropriate add-in cards.
13. Play 16/44.1, 24/44.1, 24/88.2, 24/96, 24/176.4, and 24/192 all bit perfect.

 

I have bolded the requirements that might make it hard to just take any PC/laptop, install some software and call it a music server. End of the day, its whatever makes you happy, but there are some dingdong battles at Computer Audiophile when people start arguing over exactly what will and wont work inside that $50 case ....

I think a fanless netbook or laptop with an SSD would fit in this quite well.

BUT

If you are locating the server outside of the listening room, all of the non audio-path related things don't make any difference at all.  Fans, HDDs, etc. don't make any difference if they're not in the room.  Nor do looks, size, power consumption, heat, etc.

That's the beauty of the network streaming options.  Like the Squeezebox Duet.  And yes, it does support bit-perfect audio playback through its digital outputs.  There's even third party programs to replace Logitech's own with the Squeezebox.

Oh, and it's down to $300 on Amazon and elsewhere.  At that price, I think it's hard to justify not giving it a try if you're looking into something like the Sonos players.  And for someone like myself, I don't even have the choice of a Sonos at the prices they go for...

I guess I've got a little update to this thread, since I've stumbled upon a similarly priced and functioning setup.

Believe it or not, this rig centers around the Apple AirPort Express.  I knew the Airport (I'm going to omit the double caps, I find that annoying) had analog output of music, using iTunes to control it - but I didn't know that with an adapter, it also has an optical output to send to the DAC of your choice.

So if all your files are mp3, aac, or alac, you're set to go - plug in your DAC and control with your computer.  Or better yet, since we want remote capability with the PC in another room, an iPod Touch or iPhone can control iTunes.

But I know most of you - and me too - have your music as FLAC files.  Well, iTunes can't play FLAC, of course.  I don't like iTunes anyway, so that's not a big deal to me.

Luckily, there's actually a plug-in that will allow you to send the output from Winamp, MediaMonkey, or XMPlay to the Airport - it's not free, but at $10 (or $25 for unlimited upgrades) it's entirely reasonably priced:

http://emilles.dyndns.org/software/out_apx.html

Now, this wouldn't be any good without a way to control one of those remotely.  But there's a $4 app for Winamp...

http://www.movingapps.com/

And a $6 app for MediaMonkey:

http://melloware.com/products/imonkey/

So, the total damage:

Apple AirPort Express: $99

Apple iPod Touch 8GB: $229

does not sound very encouraging to someone who is awaiting the 06HD.

The Olive does have a 2 TB storage capacity, extremely decent DACs, balance out to external headphone amp (Woo WA22 in my case) and it looks pretty damn good.  

A clutter free setup in my opinion

What more should one expect from an all-in-one setup for $5000/-

Will leave some impressions once I get it

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHAHZADA123 

does not sound very encouraging to someone who is awaiting the 06HD.

 

The Olive does have a 2 TB storage capacity, extremely decent DACs, balance out to external headphone amp (Woo WA22 in my case) and it looks pretty damn good.  

A clutter free setup in my opinion

What more should one expect from an all-in-one setup for $5000/-

 

Will leave some impressions once I get it

just got it.

the packaging was excellent. Build quality is great.

Looks even better than the pictures.

more later. Oh and I forgot to mention; it streams music as well!

i'm thinking about buying one of these. please post impressions about sound quality, ease of loading/finding music, as well as any quirks.

thanks

SQ via unbalanced>Grado RA1>GS1000i was as good, if not better than what the Cambridge 840 CDP was churning out, and the 840 is excellent.

The headphone out sounds awful, but that was expected. External amp is a must.

The internal DAC is what was important to me. And right of the bat I am not disappointed 

The real fun will begin when I receive the WOO WA22! (in a week). Plan on going balanced

Have not uploaded as yet (too busy listening :)

Will keep you posted  

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda 

i'm thinking about buying one of these. please post impressions about sound quality, ease of loading/finding music, as well as any quirks.

 

thanks

Few initial impressions :

I have not yet connected to my network. (too busy ripping & listening) so nothing on that front.

Ripping CDs is a joy!

The moment you insert, the touch screen asks you : Play CD,  Rip CD,  Eject.

Once you choose the rip cd option, it immediately searches for the artwork from within its HD(The Olive had the artwork for 8/10 CDs which I ripped) Not bad considering my choice was mainly Indian music.

The screen continually shows the progress in percentages

It takes only about 4 minutes after which the CD gets ejected and the screen shows 100% complete.

The only sad part is that you cannot simultaneously listen.

The remote feels nice and heavy, with solid build quality.

It is black in colour with lovely green coloured buttons. The layout is also very practical.

The best part was that after using it for a while, I had to look at the front part of the remote to make sure it was IR. I almost thought that it was on RF. You dont need to keep pointing it to the source, nor do you have to keep pressing buttons repeatedly.

Havent found anything negative as yet, but its early days 

Thats it for now,

Keep drooling guys

blackbeardben, if that is indeed your real name (!), I agree that the netbook-with-SSD ticks a lot of boxes, and my N10J makes me happy despite that pesky spinning HDD, but its not the endgame for Chris and many others looking to build the 'perfect' mousetrap, er, music server. He spent months trying to get what he wanted on Linux, countless hours playing with soundcard drivers and the list goes on - I believe that many of us could build Chris' server for less money, and I would definitely go with the Essence over the Lynx card. Where a lot of these builds go awry is that very few people could assemble the hardware and resist the urge to try to turn it into a mini-HTPC : its all well and good to talk about dedicated music servers, but how many of us would look at a spare slot on the motherboard and not want to put a video card in ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yekrut 

Oh so very jealous! Please post some pictures up when you get the chance so we can all admire :)

there you go

Its certainly different - I guess they wanted to stand out from the pack, and they have definitely achieved that.

I've had my unit for about 2 months. It my wife and I about 1 month to load about 1100 cds all in wav format.

The touch screen is great but as it has a HDMI connection I got rid of 2 of my cd changers and mounted a 23" monitor above the unit which displays the audio

art.

About 80% of the atrwork was correct. The rest was easily uploaded from Amazon.com.

My equipment is decent but not awesome consisting of a Sony STR-DH810 receiver with 2 Onkyo F5000 flat 3 way front speakers with a HT 10PWR

subwoofer and 2 Skyline Digital 2002 and 2 Infinity Alpha 50 rear speakers. The OHD6 is connected to my home network. Operation is a breeze! I created a

playlist through the Maestro softwear of all my favorite tracks and control the unit usually through my Harmony One remote. I also have downloaded the app on

both mt HTC smartphone as well as my Samsong Tablet. Both work great! The beauty is that when you have so much music it can be hard to remember what

you have!

Case in point. The other night I did as usual, I turned on the unit, selected my playlist, hit shuffle and poured a glass of wine.

Aretha Franklin was singing "I say a little prayer for you."

My wife came in and said "I love that song!"

I did a search and found I had it by 5 different Artists!

Now the the important part!  How does it sound.

Absolutely Awesome!!!!!  I have a B and O 8000 turntable and many cd players. They don't come close in  of sound.

There is no harshness whatsoever!  If you close your eyes you would think the performers were in the room with you from anywear in the room!

I can remember when I was in medical school many moons ago the professor teaching hearing physiology said that due to limits of human hearing

all audiophiles were buying high end equipment for there dogs.  ABSOLUTE ********!!!!!!

I am currently stuck listening to Andy Snitzers Marseille from his Traveler cd. I can't hear it enough!

I refuse to listen to compressed music and give this unit a 5 star rating!!!!!!    You will not be disapointed!!!!