I haven't seen much at all here about the Olive Opus (or any of the Olives) so I don't know if anyone cares but I just got one and thought I'd share initial impressions.

1. My sound system:
Arcam AVP 700 pre/pro
Anthem MCA 50 Amp
B&W 703s front speakers
SVS PB 12 ULTRA/2 SW
Previously I used a Denon 3910 for music.

2. Sound: Well I have been doing some A/B comparisons with the 3910 and the Opus. I'm not an expert but: The Opus sounds cleaner, purer in some sense. I now think the 3910 was adding distortions. A/Bing between the units with one song sounds like I'm listening to a different song. The 3910 is way more in your face, the bass booms and rumbles. The Opus has a more ascetic sound and maybe better imaging (but I could be imagining that :D ). I have to admit that I kind of grew to like the bass rumble from the 3910 but I'm now starting to think it was some sort of distortion added to the sound. I could be making all this up but I'm just telling you my initial impressions. I've only had the unit for a few days. PS: I've listened in Stereo and Surround mode (with stereo recording). When I'm in stereo mode I've got the Arcam configured to use the SW as well. I know a lot of purists hate the idea of using surround mode for stereo. I'm not sure one way or the other but I don't notice that in surround mode it changes my impressions of the Opus v 3910 at this point.

3. Other stuff:

a. Opus is a nice looking unit and seems substantial and well made.

b. First problem is that it was not straight forward to load my ripped CDs from my computer. Some initial problems getting the Opus recognized on my LAN (and now that I have my WLAN up I'm having a bit of a configuration problem with that too that I have not solved). The Opus manual says all you have to do is activate the network function but, as I just said, that was not my experience. Then the big problem: I had ripped my collection in iTunes using Apple's lossless format (m4a). It turns out that the Opus doesn't read that format. So I had to convert everything to Aiff in iTunes and then copy it over to the Opus. It took a long few days and also the AIFFs are uncompressed so a lot more drive space. Copying to the Opus was very fast; it was the conversion and copying to the Olive shared folder on my computer that took all the time. BTW, the Opus is supposed to be able to convert AIFF to FLAC which would maintain the sound quality but compress the flies. My first attempt at that didn't work. I haven't really fiddled with it but at this point the last thing I want to do is spend hours more converting files. I want to listen! So I'll leave that for later.

c. I don't have hawk eyes but I'm pretty close to 20/20 and I can't read the Opus menus when I'm sitting in my listening seat about 9 ft away from the unit. So I have to go up to it to select a cd or playlist. Olive says they are coming out with a new remote that will have an LCD on it so you can read the menus from the remote. Supposed to be out in the third quarter of this year and will cost extra (no swap with existing remote).

d. You can also manage your library on the Opus from a web interface provided that you have the Opus linked to your LAN or WLAN. My experience is that it is VERY SLOW. Olive told me they are coming out with a firmware update in the next month that will address that issue.

e. The Opus remote seems to be on the same IR code as the Arcam and when I use some functions on the Opus it changes the music mode on the Arcam. Olive told me they have no fix for that and I'm waiting for my local Arcam dealer to get back to me about if it's possible to change the IR code on the Arcam. Luckily it only seems to be a problem when I'm scrolling through the Opus menu and, since I can't read the menu from my listening position, I have to use the buttons on the Opus to get around the menus anyway. The play, stop, skip track etc commands don't seem to affect the Arcam.

f. The Opus does not support SACD so that means I still have to keep all those wires between the 3910 and the Arcam! I'm keeping the 3910 on my rack anyway for movies.


That's all I can think of for now. Hope this is of interest to some of you.

Jack,
Thanks for the nice review. Enjoy your Opus!!

I had been thinking about adding a Musica or Opus for whole house sound purposes. But, there is a very interesting and controversial thread over at Audio Circles dealing with the rebadging of the Musica into the Opus; extreme jitter in the Opus, and phony group buys. Certainly not the stuff that our audio hobby is all about.

Here is the link:http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=29947.0

We will certainly have to see how all of this turns out. I always knew that the Musica was a rebadged HiFidelio http://www.hermstedt.com/german/hifidelio/hifidelio.html But what is and who really manufacturers the Olive Opus?? And is it jitter-free or does it require a fix in order to sound as advertised?

I like olives in my rice and beans.

I had been thinking about adding a Musica or Opus for whole house sound purposes. But, there is a very interesting and controversial thread over at Audio Circles dealing with the rebadging of the Musica into the Opus; extreme jitter in the Opus, and phony group buys. Certainly not the stuff that our audio hobby is all about.

Here is the link:http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=29947.0

We will certainly have to see how all of this turns out. I always knew that the Musica was a rebadged HiFidelio http://www.hermstedt.com/german/hifidelio/hifidelio.html But what is and who really manufacturers the Olive Opus?? And is it jitter-free or does it require a fix in order to sound as advertised?

They say that the Opus is built in the US. I haven't noticed any jitter. Is the HiFidelio at least a good unit? The Olives have got rave reviews in some major places. Is the system that corrupt that these places would not mention the re-badging and jitter issue? Maybe. I have seen that thread but I don't know what to make of it. I'm not familiar with that forum so I don't have a feel for the posters there. And it's only one thread. I've seen some pretty bs threads on this site but I know the environment here well enough to know how to assess the merit or value of such threads.

In any case, I am currently pretty irritated about their tech support. I've been on the phone twice in the last few days for over an hour with their so-called tech expert who is now trying to help me get the Opus to link to my WLAN. Each time he has in effect hung up on me. Once a straight disconnect while I was on hold the second time he said he had to do something and would call me back and never did. Both at or very near closing time (they are on West Coast time and I can only call them a little before that because I'm on the East Coast and have a day job). That isn't the way you are supposed to treat someone who just spent a lot of money for your product. And I don't see why it is so complicated to get the device to be recognized on my WLAN.

I haven't noticed any jitter.

I'm not sure you would hear jitter, it just induces artifacts that increase certain forms of distortion. therefore, you would hear it's effects in terms of warmer sound and exaggerated (and sometimes unstable) soundstage.

It's very difficult to comapare a device designed for CD only vs a universal player designed also to handle video, since the laser size and error correction protocals are so different.

I sort of agree with DrJRapp. The jitter may not be audible whatsoever, it's just that if it's there to a signficant degree it doesn't represent good attention to design. As far as the link to the mauimods site, I didn't find the scope traces particularly useful and wonder why he just didn't use RightMark with a decent sound card to characterize the jitter over the frequency spectrum.

Everybody on Audio Circles made peace. I guess that somebody got their Opus money refunded or a UN peace mission showed up at Audio Circles.

I just can't get past the way this guy on the audio circle site expresses himself. Frankly, he seems retarded. He can't string together two sentences that make sense in English and he is a native English speaker. Beyond that his freaky about face wrt RA is hard to explain. Something really weird is going on there and it appears there is so much noise in the signal that it is hard to extract the valid information.

Interesting comment about the difficultly in being able to compare a universal player with CD-only player but in the end why can't you compare them? Does the music output sound better or not? I'm not making any comments about the video output of the Denon or the sound of SACDs on the Denon v CDs on the Opus.

Don't know what to think at this point. is there an alternative music server to Opus in the same price range? As far as I understand the answer is no. The alternatives are much more expensive. So far I'm pleased with the performance of the unit. My main problems have to do with the networking link up.

Still all this noise over on the other site makes me feel uneasy.

Jack,

MM is definitely a bit strange. But, the following appears to be what is going on:

Olive either purchases, imports or distributes the Hifidelio and Hifidelio Pro from Hermstedt in Germany.

The Opus is not manufactured by Hermstedt, but is a Musica that is modded by some combination of Opus and Resolution Audio. MM talks about the mod on his diatrabe rap in the AC thread. I have some difficulty interpreting that one, but the end result is that Resolution Audio is modding to Olive's specifications.

The real question is whether Olive's literature is correct or manufacturers' hype. And, we will have to wait for a response from Olive as to whether they respond to the questions raised by MM at Audio Circles. Here are the questions:

Questions rearding the Opus data sheet:
1) Explain the "Innovative cooling concept"?

2) The data sheet stresses the effects of Jitter, Being the most Decisive factor. If that is the case, Why does the SPIDF output contain Massive Jitter?

3) Can you provide independent lab measurements of the OPUS? How about the Jitter measurement at the SPIF output?

4) What is the temperature of inside the unit, after an hour? and six hours?

5) Can you provide the Specsheets, of the analog output Regulators, Showing these are "linear" regulators"?

6) Please Identify the "power efficient components" that are used.

7) Olive's salesman said that I should be able to install a 750g hd, the OPUS, and use the recovery CD to Format and install the operating system.
Why did he failed to mention, if unit was opened warranty is voided.
Can you show that clause in your warranty documentation? Do you have warning stickers mentioning this? Can you explain why the restore disk does not work?

8 ) How is the quality of the ADC? Can you provide Specs? how about Jitter specs?

9) can Olive provide the specs for its "Ultra-low jitter master clock".

I think that Olive does need to respond to these questions.

Jack, my biggest concern, if I were you, would be about overheating in the Opus. DrJRapp and several others have raised this as a great concern. They have much more technical expertise than I could ever have. My logic asks why, the original manufacturer, Hermstedt, has never put a larger hard drive than 250gb inside the Hifidelio. And what other issues may be raised by adding the new audio DAC board inside the Opus.

For me, the Musica would be a safer purchase. I was going to purchase one (with a separate DAC), but I will not likely do so, until Olive responds to the issues raised about the Opus. In the world of audio and video, we all use individual audio or video components, but ultimately, it is the company behind the individual component that we really purchase. I have had a few issues with products from Bryston and Anthem lately, and Olive is too new on the block to not answer the questions about the Opus.

If I were in your shoes, I would return the Opus for a Musica and get a separate DAC. You will likely end up with a better product, peace of mind and a few more dollars in your pocket.

Jack,


If I were in your shoes, I would return the Opus for a Musica and get a separate DAC. You will likely end up with a better product, peace of mind and a few more dollars in your pocket.

That certainly is a good recommendation, not to mention that an external DAC can be used for other things.

Interesting comment about the difficultly in being able to compare a universal player with CD-only player but in the end why can't you compare them? Does the music output sound better or not? I'm not making any comments about the video output of the Denon or the sound of SACDs on the Denon v CDs on the Opus.



Perhaps I should have worded that a bit differently. Perhaps I should have said one shouldn't compare the two instead of "it's difficult to compare the two". A dedicated CDP with a CDP only designed drive will always outperform a universal/SACD player's drive due to the smaller laser size and it's ability to read pits on the disc with less errors.

In the process of comparing various players to use as a transport for an external DAC, I learned that bits are not always the same bits. A transport is not just a conduit from a disc to a DAC, it does other processing functions such as error correction and dropout prevention. The "quality" of it's EC algorithims and circuitry will have a lot to do with the ultimate sound. Dedicated CD transports have (and need) less EC processing hardware intervention, and do so with less complex yet more refined hardware/firmware.

It's sort of like having a massive cut on your forehead. Would you rather have a general surgeon or a plastic surgeon stitch it up? Both will successfully get the wound closed, but the plastic surgeon's work will leave less of a scar.

1. I haven't noticed unusual heat from the unit. It is definitely warm when it is turned on but not to the point where it seemed unusual to me. I know that is not scientific. And if there is an issue with heat because of the size of the HD how can Olive be marketing Opuses with even larger HDs (i've got the 500GB model) which they just started doing?

2. What's an ADC board (It's not a digital analog converter?)? And why would you want to get an exteranl one? And if you did, how do you bypass the ADC in the unit? You have to do some sort of mod?

3. I was told by Olive before I purchased the Opus that the DACs of the Opus are superior to those of the Musica. I specifically asked if the only difference was the size of the hard drive and they said that there had been improvements in other aspects, especially the DACs.

4. I sure would like Opus to respond to these questions but on the other hand does a company have to respond to complaints and accusations by any guy out there on the net? I just don't know why we should believe this one guy when he is obviously pissed at the company and seems to have another agenda. OK so a few other people (who I also don't know) jumped in and vouched for the integrity of the guy but why should I believe them? I don't know anything about the technical aspects so I can't even begin to judge if the accusations and this guy's measurements make any sense.

Perhaps I should have worded that a bit differently. Perhaps I should have said one shouldn't compare the two instead of "it's difficult to compare the two". A dedicated CDP with a CDP only designed drive will always outperform a universal/SACD player's drive due to the smaller laser size and it's ability to read pits on the disc with less errors.

In the process of comparing various players to use as a transport for an external DAC, I learned that bits are not always the same bits. A transport is not just a conduit from a disc to a DAC, it does other processing functions such as error correction and dropout prevention. The "quality" of it's EC algorithims and circuitry will have a lot to do with the ultimate sound. Dedicated CD transports have (and need) less EC processing hardware intervention, and do so with less complex yet more refined hardware/firmware.

It's sort of like having a massive cut on your forehead. Would you rather have a general surgeon or a plastic surgeon stitch it up? Both will successfully get the wound closed, but the plastic surgeon's work will leave less of a scar.

OK. That helps. So why not just buy as cheap a dedicated CD player as possible?
Let me see if I can answer that. The laser will be smaller in any CDP but the DACs or some other key part might be inferior?

OK. That helps. So why not just buy as cheap a dedicated CD player as possible?
Let me see if I can answer that. The laser will be smaller in any CDP but the DACs or some other key part might be inferior?Jack, it is not just a matter of the DAC's. Power supply and op-amps and other parts are extremely important and genereally increase in ability and performance as you go up the price-performance ladder. The point is that the video circuitry and the muti-channel audio circuitry will generally affect the 2 channel stereo sound quality in a universal player. For me, there is only one way to go and that is with two boxes. One for video and one for audio.

Jack, it is not just a matter of the DAC's. Power supply and op-amps and other parts are extremely important and genereally increase in ability and performance as you go up the price-performance ladder. The point is that the video circuitry and the muti-channel audio circuitry will generally affect the 2 channel stereo sound quality in a universal player. For me, there is only one way to go and that is with two boxes. One for video and one for audio.

Yeah but then I guess for moives, which obviously have both, you have to compromise on the audio. I guess that makes sense. The audio is important in a movie but it is not as critical as when listening to music. In any case, I already agree with you since I bought a music server and have the universal for movies (and SACD). And I see how it is not really an appropriate comparison between a universal and a CDP.

BTW you didn't respond to my question about the external ADC (or did you mean DAC?). Is this a mod or is there a straightforward way to bypass the internal DACs if that is what you meant?

Thanks.

Would someone be kind enough to point me to a good and not highly technical article that explains what jitter is?

thx

See page 22:

http://benchmarkmedia.com/dac1/DAC1-Manual.pdf

BTW: I was in the process of sorting out my WLAN problems on the Opus with Olive tech support on Friday and I raised the issue of MM's accusations. The guy was fully aware of the thread on Audio Circle and claimed that: 1 MM was pissed about what he perceived as unequal treatment of him compared to other Olive dealers and that was the real motive for the diatribe; 2. He didn't measure the jitter correctly. There is some sort of other test that can be done and he didn't do it; 3. Every one of the Opuses released has been fully tested for jitter and passed Olive's testing; 4. They had contacted him directly and a very unpleasant and unproductive name calling session ensued; 5. There was no heat problem with the larger HDs; and 6. Their legal department was dealing with it now and they probably would not respond directly to him in public.

So what to think? :confused:

See page 22:

http://benchmarkmedia.com/dac1/DAC1-Manual.pdf


Thanks!

Jack D, How is your Olive Opus working out for you? Did you resolve the problems you were having? Would you recommend it to others?

Jack D, How is your Olive Opus working out for you? Did you resolve the problems you were having? Would you recommend it to others?

I'm very pleased with it. The only problem that I have not resolved is to link it to my WLAN. The symptoms were that it would connect sometimes but the connection wasn't stable (e.g., internet radio connections would come and go) and I would not always be able to see the device on the other computers in my LAN. I was on the phone for hours with Olive tech support and also the tech support for the company that makes my wireless product (Zyxel). In the end I think it is either some problem with the way that Olive implemented the wireless protocols (which can't really be changed except through FW update) or that the wireless signal was being dampened because my Opus is in an equipment rack. Oddly enough Olive tech support said they never tested the wireless connection with the Opus in an equipment rack!

I have to say that Olive tech support was very good about the entire episode and even called me back at one point to see if I had resolved it. Their final suggestion was to try to swap the wireless antenna for a larger one. In the end I did not try that and just ran a cat 5 cable to my equipment rack because I was not having any problems connecting the Opus on a wired LAN. This suits me anyway because I have a video processor with a built in hard drive for streaming HD video and it can only be connected via wired LAN. So I just ran the Cat 5 cable to a switch in my equipment rack and then ran a cable to the Opus and one to my video processor. If I get around to it I might try to swap the antenna on the Opus just to see if that was the problem.

The sound is great. There is some heat but it does not seem excessive and I have an equipment rack with two fans in it anyway.

The main thing I still don't like about it is the fact that there is no OSD and I can't see the LCD from my listening position. It would also have been great if it supported SACD but that does not seem to be in the cards and I have a Denon 3910 for listening to SACDs.

There was also another thread floating around where some people were complaining that you couldn't copy ripped songs on the Opus HD to other HDs but I discovered that this was only a problem with earlier FW and I can connect an external USB drive and transfer my library for backup or other purposes w/o problems.

The other hassle is that the only lossless compressed format supported by the Opus is FLAC which does not work with my iPod. The Olive tech, however, sent me a link for a beta product that allows the iPod to play FLAC flies. I haven't played around with it yet but it seems that this would be very nice since I could then just transfer FLAC files from the Opus to the iPod without converting to Apple's lossless format for when I want to go mobile.

So bottom line is that the Opus is kind of expensive and doesn't have a few desirable features (the real irritation for me is the lack of OSD) but I don't see anything out in the market for a comparable price that does everything that the Opus does. There are other ways to do it more cheaply but they are more hassle and there are some devices that have a few more features (e.g., Escient) but are much more expensive.

The main thing I still don't like about it is the fact that there is no OSD and I can't see the LCD from my listening position.

Hi Jack,

I have the Musica, and have been very happy with its sound, but, like you, it took a little while to work through some issues.

Just FYI, I have had no problem connecting the Musica to my home network via wi-fi. I use WEP security, so I had to enter the 128-bit encryption key, but it basically works flawlessly now. I really enjoy the ability to listen to Internet radio stations via this connection. As was mentioned previously, the Web interface is a bit slow, so hopefully this will be addressed in the near future.

Re: the OSD, is your unit upgraded to the latest version (2.2.2, I believe)? If so, there is a new feature implemented that allows you to increase the size of the text on the display. To do so, press the Menu button. You may have to press it several times, as the first time or two simply navigates up the levels of the menu (depending on where you are when you press it). I have found the increased text size to be quite readable from my listening position, which is ~8 feet from the display.

I've got about 210 CDs ripped into my unit now (in FLAC format), and the sound to me is fantastic. Not to mention the ability to access any of my tunes without flipping through my folders...or even waiting a couple of seconds for disc access. Pretty incredible, I think. Just make sure you back up regularly! I use a Maxtor 200 GB external hard drive, and have had to recover once. Having the songs available immediately for backup (already in FLAC) made the experience much more tolerable...

Enjoy!

Regards,
Brad

Hi Jack,

I have the Musica, and have been very happy with its sound, but, like you, it took a little while to work through some issues.

Just FYI, I have had no problem connecting the Musica to my home network via wi-fi. I use WEP security, so I had to enter the 128-bit encryption key, but it basically works flawlessly now. I really enjoy the ability to listen to Internet radio stations via this connection. As was mentioned previously, the Web interface is a bit slow, so hopefully this will be addressed in the near future.

Re: the OSD, is your unit upgraded to the latest version (2.2.2, I believe)? If so, there is a new feature implemented that allows you to increase the size of the text on the display. To do so, press the Menu button. You may have to press it several times, as the first time or two simply navigates up the levels of the menu (depending on where you are when you press it). I have found the increased text size to be quite readable from my listening position, which is ~8 feet from the display.

I've got about 210 CDs ripped into my unit now (in FLAC format), and the sound to me is fantastic. Not to mention the ability to access any of my tunes without flipping through my folders...or even waiting a couple of seconds for disc access. Pretty incredible, I think. Just make sure you back up regularly! I use a Maxtor 200 GB external hard drive, and have had to recover once. Having the songs available immediately for backup (already in FLAC) made the experience much more tolerable...

Enjoy!

Regards,
Brad

Do you have your Musica in an equipment rack?

I did see an option to change the font size but I thought it was already set as large as possible. I'll double check. That would be great if I could increase it.

Did you rip directly to the Musica in FLAC? My problem was that I had already ripped almost all of my collection in itunes with Apple's compressed lossless format. I could only convert to AIFF from within iTunes. So I've got everything on my Opus in AIFF. You are supposed to be able to convert from AIFF to FLAC from within the OPUS but I haven't got around to fiddling with that yet.

Do you do your backup to the Maxtor via your WLAN or do you plug it into the back of the Musica?

BTW have you found any internet radio stations with good sound? I haven't experiemented a lot but I've listened to maybe 10-15 jazz stations and the sound is not particularly high quality.

My Musica is not in a rack, just in an enclosed cabinet below my tv. Wireless seems to pick up fine, though, with the wi-fi receiver two rooms away.

The font size change is not permanent when you use the Menu button, it just increases temporarily while you make a selection, then continues as normal.

Yes, I ripped all of my CDs manually to FLAC using the Musica. I have not tried using the conversion options.

For backups, I leave the drive permanently attached to the Musica via the USB port on the back.

As for Internet radio, to me it sounds pretty good. It does group stations according to transmission speed, though, which makes it easier to select a higher-quality station. (I believe this is another feature gained through the upgrade.)

I know how people love equipment pics, so here is one of my Musica. Also shown are the B&K Reference 5 S2, B&K 125.2 S2, and APC power conditioner. The Maxtor is on top of the Musica.

Pretty good lookin' setup. Too bad Olive didn't make the lcd a color one. It would be easier to see from afar.

My Musica is not in a rack, just in an enclosed cabinet below my tv. Wireless seems to pick up fine, though, with the wi-fi receiver two rooms away.

The font size change is not permanent when you use the Menu button, it just increases temporarily while you make a selection, then continues as normal.

Yes, I ripped all of my CDs manually to FLAC using the Musica. I have not tried using the conversion options.

For backups, I leave the drive permanently attached to the Musica via the USB port on the back.

As for Internet radio, to me it sounds pretty good. It does group stations according to transmission speed, though, which makes it easier to select a higher-quality station. (I believe this is another feature gained through the upgrade.)

Brad,

So you are using a USB-connected drive for backup.

I just ordered an Opus and was told by Olive that they were working on a firmware update that would enable NAS support. They did not elaborate further.

The reasons I was interested in NAS support are: a) I have over 2,000 CDs and will eventually need more than the 400 GB of internal storage (did not buy the 750 GB version because the $1,000 additional cost is excessive); b) I would hate to re-rip thousands of CDs in case of drive failure (and ALL hard drives fail, it is not a question of whether or not they do, but when) and need a more sophisticated backup solution than a USB-attached drive. I would consider a NAS appliance with drives in a RAID configuration (for about $1,000 you can now get a NAS unit with 1 terabyte or more).

What remains to be seen is whether Olive will offer FULL NAS suport, meaning that albums stored on the NAS would be "seen" by the Opus exactly as if they were locally stored, or support limited to backups. Olive mentioned that they would provide uPnP-cpmpliant support, which seems to indicate full NAS functionality support.

Anyone heards more on the subject? I'll report on my experience with the Opus once I get it.

BTW, I am not concerned over the rantings against Olive that were posted on Audio Circle. Seems that "jitter" has affected the author's ability to express himself rationally and clearly.

MG

Hi Jack,Re: the OSD, is your unit upgraded to the latest version (2.2.2, I believe)? If so, there is a new feature implemented that allows you to increase the size of the text on the display. To do so, press the Menu button. You may have to press it several times, as the first time or two simply navigates up the levels of the menu (depending on where you are when you press it). I have found the increased text size to be quite readable from my listening position, which is ~8 feet from the display.

Yeah I have 2.2.2. I see what you mean about the menu button and increasing the text size. That helps a lot! This is not explained in the manual or anywhere else as far as I can tell. The Olive tech guys didn't mention it when I comlained about the lack of OSD. Nice tip. Thanks. I am going to have to program my Harmony 890 to do this as I normally control the Opus via the Harmony.

Brad,

So you are using a USB-connected drive for backup.

I just ordered an Opus and was told by Olive that they were working on a firmware update that would enable NAS support. They did not elaborate further.

The reasons I was interested in NAS support are: a) I have over 2,000 CDs and will eventually need more than the 400 GB of internal storage (did not buy the 750 GB version because the $1,000 additional cost is excessive); b) I would hate to re-rip thousands of CDs in case of drive failure (and ALL hard drives fail, it is not a question of whether or not they do, but when) and need a more sophisticated backup solution than a USB-attached drive. I would consider a NAS appliance with drives in a RAID configuration (for about $1,000 you can now get a NAS unit with 1 terabyte or more).

What remains to be seen is whether Olive will offer FULL NAS suport, meaning that albums stored on the NAS would be "seen" by the Opus exactly as if they were locally stored, or support limited to backups. Olive mentioned that they would provide uPnP-cpmpliant support, which seems to indicate full NAS functionality support.

Anyone heards more on the subject? I'll report on my experience with the Opus once I get it.

BTW, I am not concerned over the rantings against Olive that were posted on Audio Circle. Seems that "jitter" has affected the author's ability to express himself rationally and clearly.

MG

I'm so frustrated with Windows file sharing on my LAN that I'm actually considering installing a small server. I'm not sure I understand the significance of full NAS support. If you have a server do you need this feature? Or is it just useful if you are using file sharing only?

Just out of curiosity: Is Olive shipping your Opus immediately or do you have to wait a while? There was so much delay in getting the product out in the first place I just wonder if they have stock now or are still trying to catch up with pre-orders.

Yeah I have 2.2.2. I see what you mean about the menu button and increasing the text size. That helps a lot! This is not explained in the manual or anywhere else as far as I can tell.

Yeah, I stumbled across this new feature in the release notes posted on the Olive support site with the software update. Don't know when they'll ge around to updating the manual to match.

Yeah, I stumbled across this new feature in the release notes posted on the Olive support site with the software update. Don't know when they'll ge around to updating the manual to match.

Well the Opus I got came with 2.2.2 installed and was in one of the first batches to be shipped. You'd think they would have an up-to-date manual! Actually I think the manual could be a lot better at explaining stuff. Then again, I suppose you could say that about almost any manual.

I just got a newly released CD. I put it in the Opus and it did not read the names of the songs or the artist. I haven't ripped it yet. I suppose I could rip it in iTunes and then copy it over to the Opus. I'm curious, however, why this would happen. Any ideas?

From my understanding, the internal database of CD meta data is from 2005. So, anything released after that would not be recognized. So, you basically have two options: enter it yourself (remember, you can use the Web interface), or set up the Opus to access the data from the web. I have not tried the latter yet.

A note that might be useful to someone:

When I scrolled with up/down left/right keys from the Opus remote it would change settings in my Arcam AVP 700 pre-pro. The fix is to change the remote code on the 700 (Olive told me that you cannot reset the Olive remote).

Here is how you do it:

On the Arcam unit:
1. Press the RDS & Preset/Tune Buttons simultaneously.
2. Scroll down to the first selection which reads RC5 Code Zone 1 16*
3. Press the right arrow to change the coding from 16 to 19
4. Save and Exit

On the Arcam remote:
1. Press the 'Aux' source control button near the top of the remote.
2. Press and hold the 'Set' button on the CR80 until the LED blinks twice.
3. Press the numbers '1213'
4. Press the 'Power' button to confirm that the unit is now responding to the new commands.

From my understanding, the internal database of CD meta data is from 2005. So, anything released after that would not be recognized. So, you basically have two options: enter it yourself (remember, you can use the Web interface), or set up the Opus to access the data from the web. I have not tried the latter yet.

Yeah that worked. You just have to go to the menu option: "CD Database" and turn on the feature. If you are connected to the LAN it will work but I had to do it manually in the sense that when I put the CD in the Opus did not look to the internet data base site automatically. There is an option to get song information that I had to choose. I have another CD I just bought that is from the 70s and the online data base did not have the info even though the iTunes data base does. That's bunk. I guess I could try to change the online data base that the Opus accesses but apparently they are not all free access.

Olive mentioned that they would provide uPnP-cpmpliant support, which seems to indicate full NAS functionality support.

Anyone heards more on the subject? I'll report on my experience with the Opus once I get it.

I can tell you that my Opus has uPnP option turned on by default in version 2.2.2 of the FW. I don't make use of it myself.

I'm so frustrated with Windows file sharing on my LAN that I'm actually considering installing a small server. I'm not sure I understand the significance of full NAS support. If you have a server do you need this feature? Or is it just useful if you are using file sharing only?

Just out of curiosity: Is Olive shipping your Opus immediately or do you have to wait a while? There was so much delay in getting the product out in the first place I just wonder if they have stock now or are still trying to catch up with pre-orders.


Hi Jack,

The beauty of a NAS (one or several hard drives with basic server functionality for managing access rights, RAID configuration if multi-drive, etc.) is that you can access the drive(s) from a music server without needddding to have your computer on at all times, Most NAS units work not only on Windows networks, but also wit Macs and Linux machines. As to using a NAS unit as file-sharing server, I do not believe that's possible with a basic unit, but may be wrong.

I currently use a Turtle Beach Audiotron (no longer made) as a music server, and it recognizes my NAS unit when no computer is running on the network exactly as it recognizes my computer's internal and external drives. A NAS unit with several drives in a RAID configuration ensures superior data security by mirroring drives etc.If a drive fails, it is automatically shut down without any data loss or interruption of operation.

Concerning my order for an Opus, I sent over 400 CDs for "preloading" and was told that the process had started the day my CDs were received, which seems to indicate that the unit was in stock. I should get the "loaded" Opus some time next week. Will report on my experience.

Best,

MG

HI! its the ******!.
Jack, if your daring, I have a simple thing for you to try.
Email me on the side

The ******.

Btw:
The reason the Hifidelio product is the way it is, it was intended for commercial use.
Background music in a commercial establishment.
Pop the cover, and ready to rack mount in a computer rack.

Forgot, Again!! (It sux being retarded!)

You may want to refer to this site, hifidelio(dot)com they have much more info, and tips and tricks, also shows firmware update discriptions.

more!!!

Regarding the remote...
With web interface provided, if it had the interface like Slimserver, you would be able to control it with a wireless PDA. This is something they can easily implement with in the firmware.

HI! its the ******!.
Jack, if your daring, I have a simple thing for you to try.
Email me on the side

The ******.

MM,

Glad to see that you have a sense of humor. In any case, I apologize for the blunt language; in retrospect, I should have worded my message differently.

Anyway: Here is the thing: I assume that the simple thing you want me to try is to prove that my Opus is a piece of crap. I don't have the technical knowledge to be swayed one way or the other, even by a "simple" test. And I seem to be getting along ok with the Opus at this point. It sounds fine to me. So I suppose you can think that I'm an idiot (or a ****** ;) ) for being happy with this POS if that is still your assessment of the Opus. In any case, I don't see what I have to gain from the exercise at this point.

You can always raise the concerns you have in the forum if you want to carry on the discussion along the lines of your posts on Audio Circle. Maybe some people who have more technical knowledge would be able to engage in an informed discussion.

Jack, Opus is not a piece of crap. But there's no question that Olive had lied on the specs. But audio is a funny hobby... good specs doesn't necessarily means enjoyable music, and vice-versa.

MM was referring to the measurement he took, compared to the specs published by Opus. Did he ever say that Opus sounded crap? I doubt it.

Jack, Opus is not a piece of crap. But there's no question that Olive had lied on the specs. But audio is a funny hobby... good specs doesn't necessarily means enjoyable music, and vice-versa.

MM was referring to the measurement he took, compared to the specs published by Opus. Did he ever say that Opus sounded crap? I doubt it.

Well you might be correct that he didn't say that the Opus was a POS but that is the way I interpreted what he said. In any case, since MM has joined this thread we can let him speak for himself if he wishes to do so.

MM,

So I suppose you can think that I'm an idiot (or a ****** ;) ) for being happy with this POS if that is still your assessment of the Opus. In any case, I don't see what I have to gain from the exercise at this point.




Jack,
I never said the Opus was POC, or POS. Regarding to you statement above,
I own 2 Opus. What would that make me? :D

Anyways.. I have worked many days on the Opus. A few changes on the digital and DAC sections and and implemented my own designed, innovative cooling concept. Now I have a (digital) source that outperforms My Wadia and Esoteric reference transports, with a 50% in reduction in heat!

So, right at the moment, I am just at the point with networking, remote and display dislikes..

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there is a feasible way with the Olive to access a USB 500 gig Harddrive via wireless to my main computer, that the usb drive is plugged in to.??? The Hd is in FLAC.

Jack,
I never said the Opus was POC, or POS. Regarding to you statement above,
I own 2 Opus. What would that make me? :D

Anyways.. I have worked many days on the Opus. A few changes on the digital and DAC sections and and implemented my own designed, innovative cooling concept. Now I have a (digital) source that outperforms My Wadia and Esoteric reference transports, with a 50% in reduction in heat!

So, right at the moment, I am just at the point with networking, remote and display dislikes..

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there is a feasible way with the Olive to access a USB 500 gig Harddrive via wireless to my main computer, that the usb drive is plugged in to.??? The Hd is in FLAC.

Your PC-attached USB HDD should be "seen" by the Opus if the following conditions are met: a) The folder or folders where your FLAC files are stored should have been designated as "shared folder(s)" on your network; b) The FLAC files must have been created with or imported to the music library of a UPNP-compliant media server client (iTunes is UPNP-compliant but does not rip to FLAC).

Jack,
I never said the Opus was POC, or POS. Regarding to you statement above,
I own 2 Opus. What would that make me? :D

Anyways.. I have worked many days on the Opus. A few changes on the digital and DAC sections and and implemented my own designed, innovative cooling concept. Now I have a (digital) source that outperforms My Wadia and Esoteric reference transports, with a 50% in reduction in heat!

So, right at the moment, I am just at the point with networking, remote and display dislikes..

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there is a feasible way with the Olive to access a USB 500 gig Harddrive via wireless to my main computer, that the usb drive is plugged in to.??? The Hd is in FLAC.

what dacs did you change out to?

Na!, No swap..... did some rerouting of the wiring. perfect clock, and data...
I use digital out only in my systems... (TacT). My main concern is the Spidf output,
once everything is has ultra low jitter, ripple and noise and data integrity is maintained throughout, everything just works optimal. Still has a regular non temp comp crystal,
and just a 2 channel Dac. Interesting note: in the owners manual specs, they call it a "Dual" dac.... unlike how it was advertised...
In my case a Musica, and a 2 tera, Infrant Nasready would of been the same price... the best cost effective soulution...

I thought it might be like changing out the op amps on a computer soundcard that was pretty easy, suprised me, makes a great upgrade for analog out for computers sorry for jacking the thread

Hello all, glad to find this thread.

I have an Apple Mini Mac in my equipment rack, but it was before they came with digital out, so to use my networked Itunes collectioin, I had to use analog out to my processor (Anthem Statement D2).

I was considering getting a new Mini Mac, but all I would be gaining for my $$ would be the digi out.

I am now thinking of leaving the Mini Mac in place, as I also use it to view photographs from my server, and using one of the Olive units for music.

My question is, if I am only going to use the digital out from the olive into the D2, is there any reason, other than HD size to pay for the DACs and other circuitry in the Opus? Or just get the Musica?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Warren

If you're not using the internal DACs, then I would say that the Musica would probably suit you just fine. Also, the Musica is now available with a larger hard drive than originally available (250MB I think) as an option.

Thanks, I will give that one a try.

Warren

Thanks, I will give that one a try.

WarrenWarren, Jerry Rappaport has an Olive Musica that he is testing out with a DAC1 and an Anthem D2 (when it is working). He posted earlier in this thread, so, you might contact him for his thoughts on the Musica connected digitally out. I am also considering a Musica. I also ike the idea of its' ability to being able to rip some of my LP's.

I thought it might be like changing out the op amps on a computer soundcard that was pretty easy, suprised me, makes a great upgrade for analog out for computers sorry for jacking the thread

Monster,
For the Musica, and Symphony, yes, op amps swap is in order.
But the Opus, uses instrumental op Amps, which are an unconventional package type to pop yur favorite Op Amp in.

Thanks Gostan. I like my D2, but suffice to say the first one I got, was not the one I ended up with ...

I will ask Jerry.

Warren

In case you haven't heard, Olive just issued a firmware update. If your Opus is attached to the internet you just press the "update" button. It took about 1 minute to update with no snags. The big improvement is that the web interface is very fast and you can control the Opus directly from that interface. So I've got my laptop near my listening position and I can access any song in my library from the laptop and play it. Very big improvement over the last version. I haven't explored any other improvements yet.

Thanks for the notice. Got an email from Olive today, since I have the Musica. Haven't installed it yet, but I am very impressed so far with the availability of updates from Olive. And you certainly can't beat the ability to install directly via the wi-fi connection.

I love the Musica more and more each time I use it!

Thanks for the notice. Got an email from Olive today, since I have the Musica. Haven't installed it yet, but I am very impressed so far with the availability of updates from Olive. And you certainly can't beat the ability to install directly via the wi-fi connection.

I love the Musica more and more each time I use it!
It only takes a few minutes. Do it!

I'm on it tonight. Would have last night, but was a little busy with other things. Very much looking forward to a faster meta data updates via the web interface.

Alright, got the 2.3 upgrade installed no problem. Looks like lots of rearranging of the menus has happened.

However, I'm not sure how to access the new Web interface. When I access via the player's IP address (as before), I'm just seeing the old Web interface that I had before. Any suggestions?

Brad,

Simply delete the old IP address and start anew.

When this is done the new "screen face" will come with it.

Alright, got the 2.3 upgrade installed no problem. Looks like lots of rearranging of the menus has happened.

However, I'm not sure how to access the new Web interface. When I access via the player's IP address (as before), I'm just seeing the old Web interface that I had before. Any suggestions?

Check the IP address that is being assigned to the Opus by going to network and then pushing the info button. Presumably the IP is being assigned dynamically so it proabaly has changed on your system since the last time you used the web interface. Once you know what IP is assigned to the Opus by your system you can type that into the address box on your web browser.

Thanks, guys. Will give it a shot when I get home tonight.

Okay, got it working now -- very sweet! I was able to review and update the genre of every CD in my collection in about 45 minutes. With the previous interface it would have taken all night...

And the ability to sit here on my couch with my laptop and play songs is a pretty nice perk indeed! Kudos to Olive on this major improvement.

For the benefit of those who may be considering an Olive music server, here are a few screen shots of the new Web interface. First one is a list of albums; second is information about the current selection; and the third is one of one of the configuration pages.

Okay, got it working now -- very sweet! I was able to review and update the genre of every CD in my collection in about 45 minutes. With the previous interface it would have taken all night...

And the ability to sit here on my couch with my laptop and play songs is a pretty nice perk indeed! Kudos to Olive on this major improvement.

Yeah I agree. It makes a world of difference. Now you really have your entire collection at your fingertips for your listening pleasure. :D

Okay, got it working now -- very sweet! I was able to review and update the genre of every CD in my collection in about 45 minutes. With the previous interface it would have taken all night...

And the ability to sit here on my couch with my laptop and play songs is a pretty nice perk indeed! Kudos to Olive on this major improvement.

I stayed away from this thread after hearing from Olive that they were about to release a new version of their software, as it was pointles to discuss shortcomings that might be addressed by the new version.

I have an Opus and installed version 2.3 a week ago. Here are my first impressions:

1. Overall, Olive has achieved three dramatic improvements in one sweep. First, it streamlined the menu system, rearranging options in a more logical and understandable fashion and adding some very useful ones, such as "convert", which lets you convert files to and from any supported format (more about that later). Second, it replaced a very basic, clunky and slow web interface with one that makes editing metadata extremely easy (that is crucial for those who have a lot of classical music, as album/artist/track info as supplied by CDDB is very erratic). Third, and MOST IMPORTANT, whereas the old web interface was strictly for editing the music library, Olive has now added FULL CONTROL of the music server from the web interface. All menu options are available and can be selected and activated from the web interface (except of course network settings). That solves the problem of the "blind" remote control that in theory made it possible to access menu options, but was in fact only useful for controlling playback after a music selection had been made from the music server itself, due to the impossibility of reading the display from a distance. Olive provides three "flavors" of the web interface, including one that is designed for the smallish screens of PDAs and handheld tablets. This means that an Opus or Musica can be fully controlled remotely from any wifi-enbled handheld device with a touchscreen, which eliminates the convenience handicap Olive servers had relative to systems like the Sonos systems, that come with a screen-equipped control device.

2. My experience with a Nokia 770 Internet tablet: the 770 (that show up on the Olive web site as the "Rondo" is a fairly inexpensive wifi-enabled device (costs about $350) which has an Opera web browser. The touchscreen is of very high quality and larger than that of any PDA (4” diagonally); the Olive web interface fits that screen perfectly, and there you have a pocketable intelligent remote that can even be used for light editing of metadata (serious editing still requires a computer with a keyboard rather than the “virtual” keyboard available on the 770 for text entry). Of course the Nokia 770 ihas many features besides a web browser, but this is not the place for a review of those, except one: the 770 lets you install a Upnp streaming client, that will instantly recognize the Opus and let you stream wirelessly any music in your library (not FLAC files though) for private listening on headphones wherever you are within range of your wifi network. This highlights one of the improvements made to the Olive software: it now includes support for third-party Upnp-compliant streaming clients such as the Rokku and Squeezebox devices.

3. Other improvements/additions: the metadata editing function now lets you change info in any field of the database, whereas the old version was very limited in that respect. Classical music lovers will be happy to find that the “Composer” category, which in the old version showed up in the Opus library sub-menu, but not as an editable category in the web interface, has been duly added to the new editing interface. The “Convert” function, mentioned earlier, lets you change the format of music files on the hard disk. This is handy for converting to FLAC or whatever files imported from a computer in WAV or AIFF format. However, that function need further refinement: currently, when you choose to convert a music selection, the files are converted to the default format you have set for importing CDs that you rip on the Opus; in other words, if you have set the default to FLAC and want to convert FLAC files to WAV or MP3, you need to temporarily change the dfautlt format. Also, if you convert a selection to MP3 for exporting to an iPod or other portable player, you cannot of course reconvert the files later to a lossless format (you can, but the resulting files arejust a reformatted version of the lossy files, you do not restore what has been “lost”). In order to make the “Cnvert” function more useful, Olive should let the user choose the conversion format regardless of what the default has been st to, and also, and more important, offer the option of crating converted copies of eisting files and storing those copies in a special folder for exporting to portable payers. Another feature Olive says it added is full support for Upnp-compliant NAS external storage. I have not tested it, but that feature would be a big improvement over the current backup solution (copying the HDD to an external USB drive).

4. Observed glitches: the new web interface occasionally freezes when listening to internet radio and attempting to perform ogher functions at the same time; iTunes integration only works one-way now: you can stream files in compatible format from the Opus to a computer running iTunes, but iTunes, although it shows up as amusic server on the Opus, refuses to connect for streaming to the Opus (according to Olive, this is actually a glitch in the latest version of iTunes 7.x that will be corrected by Apple).

5. Neede improvements: anew user manual is sorely neede. The current one was already obsolete when the previous software update was released last June. It is now even more obsolete. It is also too skimpy on technical aspects and shoud be expanded. Althoug the new software is pretty much self-explanatory, new users of an Olive music server will find the manual only marginally useful.

BUT BASICALLY< PEOPLE AT OLIVE HAVE MADE A GIGANTIC STEP FORWARD. They definitely listen to thei customers, so keep posting...

MG.

I stayed away from this thread after hearing from Olive that they were about to release a new version of their software, as it was pointles to discuss shortcomings that might be addressed by the new version.

I have an Opus and installed version 2.3 a week ago. Here are my first impressions:

1. Overall, Olive has achieved three dramatic improvements in one sweep. First, it streamlined the menu system, rearranging options in a more logical and understandable fashion and adding some very useful ones, such as "convert", which lets you convert files to and from any supported format (more about that later). Second, it replaced a very basic, clunky and slow web interface with one that makes editing metadata extremely easy (that is crucial for those who have a lot of classical music, as album/artist/track info as supplied by CDDB is very erratic). Third, and MOST IMPORTANT, whereas the old web interface was strictly for editing the music library, Olive has now added FULL CONTROL of the music server from the web interface. All menu options are available and can be selected and activated from the web interface (except of course network settings). That solves the problem of the "blind" remote control that in theory made it possible to access menu options, but was in fact only useful for controlling playback after a music selection had been made from the music server itself, due to the impossibility of reading the display from a distance. Olive provides three "flavors" of the web interface, including one that is designed for the smallish screens of PDAs and handheld tablets. This means that an Opus or Musica can be fully controlled remotely from any wifi-enbled handheld device with a touchscreen, which eliminates the convenience handicap Olive servers had relative to systems like the Sonos systems, that come with a screen-equipped control device.

2. My experience with a Nokia 770 Internet tablet: the 770 (that show up on the Olive web site as the "Rondo" is a fairly inexpensive wifi-enabled device (costs about $350) which has an Opera web browser. The touchscreen is of very high quality and larger than that of any PDA (4” diagonally); the Olive web interface fits that screen perfectly, and there you have a pocketable intelligent remote that can even be used for light editing of metadata (serious editing still requires a computer with a keyboard rather than the “virtual” keyboard available on the 770 for text entry). Of course the Nokia 770 ihas many features besides a web browser, but this is not the place for a review of those, except one: the 770 lets you install a Upnp streaming client, that will instantly recognize the Opus and let you stream wirelessly any music in your library (not FLAC files though) for private listening on headphones wherever you are within range of your wifi network. This highlights one of the improvements made to the Olive software: it now includes support for third-party Upnp-compliant streaming clients such as the Rokku and Squeezebox devices.

3. Other improvements/additions: the metadata editing function now lets you change info in any field of the database, whereas the old version was very limited in that respect. Classical music lovers will be happy to find that the “Composer” category, which in the old version showed up in the Opus library sub-menu, but not as an editable category in the web interface, has been duly added to the new editing interface. The “Convert” function, mentioned earlier, lets you change the format of music files on the hard disk. This is handy for converting to FLAC or whatever files imported from a computer in WAV or AIFF format. However, that function need further refinement: currently, when you choose to convert a music selection, the files are converted to the default format you have set for importing CDs that you rip on the Opus; in other words, if you have set the default to FLAC and want to convert FLAC files to WAV or MP3, you need to temporarily change the dfautlt format. Also, if you convert a selection to MP3 for exporting to an iPod or other portable player, you cannot of course reconvert the files later to a lossless format (you can, but the resulting files arejust a reformatted version of the lossy files, you do not restore what has been “lost”). In order to make the “Cnvert” function more useful, Olive should let the user choose the conversion format regardless of what the default has been st to, and also, and more important, offer the option of crating converted copies of eisting files and storing those copies in a special folder for exporting to portable payers. Another feature Olive says it added is full support for Upnp-compliant NAS external storage. I have not tested it, but that feature would be a big improvement over the current backup solution (copying the HDD to an external USB drive).

4. Observed glitches: the new web interface occasionally freezes when listening to internet radio and attempting to perform ogher functions at the same time; iTunes integration only works one-way now: you can stream files in compatible format from the Opus to a computer running iTunes, but iTunes, although it shows up as amusic server on the Opus, refuses to connect for streaming to the Opus (according to Olive, this is actually a glitch in the latest version of iTunes 7.x that will be corrected by Apple).

5. Neede improvements: anew user manual is sorely neede. The current one was already obsolete when the previous software update was released last June. It is now even more obsolete. It is also too skimpy on technical aspects and shoud be expanded. Althoug the new software is pretty much self-explanatory, new users of an Olive music server will find the manual only marginally useful.

BUT BASICALLY< PEOPLE AT OLIVE HAVE MADE A GIGANTIC STEP FORWARD. They definitely listen to thei customers, so keep posting...

MG.

I think the first web interface was really a beta that they included just because they hadn't got a full functioning version ready but they wanted to say they had a web interface. In any case, as everyone has noted, this is a great step.

My main problem with the Opus now (or is it with iPod?) is that I have to have two sets of ripped files, one in FLAC for the Opus and one in mpa for the iPod. That is a pain. I normally rip on my computer in iTunes in aiff and then copy over to the Opus but then I have to convert to FLAC for the Opus and mpa for the ipod to save space on both devices. A real hassle. In fact I haven't really found a good solution and my ripped collection is getting disorganized as a result. I have to find a way to maintain one library that suits both the Opus and iPod. It would be so much easier if the two devices supported the same lossless, compressed format.

2. My experience with a Nokia 770 Internet tablet: the 770 (that show up on the Olive web site as the "Rondo" is a fairly inexpensive wifi-enabled device (costs about $350) which has an Opera web browser. The touchscreen is of very high quality and larger than that of any PDA (4” diagonally); the Olive web interface fits that screen perfectly, and there you have a pocketable intelligent remote that can even be used for light editing of metadata (serious editing still requires a computer with a keyboard rather than the “virtual” keyboard available on the 770 for text entry). Of course the Nokia 770 ihas many features besides a web browser, but this is not the place for a review of those, except one: the 770 lets you install a Upnp streaming client, that will instantly recognize the Opus and let you stream wirelessly any music in your library (not FLAC files though) for private listening on headphones wherever you are within range of your wifi network. This highlights one of the improvements made to the Olive software: it now includes support for third-party Upnp-compliant streaming clients such as the Rokku and Squeezebox devices


I'm interested in the 770. Can you tell us a bit more? Is there a cradle for charging or does it charge like a cell phone? Is it much of a deal to install the streaming client? Are there alternatives to the 770 (and laptop) that could be used to control the Opus? thx.

I'm interested in the 770. Can you tell us a bit more? Is there a cradle for charging or does it charge like a cell phone? Is it much of a deal to install the streaming client? Are there alternatives to the 770 (and laptop) that could be used to control the Opus? thx.
Jack,

The Nokia 770 charges like a cell phone (actually it uses the very same charger as my Nokia phone). Battery life is decent for the size of the device: about three hours with the display on and the device in active use, but much longer in "standby" mode (to which the 770 automatically reverts after a delay you can specify; when used as a remote, it goes to standby and wakes up as neede, extending battery life). The streamer is offered as an optional download on the 770 (it connects to a site where new applications developped for the device are posted). Installation takes a minute and requires no setup. The 770 got a so-so review in PC Magazine, but the reviewer seems to have missed the point by downrating the device for not having features that its designers never intende to include. Like Olive music servers, that are designe to do just a few things as well and conveniently as possible without an arsenal of separate devices connected through miles of cables, the 770 is designed to do essentially one thing: give web access anywhere there is a wireless network available (wifi, Bluetooth, plus any flavor of packet data network through a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone) and offer a good browser and an excellent display for the purpose.
Of course you can use a slew of other devices: a PDA with a decent screen and wifi, like the Palm F/X, might do if you have good eyesight and do not mind doing some scrolling. Any small tablet PC would work fine. And the new Sony Mylo would also work. I chose the Nokia because of the screensize and quality (you get the full Olive web interface opening screen without scrolling, with a highly legible font size). You could even use a wifi-enabled cell phone such as the Nokia N80 and some BenQ models, if you can live with the small screens and the awkward navigation controls.

Hope that helps.

M.G.

I think the first web interface was really a beta that they included just because they hadn't got a full functioning version ready but they wanted to say they had a web interface. In any case, as everyone has noted, this is a great step.

My main problem with the Opus now (or is it with iPod?) is that I have to have two sets of ripped files, one in FLAC for the Opus and one in mpa for the iPod. That is a pain. I normally rip on my computer in iTunes in aiff and then copy over to the Opus but then I have to convert to FLAC for the Opus and mpa for the ipod to save space on both devices. A real hassle. In fact I haven't really found a good solution and my ripped collection is getting disorganized as a result. I have to find a way to maintain one library that suits both the Opus and iPod. It would be so much easier if the two devices supported the same lossless, compressed format.

Jack,

This is mostly an Apple/iTunes problem in my opinion: Apple is pushing its Lossless format, which does not seem to offer significant advantages over FLAC, and refuses to support FLAC. I understand that they may license the use of Apple Lossless decoders to third-party vendors, so Olive might acquire a license and ad the format to its options. With 80 GB iPods now on the market, storing files in Apple Lossless format for both the Olive server and the iPod would be a viable solution, but that would make music stored on an Olive server unplayable on third-party streaming clients unless they hade native decoding capability for Apple Lossless.

In the meantime, there seems to be no convenient solution to th iPod problem. Mking things worse, neither iTunes nor Olive music servers, as far as I know, let you convert an existing file to a different format without overwritng the original. So if you want to have two sets of files for albums you intend to export to an iPod, there seems to be no other solution than ripping the same CD twice.

Well, forget it, rip everything in WAV and buy two 80 GB iPods and two Olive servers!

M.G.

1. I was fiddling last night for a few minutes with the new interface and I couldn't find a way to add a song to a playlist. I was listening to a song and wanted to add from the player screen to a playlist. Am I missing something or do you have to do that directly from the Opus?

2. Diginote: How big is the actual screen on the 770? The Nokia site says that the dimensions of the unit are 5.5 x 3.1 inches. I suspect that is the entire unit and so the screen is smaller.

thanks.

The Nokia 770 has a 4.13" diagonal 800x480 pixel display. It could be the biggest display for a handheld device in its class. Every review I've seen of the Nokia 770 praises the quality of the display, even the negative reviews. Gadget blogs are reporting that Nokia has developed a new version of the 770.

Some reviews of the Nokia 770:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nokia770.ars

http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=1376

http://www.brighthand.com/?newsID=2760

http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6534.html

http://www.howardchui.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=203

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1893574,00.asp

http://reviews.cnet.com/Nokia_770_Internet_Tablet/4505-3127_7-31396042.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/15/AR2006041500125.html

I wonder what improvements there are in the new version of the 770.

The alternatives to the 770 that I've dug up so far are from AMX and Crestron. I haven't been able to get prices on those units however. They seem to have a lot more functionality so I suspect that they are much more expensive.

edit: YIKES! I just saw a price on an 8.4 inch from AMX: $4500. OK so maybe the 770 is not so bad after all! :eek:

So if the 770 screen is 4.1 inches that means that the Opus player that pops up on my laptop screen is going to be compressed on the 770. I am not at home but if I recall that default size of the Opus player is at least 5 inches diagonal. My main concern, then, is ease of viewing. I'm not blind but I don't want to have to strain to see the player and the menus.

So if the 770 screen is 4.1 inches that means that the Opus player that pops up on my laptop screen is going to be compressed on the 770. I am not at home but if I recall that default size of the Opus player is at least 5 inches diagonal. My main concern, then, is ease of viewing. I'm not blind but I don't want to have to strain to see the player and the menus.
The number of pixels (800x480) is more important than the physical dimensions of the screen for legibility.

Let's say your laptop has a 1200x800 display. Then an application that takes up a quarter of your laptop screen (half of the height and half of the width) is only using 600x400 pixels and will easily fit on the Nokia 770's 800x480 display.

The number of pixels (800x480) is more important than the physical dimensions of the screen for legibility.

Let's say your laptop has a 1200x800 display. Then an application that takes up a quarter of your laptop screen (half of the height and half of the width) is only using 600x400 pixels and will easily fit on the Nokia 770's 800x480 display.

Well I hope you are correct. I decided to give it a shot. I ordered one which should arrive in a few days. It sure will be great to control the Opus from a pocket-sized device. I think a lot of the negative comments about the 770 were based on the software when it was first released (late 2005?). I think the newer version of the software is much improved. In any case, I mainly want the 770 to control the Opus so I'm not really asking too much out of it.

Hi Jack,

I was wondering if you had any problems downloading the software updates for your Opus. Whenever I press the update software button the unit gives me an error message. I called Olive and the guy was on the phone with me for a while and we couldn’t figure it out. He said it must be something with my ISP (Verizon) or the router (Apple). I called Verizon and I don’t think it’s a problem on their end, the internet radio stations come in fine when I plug the Opus directly into the modem (same with direct plug from Opus to Apple router). Did you experience anything like this?

Hi Jack,

I was wondering if you had any problems downloading the software updates for your Opus. Whenever I press the update software button the unit gives me an error message. I called Olive and the guy was on the phone with me for a while and we couldn’t figure it out. He said it must be something with my ISP (Verizon) or the router (Apple). I called Verizon and I don’t think it’s a problem on their end, the internet radio stations come in fine when I plug the Opus directly into the modem (same with direct plug from Opus to Apple router). Did you experience anything like this?


With a hard-wired connection to my router, I had no trouble updating. It took about one minute to download the software, two minutes while the Opus was installing it automatically, and then the unit rebooted.

Given my experience with Verizon, I would not trust their so-called "customer care" (makes it sound like the customer is sick). Why not just download the new software from Olive's web site, burn it to a CD and run it from there?

M.G

1. I was fiddling last night for a few minutes with the new interface and I couldn't find a way to add a song to a playlist. I was listening to a song and wanted to add from the player screen to a playlist. Am I missing something or do you have to do that directly from the Opus?

2. Diginote: How big is the actual screen on the 770? The Nokia site says that the dimensions of the unit are 5.5 x 3.1 inches. I suspect that is the entire unit and so the screen is smaller.

thanks.

About adding tracks to playlists: The Olive web interface screen, when you play music, can be toggled between a "player" view showing playback controls and info on the current song, and a "browser" view that shows all tracks on the album. To add the current track, just click on the box to the left of the track title, then select "add to list". That will open the list of your playlists; click on the bos to the left of the one you want and select "add to list".There is one aspect of that process that needs refinement: as far as I can tell, there is no way you can mark several tracks for inclusion in a playlist, so you have to select them one by one (of course you can select an entire album).

Concerning the Nokia 770, the discussion about screen size and software seems to be moot if you intend to use the unit primarily as a smart control device: the screen size is sufficient to accomodate the entire web interface with excellent legibility (I am "partially sighted" and have no trouble), and the only piece of sofware you need to use is the web browser, which is excellent (a version of Opera). Responsiveness certainly does not match that of a dual-processor desktop with a gaming graphics board, but it is quite sufficient for the modest requirements of navigating the Opus menus. Keep in mind that at 4.1", the screen is only marginally smaller that the 4.5" one on the Sony Vaio UX series tablet PCs (which costs about $1,800).

M.G.

Hi Jack,

I was wondering if you had any problems downloading the software updates for your Opus. Whenever I press the update software button the unit gives me an error message. I called Olive and the guy was on the phone with me for a while and we couldn’t figure it out. He said it must be something with my ISP (Verizon) or the router (Apple). I called Verizon and I don’t think it’s a problem on their end, the internet radio stations come in fine when I plug the Opus directly into the modem (same with direct plug from Opus to Apple router). Did you experience anything like this?

When I initially set up my Opus I had a lot of problems linking it to my WLAN and in the end I just ran a LAN cable to it as I have another piece of equipment in my rack that needs to be connected to my LAN and doesn't have wireless capability. Once I did that I have had no LAN-type problems with my Opus.

I assume that the Olive tech guy walked you through the basics, like making sure that your router is assigning a relelvant IP, etc. I don't know about Apple network connections but I assume you are properly connected to your LAN or WLAN if you can get internet radio. Can you use the internet database to look up songs when you rip a CD?

I suppose the least headache would be, as DIGINOTE suggested, to make a CD and upgrade that way. It is certainly worth the trouble to get the new firmware.

About adding tracks to playlists: The Olive web interface screen, when you play music, can be toggled between a "player" view showing playback controls and info on the current song, and a "browser" view that shows all tracks on the album. To add the current track, just click on the box to the left of the track title, then select "add to list". That will open the list of your playlists; click on the bos to the left of the one you want and select "add to list".There is one aspect of that process that needs refinement: as far as I can tell, there is no way you can mark several tracks for inclusion in a playlist, so you have to select them one by one (of course you can select an entire album).

Concerning the Nokia 770, the discussion about screen size and software seems to be moot if you intend to use the unit primarily as a smart control device: the screen size is sufficient to accomodate the entire web interface with excellent legibility (I am "partially sighted" and have no trouble), and the only piece of sofware you need to use is the web browser, which is excellent (a version of Opera). Responsiveness certainly does not match that of a dual-processor desktop with a gaming graphics board, but it is quite sufficient for the modest requirements of navigating the Opus menus. Keep in mind that at 4.1", the screen is only marginally smaller that the 4.5" one on the Sony Vaio UX series tablet PCs (which costs about $1,800).

M.G.

I guess I was just being lazy about figuring out how to add a song to the playlist. Thanks.

Well, as I said, I ordered a 770 and should have it tomorrow. How did you know that I had a dual-processor desktop with a gaming graphics card? :D Yeah I really don't need to do serious web browsing or any fancy internet stuff from the 770. At this point I just want it to control my Opus. I use Opera most of the time for browsing on my desktop so that is fine with me for the 770.

I have to admit, however, that when I started looking at other touch screens I started to get ideas about controling all my equipment, including the Opus, with one touch screen. That would be nice but when I saw the prices of these things I figured I would stick with my Harmony remote and get the 770 for the Opus.

Random question: Is it relatively easy (buttons large enough and screen responsive to finger touches) to use your fingers to push the buttons on the 770 or do you have to use the pointing device?

Has anyone used the Opus for streaming to other rooms? I haven't really investigated how that works but I'm setting up a second sound system in another room and might like to play around with that feature. I suppose at a minimum the receiver in the other room has to have some sort of wireless capability. I don't know if you have to buy a device to plug into the receiver or what.

Ok I just checked out the Olive site and it seems you have to buy a Sonata at $200 and it can be linked to your amp (via coax I suppose) in another room. Has anyone used a Sonata?

With a hard-wired connection to my router, I had no trouble updating. It took about one minute to download the software, two minutes while the Opus was installing it automatically, and then the unit rebooted.

Given my experience with Verizon, I would not trust their so-called "customer care" (makes it sound like the customer is sick). Why not just download the new software from Olive's web site, burn it to a CD and run it from there?

M.G

I just downloaded the software and burnt it to a cd. I will see if it works when I get home. I'm still worried that there might be some problem with the Opus though and that might be why it's not able to get the update. I'll see what happens. Thanks.

I just downloaded the software and burnt it to a cd. I will see if it works when I get home. I'm still worried that there might be some problem with the Opus though and that might be why it's not able to get the update. I'll see what happens. Thanks.


I don't know for sure but if your OPUS is able to access the internet as you say for internet radio it's a bit unclear what might be the problem with downloading the firmware.

To clarify: How is your Opus connected to the LAN (wired or wireless)? Have you tried both ways and with the same problem? Have you tried ripping to your computer hard drive and then importing the music to your Opus via the LAN? And: Have you been able to maintain a consistent connection to the internet (i.e, you have listened to internet radio for prolonged periods?).

I usually have the Opus connected through my wireless network and I can access the internet radio stations. The connection seems fine but I never listen to internet radio for extended periods so I can't say for sure. I also tried connecting through the LAN by wiring it directly to both my router and then directly from the modem. In both cases the internet radio works but the software update fails. I already sent an email to the Olive support guy I dealt with last night. Hopefully the software update will work when I try it tonight. I'll post later with an update.

I usually have the Opus connected through my wireless network and I can access the internet radio stations. The connection seems fine but I never listen to internet radio for extended periods so I can't say for sure. I also tried connecting through the LAN by wiring it directly to both my router and then directly from the modem. In both cases the internet radio works but the software update fails. I already sent an email to the Olive support guy I dealt with last night. Hopefully the software update will work when I try it tonight. I'll post later with an update.

Two thoughts: 1. Maybe your current Opus firmware got corrupted and loading the new version will fix that 2. I assume you have a software and/or hardware firewall on your LAN and maybe a setting there is preventing you from downloading the firmware but allows internet radio to function. Can you use the internet database lookup function on the Opus?

Two thoughts: 1. Maybe your current Opus firmware got corrupted and loading the new version will fix that 2. I assume you have a software and/or hardware firewall on your LAN and maybe a setting there is preventing you from downloading the firmware but allows internet radio to function. Can you use the internet database lookup function on the Opus?


1. That might be part of it. Before I did the update I was unable to load the music on the Opus into iTunes. Today after the update I opened iTunes and all the music on the Opus showed up in iTunes. So maybe there was some problem with the old software.

2. As far as the software/hardware firewall on my LAN, I'm not sure. I have WEP encryption but the Opus has the encryption key and I can now use my web browser to play the Opus so I know its getting onto the network. I'm not sure what a hardware firewall is so maybe that's an issue I need to look into. I've tried connecting the Opus directly to my DSL modem and I still can get the update (internet radio works though), so I think there's something wrong with the Opus. The tech i spoke with yesterday wasn't able to find out what the issue is yet so hopefully he'll have an idea how to take care of it.

The update installed properly so I'm in no big rush at this point.

1. That might be part of it. Before I did the update I was unable to load the music on the Opus into iTunes. Today after the update I opened iTunes and all the music on the Opus showed up in iTunes. So maybe there was some problem with the old software.

2. As far as the software/hardware firewall on my LAN, I'm not sure. I have WEP encryption but the Opus has the encryption key and I can now use my web browser to play the Opus so I know its getting onto the network. I'm not sure what a hardware firewall is so maybe that's an issue I need to look into. I've tried connecting the Opus directly to my DSL modem and I still can get the update (internet radio works though), so I think there's something wrong with the Opus. The tech i spoke with yesterday wasn't able to find out what the issue is yet so hopefully he'll have an idea how to take care of it.

The update installed properly so I'm in no big rush at this point.

Regarding the hardware firewall, if you don't know what it is then you don't have one unless someone else set up your LAN for you. It is a box that has a board in it dedicated to firewall protection. Your cable or DSL modem would take the signal from outside your system and there would be an RJ45 cable to the hardware firewall. Then all the other equipment on your network would link to the router in the firewall.

So at least you have the new firmware installed and it is working which is good. Can you acess the internet data base for looking up the information about a CD that you rip directly to your Opus? Hopefully the Olive tech can resolve any remaining issues if there is a glitch in your Opus but it sounds like you have close to full functionality.

1. That might be part of it. Before I did the update I was unable to load the music on the Opus into iTunes. Today after the update I opened iTunes and all the music on the Opus showed up in iTunes. So maybe there was some problem with the old software.

2. As far as the software/hardware firewall on my LAN, I'm not sure. I have WEP encryption but the Opus has the encryption key and I can now use my web browser to play the Opus so I know its getting onto the network. I'm not sure what a hardware firewall is so maybe that's an issue I need to look into. I've tried connecting the Opus directly to my DSL modem and I still can get the update (internet radio works though), so I think there's something wrong with the Opus. The tech i spoke with yesterday wasn't able to find out what the issue is yet so hopefully he'll have an idea how to take care of it.

The update installed properly so I'm in no big rush at this point.

The fact that your Opus library did not show up in iTunes with the old software seems to indicate that the software was malfunctionning. If you want to test the download capability now that you have upgraded, just select the "Update software" option on the Opus and see what happens: if you get a message to the effect that you have already have the latest version, it means that your Opus is communicating normally with Olive's server (that is required for version verification). If you get an error message, then you must have a networking problem.

Concerning Jack's comment to the effect that if you do not know if you have a hardware firewall ornot, it means you have not, it is not quite true: practically all basic routers have some kind of firewall built-in. What Jack probably had in mind was a dedicated firewall appliance. However, default settings on routers rarely cause problems for mundane tasks such as downloading software.

M.G.

I guess I was just being lazy about figuring out how to add a song to the playlist. Thanks.

Well, as I said, I ordered a 770 and should have it tomorrow. How did you know that I had a dual-processor desktop with a gaming graphics card? :D Yeah I really don't need to do serious web browsing or any fancy internet stuff from the 770. At this point I just want it to control my Opus. I use Opera most of the time for browsing on my desktop so that is fine with me for the 770.

I have to admit, however, that when I started looking at other touch screens I started to get ideas about controling all my equipment, including the Opus, with one touch screen. That would be nice but when I saw the prices of these things I figured I would stick with my Harmony remote and get the 770 for the Opus.

Random question: Is it relatively easy (buttons large enough and screen responsive to finger touches) to use your fingers to push the buttons on the 770 or do you have to use the pointing device?

Hi Jack,

To answer your "random question": using a stylus is mandatory for reliably navigating the screen of the 770. However, there is a full-screen keyboard that can be invoked instead of the smaller keyboard normally displayed when text entry is required, and that full-screen keyboard is supposed to respond to touch-typing (not being a masochist, I did not bother to try it).

M.G.

Has anyone used the Opus for streaming to other rooms? I haven't really investigated how that works but I'm setting up a second sound system in another room and might like to play around with that feature. I suppose at a minimum the receiver in the other room has to have some sort of wireless capability. I don't know if you have to buy a device to plug into the receiver or what.

Ok I just checked out the Olive site and it seems you have to buy a Sonata at $200 and it can be linked to your amp (via coax I suppose) in another room. Has anyone used a Sonata?

The new software makes the Opus compatible with streaming clients other than the Sonata, as long as they are UPnp-compliant and support the file format you are using (I verified that feature using the streaming client I downloaded to the Nokia 770).
The Sonata seems to be pretty basic (you cannot get a high-end DAC and sophisticated analogue output circuitry for $200). It has both analogue RCA and digital outputs, so you can connect it to a good DAC if you intend to do critical listening. Do not expect to get smooth streaming of FLAC or WAV on Wifi unless your remote streamer is in a strong signal area and you have little competing traffic on your network, though.

M.G.

The fact that your Opus library did not show up in iTunes with the old software seems to indicate that the software was malfunctionning. If you want to test the download capability now that you have upgraded, just select the "Update software" option on the Opus and see what happens: if you get a message to the effect that you have already have the latest version, it means that your Opus is communicating normally with Olive's server (that is required for version verification). If you get an error message, then you must have a networking problem.

Concerning Jack's comment to the effect that if you do not know if you have a hardware firewall ornot, it means you have not, it is not quite true: practically all basic routers have some kind of firewall built-in. What Jack probably had in mind was a dedicated firewall appliance. However, default settings on routers rarely cause problems for mundane tasks such as downloading software.

M.G.

DIGINOTE & Jack D:
When I hooked up the ethernet cable to the Opus after the software update I still got the error message when I tried to run the update (no "software already installed" message).

I use an Apple Airport Extreme as my home base station for my wireless network. I'll have to call Apple to see if there is an internal firewall and what effect, if any, it would have on downloading software updates, although I doubt there is any sort of limitation on this in the Airport (I can't get the update when the Opus is hard-wired to the modem either).

As far as using the CD database, I think my system can get to the internet for that. One unfortunate side effect of this whole trouble-shooting process was that my Airport stopped working once I disconnected it to hard wire the Opus to the modem. Now I'll have to spend most of tonight on the phone with Apple tech support trying to figure out why I can't get my Airport to access the internet (I think it isn't releasing it's IP address). I'll let you know what I hear from Olive.

DIGINOTE & Jack D:
When I hooked up the ethernet cable to the Opus after the software update I still got the error message when I tried to run the update (no "software already installed" message).

I use an Apple Airport Extreme as my home base station for my wireless network. I'll have to call Apple to see if there is an internal firewall and what effect, if any, it would have on downloading software updates, although I doubt there is any sort of limitation on this in the Airport (I can't get the update when the Opus is hard-wired to the modem either).

As far as using the CD database, I think my system can get to the internet for that. One unfortunate side effect of this whole trouble-shooting process was that my Airport stopped working once I disconnected it to hard wire the Opus to the modem. Now I'll have to spend most of tonight on the phone with Apple tech support trying to figure out why I can't get my Airport to access the internet (I think it isn't releasing it's IP address). I'll let you know what I hear from Olive.

Sorry but I've run out of ideas. I know how frustrating this stuff can be. As I mentioned earlier in this thread I had a lot of trouble with the wireless connection and spent several hours on the phone with Olive and with the maker of my wireless router. In the end I gave up on that and connected the Opus via cable. Of course that is not the problem for you.

Keep us posted.

I might take my Opus to a friend's house and see if I can get the update check to work on his system. If it doesn't (I doubt it will) then I'll have to decide if I want to send the machine back to Olive to have them look at it. All things considered, this isn't that big of a problem. The music server works and it's not that big a deal to burn the updates to a CD and load them myself. If that's the only problem with the system then I might just live with it. It's not as if i can't play music. I don't think I want to deal with the headache of sending the system back just for this.

BTW, the new update is great. I love being able to control the unit from my laptop. The Opus remote changes the input on my receiver (ARCAM) whenever I scroll through the artist list. Now that I don't have to deal with that anymore the system is a lot more enjoyable to use. Thanks for your help.

I might take my Opus to a friend's house and see if I can get the update check to work on his system. If it doesn't (I doubt it will) then I'll have to decide if I want to send the machine back to Olive to have them look at it. All things considered, this isn't that big of a problem. The music server works and it's not that big a deal to burn the updates to a CD and load them myself. If that's the only problem with the system then I might just live with it. It's not as if i can't play music. I don't think I want to deal with the headache of sending the system back just for this.

BTW, the new update is great. I love being able to control the unit from my laptop. The Opus remote changes the input on my receiver (ARCAM) whenever I scroll through the artist list. Now that I don't have to deal with that anymore the system is a lot more enjoyable to use. Thanks for your help.

Yeah it's great. I ordered the Nokia 770 which should be even more conveninet than using my laptop. Which Arcam do you use? I've got the 700. I use a Harmony remote to control my system so I never use the Opus remote anymore. In any case, I changed the code on the Arcam so that the interference between the Opus and the Arcam is not a problem. I think I posted the instructions on how to do that earlier in this thread.

Jack,

Yes, I think we exchanged a couple of posts at that time. I have an AVR300 and DV78. Love the set up. After the Opus the sound is even better, and the DV78 was a pretty good CD player in it's own right. I never bothered changing the remote settings for the ARCAM. In order to do that I would have had to go get a software update since I hadn't updated mine since I bought the system (Sep '04). What is it with me and software updates anyway? Now with the Opus updated the problem is taken care of. Take care.

I might take my Opus to a friend's house and see if I can get the update check to work on his system. If it doesn't (I doubt it will) then I'll have to decide if I want to send the machine back to Olive to have them look at it. All things considered, this isn't that big of a problem. The music server works and it's not that big a deal to burn the updates to a CD and load them myself. If that's the only problem with the system then I might just live with it. It's not as if i can't play music. I don't think I want to deal with the headache of sending the system back just for this.

BTW, the new update is great. I love being able to control the unit from my laptop. The Opus remote changes the input on my receiver (ARCAM) whenever I scroll through the artist list. Now that I don't have to deal with that anymore the system is a lot more enjoyable to use. Thanks for your help.

Glad to hear that at least, you enjoy the new software.

Concerning your connection problem, the fact that your router stopped accessign the internet after you unplugged it to try connecting the Opus directly to your DSL modem points to an ISP issue (Verizon may block what its network sees as a server behind its DSL modem). When you tried direct connection to your modem, I assume you configured the Opus as a router. If you did, just make sure that for connecting it to the Airport Extreme, you select the "home network" setting, and check the WLAN and Ethernet settings after doing that. Also, if the Airport can be controlled through a web interface, you should be able to test DHAC release/restore without calling Apples.

Good luck!

M.G.

You know, the Musica (or Opus) is really a great way to rediscover your music collection. Once you have all the CDs loaded, how often to you pull up every disc to listen? Instead, I've been putting my Musica on 'Random' (made easier with the new Web interface) and playing by Genre.

I'm amazed all of the wonderful songs in my collection that I haven't listened to in years! :)

You know, the Musica (or Opus) is really a great way to rediscover your music collection. Once you have all the CDs loaded, how often to you pull up every disc to listen? Instead, I've been putting my Musica on 'Random' (made easier with the new Web interface) and playing by Genre.

I'm amazed all of the wonderful songs in my collection that I haven't listened to in years! :)


Agreed. I do the same thing from time to time and it is surprising what is in there.

Agreed. I do the same thing from time to time and it is surprising what is in there.

Here's the set up:

- Win XP
- McAfee Security Center software (disabled)
- Verizon DSL (Westell 327W) Router
- Opus 500 (Software Version: 2.3)
- Nokia 770 (OS2006)

I've had a Opus for several months now (awesome device) and just received the 770 two days ago. I'm sure that there's a simple fix for setting the units to see one another, but it has been frustrating to say the least. As suggested, I updated the units' software, tried direct USB connection between the two ... nothing. I'm sure that the software was installed properly on the Opus because the unit sees my router, PC, and plays 'net radio perfectly. The 770 communicates with the PC via "SimpleCenter Home Media Server" suggested at the Nokia website. Why am I not able to control the Opus from the 770 or my PC? :confused: Admittedly, I'm not as WLAN savvy as I like to be. Is there a simple fix?

Here's the set up:

- Win XP
- McAfee Security Center software (disabled)
- Verizon DSL (Westell 327W) Router
- Opus 500 (Software Version: 2.3)
- Nokia 770 (OS2006)

I've had a Opus for several months now (awesome device) and just received the 770 two days ago. I'm sure that there's a simple fix for setting the units to see one another, but it has been frustrating to say the least. As suggested, I updated the units' software, tried direct USB connection between the two ... nothing. I'm sure that the software was installed properly on the Opus because the unit sees my router, PC, and plays 'net radio perfectly. The 770 communicates with the PC via "SimpleCenter Home Media Server" suggested at the Nokia website. Why am I not able to control the Opus from the 770 or my PC? :confused: Admittedly, I'm not as WLAN savvy as I like to be. Is there a simple fix?

I'm not sure. I am only going to get my 770 tomorrow so I don't have any experience with it at this point. So just a bunch of questions:

Do you have another wireless device on your network? Is the Opus linked wirelessly? You have a combination LAN and WLAN or is everything linked via WLAN? The Verizon Westell is wireless? Do you have a laptop from which you were able to control the Opus before you got the 770? One thing is to try a search for computers on your PC. First check the IP that is being assigned to the Opus and search for that IP to see if other devices can see it on the network. Also have you tried putting in the IP of your OPUs into the browser on your PC to see if the new Olive web interface comes up?

I'm not sure. I am only going to get my 770 tomorrow so I don't have any experience with it at this point. So just a bunch of questions:

Do you have another wireless device on your network? Is the Opus linked wirelessly? You have a combination LAN and WLAN or is everything linked via WLAN? The Verizon Westell is wireless? Do you have a laptop from which you were able to control the Opus before you got the 770? One thing is to try a search for computers on your PC. First check the IP that is being assigned to the Opus and search for that IP to see if other devices can see it on the network. Also have you tried putting in the IP of your OPUs into the browser on your PC to see if the new Olive web interface comes up?
:-D Eureka! I found it.

Through your suggestions I'm able to see the Opus on my Desktop and Nokia 770. Everything shows up as advertised. Now I'll fiddle with it some more and see how well the controls work. Gratias

:-D Eureka! I found it.

Through your suggestions I'm able to see the Opus on my Desktop and Nokia 770. Everything shows up as advertised. Now I'll fiddle with it some more and see how well the controls work. Gratias

Excellent! Let us know how the 770 works for you. I'll get mine tomorrow and will try to post some initial impressions.

OK. Got my 770. It took me about 30 minutes to get it set up (without reading the instructions). The only glitch is that my home WLAN is hidden so I had to go to the tools/connectivity menu and set it up manually with WPA etc. That took a few false starts.

First impressions:

1. It's fantastic that I can carry it around anywhere in my house and control the Opus.

2. I would have liked the screen to be a bit larger. The menus are ok but once I get into my library the type is a bit small for me. True you can quickly zoom with a button on the tool bar but then you have to scroll around to get to various parts of the Olive interface.

3. It seems a bit slow. When I push buttons on the player it takes longer to respond on the Opus than it does when I'm working from my laptop. Ditto when I'm scrolling around my library. Do you think the wireless adapter is cheap/slow? Not sure what else would explain it.

Tell the truth I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. Mainly because of the size of the screen. The problem is I only want the screen a bit bigger so it is still mobile but I also do not want to pay massively more like the prices I saw when I was surfing the AMX and Crestron sites. I wonder if there is something that would fit my size and willingness to pay criteria.

OK. Got my 770. It took me about 30 minutes to get it set up (without reading the instructions). The only glitch is that my home WLAN is hidden so I had to go to the tools/connectivity menu and set it up manually with WPA etc. That took a few false starts.

First impressions:

1. It's fantastic that I can carry it around anywhere in my house and control the Opus.



2. I would have liked the screen to be a bit larger. The menus are ok but once I get into my library the type is a bit small for me. True you can quickly zoom with a button on the tool bar but then you have to scroll around to get to various parts of the Olive interface.

3. It seems a bit slow. When I push buttons on the player it takes longer to respond on the Opus than it does when I'm working from my laptop. Ditto when I'm scrolling around my library. Do you think the wireless adapter is cheap/slow? Not sure what else would explain it.

Tell the truth I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. Mainly because of the size of the screen. The problem is I only want the screen a bit bigger so it is still mobile but I also do not want to pay massively more like the prices I saw when I was surfing the AMX and Crestron sites. I wonder if there is something that would fit my size and willingness to pay criteria.

Hi Jack,

Your observations concerning the Nokia 770 are quite accurate: the screen is sufficient, but not big, and the response is slower than with a PC. Slow response is most likely due to the processor and the OS rather than the Wifi connection. To me. a slight response delay is not a real problem while using the unit a a remote navigation/play back control. I would not consider doing serious metadata editing from the Nokia. I did some research prior to selecting the 770 and found nothing that would offer similar portability plus a larger display, and the price is pretty low. I am currently in Tokyo and will look at what is available among new gadgets here (but I am not very hopeful).

One inconvenient aspect of the Olive web interface (whther accessed from tha Nokia or a PC) is the need to change the IP address whenever DHCP gives the Opus a new one. I see no reason why giving the Opus a fixed IP address should create problems, so I'll try that when I get back home.

M.G.

Some of the smaller "notebook" units might also be an option. I know Dell has some for close to the Nokia range. So if you want a slightly larger screen and don't mind the size, it could be a consideration.

Guys,

I've played around with the Opus & 770 for a few days and found it to be good for the money versus $1,800 to $4,500 for tablet devices that will do the same stuff. I'm not willing to pay that much for a glorified "remote control."

To get to a larger screen, press the second left button from the bottom of the 770. Select "View" then "Full Screen." Now if I can only find a way to make the Opus Web Interface load this way each time initiated. Anyone out there got the answer to that question.

BTW - The response time is fast when I hit an action button/icon/link on the Nokia 770, but of course I bought a gig of memory for the unit and the same fo the PC. One other thing is that my WLAN is not WEP encrypted. Wide open ... dangerous?

ContactPro

Hi Jack,

Your observations concerning the Nokia 770 are quite accurate: the screen is sufficient, but not big, and the response is slower than with a PC. Slow response is most likely due to the processor and the OS rather than the Wifi connection. To me. a slight response delay is not a real problem while using the unit a a remote navigation/play back control. I would not consider doing serious metadata editing from the Nokia. I did some research prior to selecting the 770 and found nothing that would offer similar portability plus a larger display, and the price is pretty low. I am currently in Tokyo and will look at what is available among new gadgets here (but I am not very hopeful).

One inconvenient aspect of the Olive web interface (whther accessed from tha Nokia or a PC) is the need to change the IP address whenever DHCP gives the Opus a new one. I see no reason why giving the Opus a fixed IP address should create problems, so I'll try that when I get back home.

M.G.

I find the delay a bit irritating and troublesome when I am scrolling down a list of albums or artists or songs. Sometimes the next screen will come in ok without too much delay but other times it gets all futzed up. Also the re-drawing of the screen everytime you push a button is irritating.

Yes I had thought to set a fixed ip for the Opus so that I could bookmark it in my browser too but I haven't got around to it. Most of the time my router assigns the same one so it is not a huge hassle but it would be nice to be able to go to a bookmark.

Some of the smaller "notebook" units might also be an option. I know Dell has some for close to the Nokia range. So if you want a slightly larger screen and don't mind the size, it could be a consideration.

Maybe I'll take a look but they are probably pretty big.

Guys,

I've played around with the Opus & 770 for a few days and found it to be good for the money versus $1,800 to $4,500 for tablet devices that will do the same stuff. I'm not willing to pay that much for a glorified "remote control."

To get to a larger screen, press the second left button from the bottom of the 770. Select "View" then "Full Screen." Now if I can only find a way to make the Opus Web Interface load this way each time initiated. Anyone out there got the answer to that question.

BTW - The response time is fast when I hit an action button/icon/link on the Nokia 770, but of course I bought a gig of memory for the unit and the same fo the PC. One other thing is that my WLAN is not WEP encrypted. Wide open ... dangerous?

ContactPro

Yeah I discovered the view/full screen option too which helps but is still kind of awkward.

Hmm, I wonder if getting more memory would help. I just have whatever came with the unit. You just buy another card I guess right?

No encryption on your WLAN? You are nuts. It is very easy to use WPA assuming your router/firewall has that built in. You just have to define a password and then put it into your remote devices one time. They will remember it after that. In any case, you can at least hide the name of your network so that any idiot wandering by with a laptop does not see it automatically.

Yes, I bought a 1 gig RS-MMC from Fry's for $24.99. Once installed, you have to initialize it to allow for virtual memory expansion. Your unit maybe only optimized for the 64 MB card that came with it. Go to "Tools," "Control Panel," and "Memory."

I searched for cheap tablet PC's and came up with prices of $899 to $1200 (not really cheap!) ... I'll keep my Nokia 770 for awhile.

Have fun!

ContactPro

Yes, I bought a 1 gig RS-MMC from Fry's for $24.99. Once installed, you have to initialize it to allow for virtual memory expansion. Your unit maybe only optimized for the 64 MB card that came with it. Go to "Tools," "Control Panel," and "Memory."

I searched for cheap tablet PC's and came up with prices of $899 to $1200 (not really cheap!) ... I'll keep my Nokia 770 for awhile.

Have fun!

ContactPro

I guess it is worth $25 to see if that makes the 770 more useable. It does seem that there is niche for the 770 given the prices of the alternatives. Still I'm not jumping for joy over this device even though it is really neat to be able to carry it in your pocket around the house and control the Opus from anywhere.

Hi All,
What about this? http://www.jksalesinc.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=257

Regards,
Ricky

Hi All,
What about this? http://www.jksalesinc.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=257

Regards,
Ricky

Sorry, but the unit advertised on that link would be utterly useless, at it lacks built-in wi-fi, not to mention that it is a used tablet dating back to some 4 years.

Current Fujitsu tablets (CT 4120) would certainly do the job, but at close to 3 pounds and $1900, they are not exactly ideal.

M.G

I find the delay a bit irritating and troublesome when I am scrolling down a list of albums or artists or songs. Sometimes the next screen will come in ok without too much delay but other times it gets all futzed up. Also the re-drawing of the screen everytime you push a button is irritating.

Yes I had thought to set a fixed ip for the Opus so that I could bookmark it in my browser too but I haven't got around to it. Most of the time my router assigns the same one so it is not a huge hassle but it would be nice to be able to go to a bookmark.

Jack,

The "delay", in my experience, is minimal when using playback controls; it is much less than the delay on mys Sony ES DVD/CD/SACD player. As to navigating the library, response time between the "click" on a selection and start of playback is about 2 seconds; not so horrible. Finally, browsing long lists is made quite fast by using the alphabetical indexing feature. You do not need to scroll from A to Z unless you really don't know what you are looking for. Finally, I have not experienced garbled screens after a refresh. I did buy and install a 1 GB memory card, but am not sure it makes a diference when using the 770 to navigate the Olive web interface (that should not be a memory-intensive task). Maybe your problems come from low WLAN signal strength...

M.G.

Jack,

The "delay", in my experience, is minimal when using playback controls; it is much less than the delay on mys Sony ES DVD/CD/SACD player. As to navigating the library, response time between the "click" on a selection and start of playback is about 2 seconds; not so horrible. Finally, browsing long lists is made quite fast by using the alphabetical indexing feature. You do not need to scroll from A to Z unless you really don't know what you are looking for. Finally, I have not experienced garbled screens after a refresh. I did buy and install a 1 GB memory card, but am not sure it makes a diference when using the 770 to navigate the Olive web interface (that should not be a memory-intensive task). Maybe your problems come from low WLAN signal strength...

M.G.

I don't know what to think. I got the 1GB card but it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference as far as I can tell. The WLAN signal strength where I normally use the 770 is very good according to my lap top. I find that using the letters to go directly to some part of the library is a bit awkward as the letters show up extremely small in the "library" screen on the 770. I don't know. All in all, it works ok but not great. It's a little bit more of a hassle than I had hoped.

I don't know what to think. I got the 1GB card but it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference as far as I can tell. The WLAN signal strength where I normally use the 770 is very good according to my lap top. I find that using the letters to go directly to some part of the library is a bit awkward as the letters show up extremely small in the "library" screen on the 770. I don't know. All in all, it works ok but not great. It's a little bit more of a hassle than I had hoped.

Jack,

No, the Nokia 770 is not perfect. Olive should develop and market its own tablet control device. I am sure customers willing to pay $3,000-4,000 for an Opus would not mind paying an extra $500-600 for a dedicated touch-screen control unit, especially if it did double duty working also as a wireless streaming client. However, I am not sure the Opus will sell well enough to warrant the investment.

Now, if you want the utmost in convenience and flexibility, I would suggest you look up Sooloos, a new company that made quite a splash at CEDIA. I understand that a system with 3 terabytes of storage with full protection from drive failure, a master unit for ripping/burning , a client module and a BIG touchscreen control unit would cost around $12,000 (not so bad if you consider what assembling such a system from disparate vendors would cost. Infrant recently introduced a NAS storage device with fanless cooling, designed for media storage, with an asking price of about $4,000 for 2 terabytes, and that is just storage).

The link to Sooloos:

http://www.sooloos.com/www/home.html

I will have a chance to try a Sooloos system soon and will report.

M.G.

No

J
Now, if you want the utmost in convenience and flexibility, I would suggest you look up Sooloos, a new company that made quite a splash at CEDIA. I understand that a system with 3 terabytes of storage with full protection from drive failure, a master unit for ripping/burning , a client module and a BIG touchscreen control unit would cost around $12,000 (not so bad if you consider what assembling such a system from disparate vendors would cost. Infrant recently introduced a NAS storage device with fanless cooling, designed for media storage, with an asking price of about $4,000 for 2 terabytes, and that is just storage).

The link to Sooloos:

http://www.sooloos.com/www/home.html

I will have a chance to try a Sooloos system soon and will report.

M.G.



I'm very much looking forward to your report on the Sooloos system!

Jack,

No, the Nokia 770 is not perfect. Olive should develop and market its own tablet control device. I am sure customers willing to pay $3,000-4,000 for an Opus would not mind paying an extra $500-600 for a dedicated touch-screen control unit, especially if it did double duty working also as a wireless streaming client. However, I am not sure the Opus will sell well enough to warrant the investment.

Now, if you want the utmost in convenience and flexibility, I would suggest you look up Sooloos, a new company that made quite a splash at CEDIA. I understand that a system with 3 terabytes of storage with full protection from drive failure, a master unit for ripping/burning , a client module and a BIG touchscreen control unit would cost around $12,000 (not so bad if you consider what assembling such a system from disparate vendors would cost. Infrant recently introduced a NAS storage device with fanless cooling, designed for media storage, with an asking price of about $4,000 for 2 terabytes, and that is just storage).

The link to Sooloos:

http://www.sooloos.com/www/home.html

I will have a chance to try a Sooloos system soon and will report.

M.G.

No

From a quick scan of the web site, it's a bit confusing. It seems like a large touch screen is included but it says you can use third party TSs. All in all the Sooloos could be good but sounds like it's way up there in terms of cost. Will I really need 3 TBs of storage space? I guess we will have to see how it develops given that it is just hitting the market.

I saw a nice demo of Sooloos' system at EHX this last Friday. In one sentence, if you are familar with the Kaleidescape movie server, the SooLoos is the equivalent of that for you music collection.

They've built a complete and very well organized system. From the cd reader, to the raid storage, networking interface, zones, and most importantly the user interface. Their touch screen is a custom pc running their custom software. The interface of the sooloos is just amazing. It is snap-responsive. I'm still blown away by how fast and cool it was for brosing and drilling into the music library. I could see they are certain that it will scale up to thousands of albums and hundreds of thousands of songs and still be hyper fast and managable.
They plan to offer a handheld, smaller form factor touch screen remote, but they didn't have that at the show. They described it physically as slightly wider than a ps3, and it will have the same outstanding interface.

The price point, like the kaleidescape is quite high. Very roughly 12K and then it goes up as you add zones, and storage, and subscription options (for adding music directly into your system).

The Sooloos guys I talked to love music and understand having large music collections. You could tell they were excited about this. They really and truly nailed the entire system. Their price point is serious. 12K is a _lot_ of cds (or trips to Europe for that matter :). On the other hand this system can make it so much easier to get enjoyment from your own music collection that it may be worth it to you.

I saw a nice demo of Sooloos' system at EHX this last Friday. In one sentence, if you are familar with the Kaleidescape movie server, the SooLoos is the equivalent of that for you music collection.

They've built a complete and very well organized system. From the cd reader, to the raid storage, networking interface, zones, and most importantly the user interface. Their touch screen is a custom pc running their custom software. The interface of the sooloos is just amazing. It is snap-responsive. I'm still blown away by how fast and cool it was for brosing and drilling into the music library. I could see they are certain that it will scale up to thousands of albums and hundreds of thousands of songs and still be hyper fast and managable.
They plan to offer a handheld, smaller form factor touch screen remote, but they didn't have that at the show. They described it physically as slightly wider than a ps3, and it will have the same outstanding interface.

The price point, like the kaleidescape is quite high. Very roughly 12K and then it goes up as you add zones, and storage, and subscription options (for adding music directly into your system).

The Sooloos guys I talked to love music and understand having large music collections. You could tell they were excited about this. They really and truly nailed the entire system. Their price point is serious. 12K is a _lot_ of cds (or trips to Europe for that matter :). On the other hand this system can make it so much easier to get enjoyment from your own music collection that it may be worth it to you.

Sounds interesting but at that price point it's going to be a hard sell even for audiphile types; think of the more important parts of the sound system one could beef up with that money. I wonder how many they will sell.

Just an update on the 770.

1. I upgraded to the latest software which was a second version released this year (it's not newly released, I just got around to checking the Nokia web site). Mine came with the first 2006 version. I've only been using the new version for a short time but it seems maybe a little faster and the WLAN connection seems better.

2. I've set the Opus ip (which my system assigns by DHCP but always seems to be the same) as the home page. So now, after booting up the Opus, I can just push the hard home page button on the 770 to bring up the Olive browser without any taps on the screen. That's nice since I don't use the 770 for anything else.

3. I keep the 770 in full view and I enable the toolbar to show in full view which I find handy.

4. I'm still a bit unhappy about the sluggishness of the 770. I've got a 1 GB memory card and have set up the max extended virtual memory (64KB) but I don't know if there is anything else I can do to speed it up. I suspect not.

Any other usage tips appreciated.

It looks like the successor to the Nokia 770 (aka Nokia 870) is just around the corner with more internal memory and likely a faster CPU as well:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/28/a-few-more-spy-shots-of-nokias-870-internet-tablet/

http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/2006/11/what-will-tomorrow-bring-not-much.html

It looks like the successor to the Nokia 770 (aka Nokia 870) is just around the corner with more internal memory and likely a faster CPU as well:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/28/a-few-more-spy-shots-of-nokias-870-internet-tablet/

http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/2006/11/what-will-tomorrow-bring-not-much.html

Well it does look like the new version might help resolve the sluggishness issue. The new stand also looks good; the old one is kind of a joke. I was even thinking of how I could make my own stand out of plastic somehow. I suppose there will not be any sort of trade up deal. :(

The Nokia 770 replacement is now available for $400 at some CompUSA stores. The official announcement for the Nokia N800 is expected on Jan 8 at CES.

Improvements are:
. faster CPU with more RAM
. two SD slots, up to 4GB each (vs 1 RS-MMC slot)
. stereo speakers
. built-in web cam

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7056717365.html
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9981902594.html
http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/

The Nokia 770 replacement is now available for $400 at some CompUSA stores. The official announcement for the Nokia N800 is expected on Jan 8 at CES.

Improvements are:
. faster CPU with more RAM
. two SD slots, up to 4GB each (vs 1 RS-MMC slot)
. stereo speakers
. built-in web cam

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7056717365.html
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9981902594.html
http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/


Thanks for the heads up. I really am kind of fed up with the 770. I find it to be really painfully sluggish. I just checked with my local CompUSA but unfortunately they do not yet stock the 800. Their general website does not list it either. Maybe after CES it will become more widely available. Now I've got to find a buyer for the 770. ;)

Better get your 770 on eBay ASAP!

Better get your 770 on eBay ASAP!

Well for the right price I'm sure I can sell it even once the 800 is widely available.

So to change the subject just a bit, any of you who have an Olive product backup your internal drive? If so, how? Before you answer, here is some background.

- I have an Olive Musica and I can connect an external USB drive and export my ripped files to it. This is NOT a backup, however. First, it doesn't keep the organization of the internal database so if I have two CDs with a track called "Adagio" for example, only ONE will be written to the backup disk (the second one overwrites the first as the file names are simply the track names and they are all in one directory).

- Only the music is written to the USB drive; not the internal state of the device, operating system, etc. What happens when I have a hard drive failure (and I will, especially if I have no backup)? How do I get back to the state before the crash? The recovery CD will NOT rewrite the contents of the disk to factory settings (I've tried for fun) and if you place a blank hard drive in the box, it will not get formatted and become useful so far as I can tell.

Olive has not been forthcoming in solutions to these issues. I'm wondering if others have been through this, already, and can offer any advice. I'm still beating on Olive to get this right for so much else is right, but I'm not going to trust my music collection to a device I cannot backup and restore with 100% confidence.

Dave

So to change the subject just a bit, any of you who have an Olive product backup your internal drive? If so, how? Before you answer, here is some background.

- I have an Olive Musica and I can connect an external USB drive and export my ripped files to it. This is NOT a backup, however. First, it doesn't keep the organization of the internal database so if I have two CDs with a track called "Adagio" for example, only ONE will be written to the backup disk (the second one overwrites the first as the file names are simply the track names and they are all in one directory).

- Only the music is written to the USB drive; not the internal state of the device, operating system, etc. What happens when I have a hard drive failure (and I will, especially if I have no backup)? How do I get back to the state before the crash? The recovery CD will NOT rewrite the contents of the disk to factory settings (I've tried for fun) and if you place a blank hard drive in the box, it will not get formatted and become useful so far as I can tell.

Olive has not been forthcoming in solutions to these issues. I'm wondering if others have been through this, already, and can offer any advice. I'm still beating on Olive to get this right for so much else is right, but I'm not going to trust my music collection to a device I cannot backup and restore with 100% confidence.

Dave

My approach is that I rip everything on my PC with iTunes. Then I copy it over to the Opus via the LAN. It works just fine. That also allows me to copy stuff to my iPod when the need arises.

My approach is that I rip everything on my PC with iTunes. Then I copy it over to the Opus via the LAN. It works just fine. That also allows me to copy stuff to my iPod when the need arises.

But... one reason I bought the Olive (over other makers) is the automated ripping and database management their unit provides. Rimming on a PC and transferring is fine for some, but not for my family. I don't want a PC involved (except, maybe, when I want to make a backup... I believe I can hack their box to do what I want, but I'd rather Olive do it right).

Finally, when your HD in the olive dies, you have all your music on your PC but you have a dead Olive device. You cannot simply replace the HD and run the restore CD. That does not put the OS back on the HD from what I can tell. Maybe Olive would replace it for a fee, but certainly more than $99 for the HD, itself. That's what else I'm trying to avoid.

Thanks,
Dave

But... one reason I bought the Olive (over other makers) is the automated ripping and database management their unit provides. Rimming on a PC and transferring is fine for some, but not for my family. I don't want a PC involved (except, maybe, when I want to make a backup... I believe I can hack their box to do what I want, but I'd rather Olive do it right).

Finally, when your HD in the olive dies, you have all your music on your PC but you have a dead Olive device. You cannot simply replace the HD and run the restore CD. That does not put the OS back on the HD from what I can tell. Maybe Olive would replace it for a fee, but certainly more than $99 for the HD, itself. That's what else I'm trying to avoid.

Thanks,
Dave

Oh I see where you are coming from. I hadn't thought that much about the case of a failed Olive drive. I think there is a restore system software option IIRC but I doubt that would work for your nightmare scenario.

I guess I haven't thought about it because I have my Opus networked to my LAN so I have all my music backed up. In my case if the hard drive failed I'd just have Olive replace it and, of course they would have to have installed their operating system on it in the process. Then I would just copy over my music library via the LAN.

I can see if you do not want a PC involved you have to be a bit more concerned. I didn't realize there was the problem with copying over songs from the Olive that you mention (i.e. the fact that it will not copy two tracks with the same name--a big problem I can see for classical music). Sorry I don't have any useful suggestions.

I didn't receive an email notice this time, but noticed on the Olive web site that a new release (v2.3.8) is available as of 1/17/2007. I installed it this morning; took about 4-5 minutes total including reboot, over my DSL connection. Don't know that there is anything critical that I needed, but for a total list of updates and fixes, you can go here:

Olive Software Update History (http://www.olive.us/p_bin/?cid=history)

I didn't receive an email notice this time, but noticed on the Olive web site that a new release (v2.3.8) is available as of 1/17/2007. I installed it this morning; took about 4-5 minutes total including reboot, over my DSL connection. Don't know that there is anything critical that I needed, but for a total list of updates and fixes, you can go here:

Olive Software Update History (http://www.olive.us/p_bin/?cid=history)

Thanks for the tip. I installed it with no problems from my network. My initial impressions are that it seems to make the web interface faster, which is very good news for me. I was gonig crazy with my Nokia 770 being sluggish. Now maybe I won't have to upgrade to the Noikia 800. Still I've only played around with it for a few minutes. I'll report back after playing with it for a longer period of time.

I got that update, too... nothing new for the backup problem.

I have learned a lot, however, in the past week or so. There is a wonderful site (in German) hifidelio-user dot de that's all about hacking our device. I learned how they save the HD serial number in an E2PROM and check it on boot. Hence, when you swap out the hard disk, it won't boot. The secret is to remove the serial number (zero it out) and then it thinks this is a factory new unit and stores the serial number of the new drive. Then you can put all your old data back and it works, great.

I learned a lot more about things to tune this box and I'm starting to post my own translations and insights into this box on musicahacks-dot-informe-dot-com (I'm too new for the system to allow me to post things that look like URLs, yet) if you don't want to wade through all the German... it's VERY sparse but I have more information to post as I get time.

Thanks for your comments, thus far. Bottom line is that I can save all my music, replace the hard drive, install an OS back on it and restore my music, which is what I need to be able to trust this box with my music.

Regards,
Dave

dzar,
Glad you found a way to make it work for you.

So far I'm pretty pleased with the updated FW. It does seem to speed up the web interface on my Nokia 770 so that I'm thinking I won't have to upgrade to the 800. They must have made some of the algorithms more efficient so that the slow 770 processor doesn't have to work as hard. I suppose it would work even better on a faster processor; it's just that I hate to fork out the money for the 800 since I only got the 770 a short while ago and I don't use it for anything other than to control my Opus.

dzar,
Glad you found a way to make it work for you.

So far I'm pretty pleased with the updated FW. It does seem to speed up the web interface on my Nokia 770 so that I'm thinking I won't have to upgrade to the 800. They must have made some of the algorithms more efficient so that the slow 770 processor doesn't have to work as hard. I suppose it would work even better on a faster processor; it's just that I hate to fork out the money for the 800 since I only got the 770 a short while ago and I don't use it for anything other than to control my Opus.


Hi Jack,

You may have noticed that the software update is to release 2.3.3, i.e. TWO versions ahead of the one previously posted on the Olive website (dated late October 2006). There was an unpublicized interim update (2.3.2) at the beginning of November, which I chanced upon by checking for updates directly from my Opus. That version included most of the interface improvements that Olive says are part of release 2/3/3, including the option to set the interface to "classical" mode. I suspect that some of the speed improvements you noticed were implemented at that time as well, so that's why I never found the slow screen refresh of the Nokia 770 to be a major issue (response to a command usually is almost instantaneous, much faster that the screen refresh reflecting the command).

As to using iTunes rather than the Olive server to rip CDs, I share DZAR's reservations: the beauty of Olive servers is that they offer an entirely self-contained solution for ripping, organizing, playing back files and burning custom CD's, without requiring file manipulation and transfer from a computer. The only operation that does require a computer is metadata editing. In addition, I do not see how you can transfer the files you create within iTunes to your Opus, unless you are still using version 6 of iTunes. I found that iTunes 7 does not allow streaming of the iTunes library to the Opus. I mentioned that issue to Olive sevral weeks ago, and they told me they were working on it. Apparently, they are giving up, as Olive's software release history lists the iTunes problem as still pending, and advises users to use Rokku's server software instead of i?unes (you can still stream music from the Opus to your computer via iTunes, though). Finally, one of the reasons for having a large capacity music server is to be able to use a lossless file format. However, iTunes does not let you rip to FLAC and the Opus does not read Apple Lossless files, so either you have to compromise and rip to lossy MP3 or AAC, or you have to rip to WAV and then convert the WAV files to FLAC ofter importing them to the Opus, a very tedious and cumbersome process. Bottom line: iTunes is best left as an iPod acessory.

For BACKING UP my music files, I have experimented with a USB drive and noted the same limitations as DZAR. Olive told me that they were working on improving support for network attached drives (NAS); from what they told me, I understand that seamless NAS integration eill require the NAS to run some sort of server software (as in the case of Slim Device's Transporter music server, which works with Infrant NAS arrays running their server software (Slim Server). I will experiment and report on my findings.

One last observation: I am under the impression that Olive is not doing too well; they hardly advertise their products, I have not seen any review of the Opus in a major magazine, and Olive is going to infuriate new customers if the keep using a totally obsolete user manual. That manual, dating back to early 2005, was pretty bad to begin with (too skimpy for advanced users, too geeky for novices, poorly organized and poorly translated from German). Now, it is virtually useless as it does not reflect the current streamlined software. In addition, I never received notification of software updates, although I have an Olive account and they have my e-mail address. That is poor customer relations, considering that an Opus is not exactly cheap...

Hi Jack,
As to using iTunes rather than the Olive server to rip CDs, I share DZAR's reservations: the beauty of Olive servers is that they offer an entirely self-contained solution for ripping, organizing, playing back files and burning custom CD's, without requiring file manipulation and transfer from a computer. The only operation that does require a computer is metadata editing. In addition, I do not see how you can transfer the files you create within iTunes to your Opus, unless you are still using version 6 of iTunes. I found that iTunes 7 does not allow streaming of the iTunes library to the Opus. I mentioned that issue to Olive sevral weeks ago, and they told me they were working on it. Apparently, they are giving up, as Olive's software release history lists the iTunes problem as still pending, and advises users to use Rokku's server software instead of i?unes (you can still stream music from the Opus to your computer via iTunes, though). Finally, one of the reasons for having a large capacity music server is to be able to use a lossless file format. However, iTunes does not let you rip to FLAC and the Opus does not read Apple Lossless files, so either you have to compromise and rip to lossy MP3 or AAC, or you have to rip to WAV and then convert the WAV files to FLAC ofter importing them to the Opus, a very tedious and cumbersome process. Bottom line: iTunes is best left as an iPod acessory.

Well I guess everyone has a different way of doing it. I don't really mind ripping on my computer and then transferring over to the Opus. The one big problem, as you alluded to, is that the lossless, compressed format for the iPod isn't compatible with the Opus. That is a big problem but other than that, I like the redundancy of having my music on my computer and the Opus hard drive. I use v 7 of iTunes but I don't do streaming so I have no idea if it works or not.

For BACKING UP my music files, I have experimented with a USB drive and noted the same limitations as DZAR. Olive told me that they were working on improving support for network attached drives (NAS); from what they told me, I understand that seamless NAS integration eill require the NAS to run some sort of server software (as in the case of Slim Device's Transporter music server, which works with Infrant NAS arrays running their server software (Slim Server). I will experiment and report on my findings.

Yeah well this is a big problem if the file structure of the Opus is so fragmented as DZAR mentioned. Let us know about NAS. Still setting up NAS is an extra hassle--at least for me. I'd have to research it a bit as I don't really know how it works and have never used it.

One last observation: I am under the impression that Olive is not doing too well; they hardly advertise their products, I have not seen any review of the Opus in a major magazine, and Olive is going to infuriate new customers if the keep using a totally obsolete user manual. That manual, dating back to early 2005, was pretty bad to begin with (too skimpy for advanced users, too geeky for novices, poorly organized and poorly translated from German). Now, it is virtually useless as it does not reflect the current streamlined software. In addition, I never received notification of software updates, although I have an Olive account and they have my e-mail address. That is poor customer relations, considering that an Opus is not exactly cheap...


Well what a cheerful observation. :) I hope you are not correct That would be pretty bad for us if they went out of business. They do seem to keep adding products or innovations. I got an email from them saying something about "bringing perpendicular recording technology" to music servers. I have no idea what that means but at least they seem to be doing something new. One thing is that I haven't noticed any "higher end" servers coming out that are in the price range of the Olives, so maybe they still have a niche. The other ones are way more expensive.

You can backup the music directory by changing the Samba settings in the /opt/samba/lib/smb.conf file and making the /audio/music directory readable - you will need to enable telnet for this and login as root. I use Microsoft's free Synctoy software to do an incremental backup of my ripped FLAC music files to my PC.

Instructions for upgrading your hard disc are in thread 477282 on avforums and instructions for installing SlimServer on the Olive/Hifidelio so you can access your music from a Squeezebox (including FLAC files) are in thread 21727 on forums at slimdevices web site.

Enjoy!

- Simon.

(Sorry this forum isn't letting my include URLs in my posts!)

You can backup the music directory by changing the Samba settings in the /opt/samba/lib/smb.conf file and making the /audio/music directory readable - you will need to enable telnet for this and login as root. I use Microsoft's free Synctoy software to do an incremental backup of my ripped FLAC music files to my PC.

Instructions for upgrading your hard disc:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=477282

Instructions for installing SlimServer on the Olive/Hifidelio so you can access your music from a Squeezebox (including FLAC files):

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21727

Enjoy!

- Simon.

Hi-

According to both Hermstedt and Olive, the new software (versions 2.3.1.4 and up) is fully compliant with any UPnP device, including NAS devices with UPnP.

I'm also interested in trying it, but want to hear from someone with such an NAS before I plunk down $1k on such a device.

I've also experimented with the Twonky Music server software as a media server on my PC, and it works well - it is recognized immediately by the Olive as a "server". So you could also load that on an NAS and it would create a workable interface with the Olive.

If you try it, let us know how it works: is playback smooth? Is scrolling in the Olive menu smooth and responsive? Is there lag when choosing a file for playback or "hanging" of the Olive OS?

Thanks

I finally broke down and picked up a Nokia N800. It's definitely much faster than the 770 and, I think, worth the upgrade for those who have the older model. I could have lived with the 770 but I had a bit of extra cash so.....

Two things:

1. I freaked out for about 30 minutes because when I booted up the 800 and connected to the Opus the fonts were much smaller than on the 770. I finally figured out that you have to click on the small icon at the top right of the Olive screen next to the question mark. This will give you options and you have to select the Nokia 800x480 view. The other views cause the fonts to be very small. Why can't you adjust the default font size from the N800 I wonder?

2. The way the Olive interface works is that it keeps "checking" or reloading the screen every few seconds. I kind of didn't notice it on the 770 as much because the 770 is so slow. In any case, I found that if I choose not to show the tool bar in full screen mode (which is what I always use), every time the Olive reloads the interface the tool bar appears momentarily and causes the Olive screen to reposition itself. So it's hard to click the buttons since they are moving all the time. You have to choose to show the tool bar in full screen mode to solve this problem.

Other than the speed there don't seem to be a lot of differences between the 770 and 800 when using it with the Olive. I guess there are other improvements for web browsing but I don't use it for that. Oh the built in stand is very nice for keeping it on your coffee table next to your listening seat as compared to the clunky stand on the 770. Also the plug for the power cord is on the side where it should be instead of on the bottom like it was in the 770. The buttons to go to full screen and maginfy or demagnify are actually not as convenient on the 800 as they were on the 770. I also don't like the silver color of the 800 although the overall shape is much sleeker on the 800. Those are minor points for me.

Two more things:

1. I don't know why but with the N800 it seems that the setup reverts to the standard browser interface every time you log into the Olive from the N800. I have to change it to the Noika 800x480 option each time. I have a question into Olive about this.

2. I also noticed that there is an updated firmware (2.3.18 PRO). It is not noted on Olive's web site (or at least I couldn't find it) so I don't know what fixes or improvements it brings. I just found it from going to the Opus itself and having it look for updated firmare. I think that's weird that Olive wouldn't even notify its customers of an update or indicate what's new in the updated firmware.

I ordered mine in February, and am still waiting. They say they are waiting on parts and will make it up to me, but it is unclear how. Too bizarre.

tia.
george

That is a long wait!!!

Which one did you order ??

I ordered mine in February, and am still waiting. They say they are waiting on parts and will make it up to me, but it is unclear how. Too bizarre.

tia.
george

Yeah that seems kind of odd that it would take so long. And they are going to ship it to Tokyo. I wonder how long just the shipping will take!

i ordered the 750gb opus.

they wont ship overseas, so my daughter is helping out...

You must of ordered one in black.

chuckle, nope silver too boot. alas.

Got an email from Olive today announcing their new web site, updated user manual (yeah!), and renaming of their products (all are variations of the 'Opus' name now). They also mentioned that the Sonata had problems that prevented its release, but they are working on a replacement of some sort.

Olive Web Site (http://www.olive.us/)

called again, and another 5 weeks before it will be ready....:mad:

I noticed on the web site that the Opus No5 has been totally redesigned...maybe the original Opus is out of production, and that is why they've been unavailable?

Guys. I need some help. My computer crashed and back up failed so I lost all my back up rips of my CD collection. I still have everything on my Opus.

Can I use the USB port on the Opus to copy everything on the Opus and then import it into iTunes? All the files on my Opus are in Aiff so there should be no compatibility problem.

Thanks for any reaction.

Jack, if your Opus is connected to your home network, you should be able to open the files (on the Opus) using iTunes. I was just messing around with this last night. Mine are stored in FLAC, though, so iTunes won't play them. I have not tried it, but you should be able to do a direct transfer from the Opus to iTunes. That should save you a step. Let us know if it works!

Jack, if your Opus is connected to your home network, you should be able to open the files (on the Opus) using iTunes. I was just messing around with this last night. Mine are stored in FLAC, though, so iTunes won't play them. I have not tried it, but you should be able to do a direct transfer from the Opus to iTunes. That should save you a step. Let us know if it works!

Hmm. Sounds good. First I have to set up properly file sharing again. That was a bit of a hassle the last time around and now that I have completely reinstalled the operating system I will have to do it again. The hassle is that i have a few computers on the LAN and IIRC you have to set one computer to "take the lead" otherwise if you log computers on and off the LAN the file sharing gets messed up.

So once I do that and my desktop sees the Olive I should be able to open iTunes and see the Opus and import all the files just like that? Nice if it works. Maybe I'll have time to fiddle with it tonight when I get back home.

thanks.

Well, I was looking at this some more, and it may not be possible to copy directly to iTunes. The Opus is considered a 'shared' device, and iTunes cannot copy from shared devices (just play). So, you will probably need to go with the USB connection to an external hard disk, and then import from that.

Well, I was looking at this some more, and it may not be possible to copy directly to iTunes. The Opus is considered a 'shared' device, and iTunes cannot copy from shared devices (just play). So, you will probably need to go with the USB connection to an external hard disk, and then import from that.

Olive tech support said I should be able to do it by attaching a USB drive to the Olive and copying over. Then I can plug that into my desktop and import into iTunes.

I'll keep you posted so if it happens to someone else there will be a record of how to deal with it.

Geez! Turns out the hard drive has to be formatted with FAT32 to work with the Opus. VISTA or XP, however, will not allow one to format a disc larger than about 30GB with FAT32. So now what do I do? This is a big fat pain!

Also Olive seems to have indicated that it will not be possible to import the songs into iTUNES even if I manage to pull them onto an external hard drive. I don't see how that could be. Once they are on a hard drive attached to my desk top I am pretty sure that I can import them.

I bought a Maxtor external 200GB drive shortly after getting my Musica, and I did not have to format it at all (came preformatted). Just plugged it into the Musica's USB port and it worked fine.

I bought a Maxtor external 200GB drive shortly after getting my Musica, and I did not have to format it at all (came preformatted). Just plugged it into the Musica's USB port and it worked fine.

Hmm. Maybe I can find a pre-formatted one too. Thanks for the tip. Probably these guys at Best Buy and Compu USA won't have a clue about the formatting. Maybe it will say somewhere in the fine print on the box.

OK FYI: I picked up a 500GB Maxtor USB drive but it was preformatted with NTFS. I found a great site that has a little program to format a drive with FAT32 and step by step instructions.

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

Basically you have to delete the partition on your new drive. Then from Windows Disc Manager you assign a drive letter but do not format the drive. Once you do that, you open the little program from a dos prompt and tell it to format your disc. Boom!

As for the Opus, you just turn it on, and then plug in the USB drive which will show up on the main menu. Then go to your albums view, mark all of them, add them to a list and choose the USB drive as the list to add them to just like as if you were making a playlist. I'm in the process of copying my entire library to the USB drive now.

I'll let you know later my experience about reading the library into iTunes. I REALLY hope it works!

My next suggestion would be to permanently hook up an external drive to your pc to do automatic backups on a regular basis! ;)

My next suggestion would be to permanently hook up an external drive to your pc to do automatic backups on a regular basis! ;)


Yup. The sad fact is that I have about 5 external drives connected to my pc but the backup strategy was "less than optimal." :eek:

Here's another question. Have you noticed that there is no mention any more on the Olive web site about streaming music to other rooms? They used to sell a device that you could connect to a system in another room and stream from the Olive. If it's on the web site I couldn't find it. So was that a bust? They couldn't make it work and gave up?

Update: Olive confirmed to me that they are not currently marketing the hardware that allows you to stream from your Olive to other rooms (I forget now but I think it was called Sonata). They said they are upgrading it and expect the new version to be available in early 2008. In the meantime they said you can use third party devices like Roku's to do streaming.

Good grief! The Opus has been copying files to my backup drive for 12 hours!!!! I have maybe 250GBs of material but... still. Well I could see this morning that the copy indicator is moving and it's going from song to song. Just hard to believe it's so slow.

OK. So just to let you know: It can be done. I copied my library from the Opus to a USB drive. Then I plugged the USB drive into my computer and imported the library into iTunes. No problems just a lot of time consumed.:D

Thanks for reporting back, Jack. Good to know it can be done. Hopefully, iTunes would be able to convert my FLAC files into something it can play...if so, I just might have to pick up an iPod one of these days.

Thanks for reporting back, Jack. Good to know it can be done. Hopefully, iTunes would be able to convert my FLAC files into something it can play...if so, I just might have to pick up an iPod one of these days.

Nope iTunes cannot deal with FLAC. It's a real bummer. I ripped everything in aiff and left then in that format to load both to my Opus and my iPod so to avoid additional conversions.

I guess I have a modest enough collection because it almost fits uncompressed on the new 160 GB iPod (just have to select several albums not to load) and of course easily fits on my Opus.

I couldn't live without an iPod. Use it in my car, working out, on planes......The new 160GB seems to have better DACs than the older ones. At least it sounds better to my ears.

latest info is that they should be shipping me the opus 5 on november 12th. we shall see...

It is my understanding that the Roku Soundbridge does not play flac compressed songs. I would love to stream music to other rooms but will have to wait for Sonata to be rereleased.

I talked with one of their sales guys yesterday. Told me the No.5 won't be available until early December. I live just north of SF so will plan on checking it out (they are planning to have a demo room). I currently have an Imerge and anxious to see how this sounds.

marty

So has anyone actually recived one of these yet? I won one (well the right to buy it at less than half price) using AMX's wishlist but they said it would take 2 to 3 weeks for it to be delived. Just wondering if it is actually worth keeping or should I just try to sell outright?

So has anyone actually recived one of these yet? I won one (well the right to buy it at less than half price) using AMX's wishlist but they said it would take 2 to 3 weeks for it to be delived. Just wondering if it is actually worth keeping or should I just try to sell outright?
If you want to sell an Opus No5 for half price, call me...I'll take it off your hands! :cool:

Who knows I might sell it, but was wondering if anyone actually had one and what did they think of it. I have seen several up on ebay (they were saying they would not be able to deliver for 2-3 weeks (must have been wishlist winners also)) but would like to get some feedback on the device. . .

I just read 6 pages of posts because I also won the right to by a Opus No 3 through Amex for half price. Amex already charged my credit card, so it better be on the way soon.

apparently it has shipped and will arrive this week. unfortunately i leave for the holidays, and wont be able to use it until January. It has been nearly one YEAR since it was ordered.

we shall see if it was worth the wait.

WOW a whole year! I might just have to hold on to it, of course I still have no idea when it will ship. . .

I too bought one on the AMEX wishwist promotion. Has anyone been contacted by OPUS? I was told by AMEX that they would call everyone within 7 business days (it has been 9) and I haven't heard from them. I called them and was told to email them at care@olive.us. Tried that and the email was sent back to me as undeliverable. Not too impressed with their customer service so far.

Nothing here. An email left here last week...

http://www.olive.us/support/contact.html

remains unanswered. Not good.

I'm going to call Amex at 800-824-3327 tomorrow and see what they have to say.

I too bought one on the AMEX wishwist promotion. Has anyone been contacted by OPUS? I was told by AMEX that they would call everyone within 7 business days (it has been 9) and I haven't heard from them. I called them and was told to email them at care@olive.us. Tried that and the email was sent back to me as undeliverable. Not too impressed with their customer service so far.

And I thought they were just ignoring me. :)

I managed to dig up the email address of Olive's CEO, Oliver Bergmann. He responded right back. Here are my questions and his answers. This make me feel a little better...

Dear Brett,

thanks for your Email. We want to offer preload and required email addresses
to offer this service from Amex.
We don't charge any credit cards until the merchandise ships or we preload your CDs.

Sorry about the inconvenience, I have Robert get in touch with Amex
to get more details about the status.


Thanks


Oliver Bergmann, Ph.D.
CEO

Olive Media Products Inc.
555 Howard Street I San Francisco, CA 94105
T +1 415.908.3870
F +1 415.908.3932
E
W http://olive.us

SAVE THE SOUND.


On Dec 20, 2007, at 2:54 PM, Brett wrote:


Mr. Bergmann,

I purchased an Olive Opus No3 through the Amex wish list program on December 8th, 2007, confirmation number xxxxxxxxxx. My Amex card was charged $742 that same day. It is now approaching two weeks, and I have not been contacted as to when to expect delivery of my unit. Normally a credit card is not suppose to be charged until the merchandise has shipped. A email sent from here http://www.olive.us/home/emailus.html last week inquiring about the CD preload service and an estimated ship date remains unanswered.

Could you provide me with an approximate ship date, and let me know if I can take advantage of the CD pre-load service for a unit purchased through the Amex program? Or should I direct my inquiry to Amex?

Thank you,

Brett

I too won one from Amex and it states on the confirmation,

"Your Olive OPUS N5 (750 GB) Pure Audio System will be delivered to you via DHL within 2-3 weeks."

My concern is why Mr. Oliver would say he needed our e-mail address for preload when I suspect Amex would have provided that with our order as most online order centers do. If not, at least our phone numbers were provided. Also, the free preload service was a part of the deal.

It is interesting that Amex would charge our cards right away since that is not allowed per merchant agreements and the FTC, I think.

Well, this is all very interesting. I called Amex and they told me to call Olive at 877-296-5483. They said they paid the vendor (Olive) and then it was up to the vendor to coordinate shipment, and to give them another week. I didn't even bother asking about the pre-load service. Sounds like neither side is quite on top off what is going on. Meanwhile I'm out $700+ (already paid the bill), and I have nothing to show for it.

I have heard nothing so far either, begining to wonder what is going on. I used there contact form on the website but don't expect much with the holiday week approaching.

Here is an update from Mr. Bergmann that I received this afternoon. Sounds like we should all be contacted shortly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

We received order details from Amex, and Amex itself has charged credit cards.

To fulfill orders through our logistic system, we need email addresses which we didn't get so far. With the email address available we start contacting each customers and offer our preload option and verify shipping instructions starting December 26th. If you choose the preload option, we will send you per email a label for your spindles of CDs with an available time-slot for our robots.

We plan to start shipping units starting 1st week of January. If you decided, that you don't want to have your Opus No. 3 anymore, let us know and we take care that a refund will be issued immediately.

Happy holidays and sorry for any inconvenience you might have had,

Thanks

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any one get their e-mail yet? I haven't.

I also have not received an email yet.

No email yet for me either. . .

Still no word from them. I also tried calling to find out the status but I keep getting voicemail and it's constantly full.

Nothing here either :(

If you go to this web page you will find Mr. Bergmann's email address at the bottom...

http://www.olive.us/aboutus/management_oliver.html

So here's my reply from Dr Bergmann

"Thanks for you email. We have to contact every Amex Customer,
but so far we didn't receive any email addresses form Amex.

We need these to start the process offering preload and
putting you into our system.

We are closed between 24th and 2nd of January 08,
but will get back immediately after our team is back on track.

Sorry for the inconveniences you have had,


Thanks"

Hmmm. . . I remember that putting in an email address was part of the order process, it's going to be over 30 days before they ship anything. Hope other wishlist item winners had better luck with their items.

I got the email from OPUS today. I'm going to pass on the preload option, so hopefully it won't be too much longer.

Yeah same here, got the email and am going to pass on the preload. Please post back once you get yours and I will do the same. Want to see how quick they are going to turn these around.

same here, got an email from them today. Will also pass on preload. Can not wait any longer.
Just wonder why they are so willing to cancel the order and give a credit "immediately". Hope it doesn't mean short supplies, which could take even longer to get our hardware to ship.

I received an email as well. It took me a while to find as it went in to my spam folder in Yahoo mail. I am going to take advantage of the pre-load as it seems like a really good deal ... 400 cds for free versus the normal 100 cds + you pay for shipping. If it takes an average of 8 minutes to rip a cd then that will save over 53 hours in loading so it is worth it to me to wait a little longer.

Curious ... is anyone getting a black unit instead of a silver one?

I asked for black. Doesn't really matter since my components are a mixture of black and silver.

I received an email as well. It took me a while to find as it went in to my spam folder in Yahoo mail. I am going to take advantage of the pre-load as it seems like a really good deal ... 400 cds for free versus the normal 100 cds + you pay for shipping. If it takes an average of 8 minutes to rip a cd then that will save over 53 hours in loading so it is worth it to me to wait a little longer.

Curious ... is anyone getting a black unit instead of a silver one?

I received my e-mail yesterday and I am taking advantage of the preload.

Do we have a choice in the color? I didn't see that.

I think the preload is a great offer if you have time. I already sold my CD player, so I'm not willing to wait any longer than I have to.

I'm getting an OPUS 3, and the e-mail I received said there was a limited number of OPUS 3s available in black. They also offered an upgrade to the OPUS 5 for an additional $1100.

I received my e-mail yesterday and I am taking advantage of the preload.

Do we have a choice in the color? I didn't see that.

I'm getting the Opus 5, and they made no mention of color choices in my email or any shortages. Doesn't matter to me as I am in the same boat with black and silver stuff. . .

Hi - I'm also one of the lucky AmEx wishlist winners. Does anybody know what the return policy is on the Opus 3 and Opus 5? I am contemplating upgrading to the Opus 5, but I am not sure if it's the right thing for my environment, so I would be interested in sending it back if it turns out to be overkill.

I have sent two emails to Opus, but have not gotten any reply whatsoever. They are either all preparing for Las Vegas or simply have bad customer support.

Thanks so much.

Best - MM

I guess since we are paying less than retail we get less than customer service. I wonder what they are going to tell us after they get back from CES with more orders or requests?

I understand your predicament. My 2 channel system is a pair of B&W 683s and Cambridge Audio electronics. The Opus 5 at a discount would cost more than my speakers. Tempting, but I used to sell high end audio and understand the concept of diminishing returns. :)

Why don't you ask the CEO about the return provisions, he has been pretty responsive.

oliver@olive.us


Hi - I'm also one of the lucky AmEx wishlist winners. Does anybody know what the return policy is on the Opus 3 and Opus 5? I am contemplating upgrading to the Opus 5, but I am not sure if it's the right thing for my environment, so I would be interested in sending it back if it turns out to be overkill.

I have sent two emails to Opus, but have not gotten any reply whatsoever. They are either all preparing for Las Vegas or simply have bad customer support.

Thanks so much.

Best - MM

I finally received an answer to the return policy question:

From the email: "The return policy for the OPUS 3 is 15 day, 20% restocking fee. ?For the OPUS 5 it is 5% restocking fee." (sic)

That's quite hefty. If it's 20% of the AmEx Wishlist price, it is still $150 for returning the Opus 3, whereas it's "only" $93 for returning an Opus 5!

So, if I decide to get the Opus, I will have to be happy with it or sell it. In case I don't like it, does anyone have an idea about the chances to sell the Opus? Could it be that they will have a "no-sell" clause?

Thanks. Best - MM

No idea on the no-sell clause but I have seen them pop up on eBay since the Wishlist promo saying they would deliver in a few weeks. None have sold, but at the same time, I thought the starting prices were a bit high and I'd be reluctant to knowingly pay money for a delayed delivery. :rolleyes:

I finally received an answer to the return policy question:

From the email: "The return policy for the OPUS 3 is 15 day, 20% restocking fee. ?For the OPUS 5 it is 5% restocking fee." (sic)

That's quite hefty. If it's 20% of the AmEx Wishlist price, it is still $150 for returning the Opus 3, whereas it's "only" $93 for returning an Opus 5!

So, if I decide to get the Opus, I will have to be happy with it or sell it. In case I don't like it, does anyone have an idea about the chances to sell the Opus? Could it be that they will have a "no-sell" clause?

Thanks. Best - MM

OK so my question is when do you think we are actually going to see the product arrive via DHL?

Has anyone heard anything from Olive after the initial email last week? Maybe my expectations are too high but I would say so far the customer service has been horrible. First, there is no contact from them after nearly a month after purchase from AMEX. When they finally send one email they let a week goes by with no follow up response. Pathetic.

Let's just say that as of now I'm less than impressed. The Opus 5 cost me over 1800 and so far I have one email saying they are sorry, he is a little bit of it:

"Please let me first apologize for the delay in contacting you, unfortunately due to technical issues we were not able to get your email address earlier. We will try everything to make this a pleasant experience from now on."

Like I said less than impressed. . .:(

Just called them. They took my name to verify, and I was told that they will start shipping in 2 weeks, because they custom build each unit. He also told me that they will update us. I have a bad feeling that it will be longer then two weeks.

Luckier than me. I called and they were busy since most of them were at CES. They said they would call me back as soon as they could. Never called. It's amazing how many different stories we are getting. All of that publicity at the expense of Amex and us. Maybe it's time to call Amex and let them know along with news media outlets.

I tried to gently warn Mr. Bergmann in my email exchange with him that people were going to be unhappy if they didn't deliver... it has now been a month and nada. I think at least Amex should be notified.

As far as custom build... I'm fairly sure the Olive Opus is a rebadged Hifidelio, which comes out of Germany, and can be seen here

http://www.hifidelio.org/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html

http://www.valcenter.ch/images/grandes/her_hifidelio.jpg

They could be taking these units and modding them, or getting them from the same source in Asia. If you do a search on Hifidelio and Olive Opus you'll get all kinds of info. Who really knows.

Custom building what? They committed a long time ago to sell x number of Opus 3's and x number of Opus 5's on Amex Wishlist. I would think they would have them in stock. I also think that Amex had them sign some sort of agreement relating to stock and claims made since they're putting their name on it.

I emailed Olive yesterday just to ask what the status was with my order. I had opted for the pre-load but never received a response back from them or a fedEx label to ship my cd's. To my surprise, they actually responded to my email within hours. Here is their response:

Hi there,
We have received your reply, and should be getting back to you with a preload label early next week.

Take care and let me know if I can help you with anything else.

Best regards,
Olive Service Team
Olive Media Products Inc.
555 Howard Street I San Francisco, CA 94105

Well I gave them a call today and talked to a live person on the phone, I was in the database with the correct information and was able to make a color choice (Black). They did tell me that they are looking at a 2 week lead time on getting the item out the door. So I guess if you go back to when we got our official email from Olive that would make it 3 weeks (about what the AMX email said back in December).

They would email a tracking number once the item left their location. I guess we will see. . .

Of course everyone will have paid for the item before it shipped and not real sure how that works out, but I guess I'm hopeful now that the process will now move along.

I got the same 2 week lead time in an email yesterday. Perhaps that is 3 weeks after Olive first contacted us, but it will be 6 weeks since Amex sent us the initial email in early December stating they would ship in 2-3 weeks. That is like $4-5 of interest. :)

Anyway, its obvious that Amex/Olive didn't have their ducks in a row on this one. Hopefully other people's Wishlist experiences were better.

Well now that it looks like the process is back on track, can anyone with an Olive system give us a review / how much you like / dislike? I do see some activity from a year or so ago, but was wondering if anybody has anything to add to the mix. . . good or bad?

Well now that it looks like the process is back on track, can anyone with an Olive system give us a review / how much you like / dislike? I do see some activity from a year or so ago, but was wondering if anybody has anything to add to the mix. . . good or bad?

Well I'm the guy who started this thread with a review. I've added several comments over time. Do I have anything new to add? Not really.

The things I don't like about the Opus are pretty much the same things I didn't like about it when I first got it. I don't like the remote interface (I mean using the NOKIA) and I don't like that I have to rip my CDs in AIFF because my iPod doesn't support FLAC and the Opus doesn't support Apple's compressed lossless format. I also had a lot of trouble setting up the wireless connection and finally just hardwired the Opus to my LAN. I got the Opus when it first came out so maybe they have made that more seamless than it was in the begining.

Some people have complained that there is not a hassleless way to back up. I rip everything on my computer in iTunes and copy it over to the Opus via my LAN so I have my rips on two separate hard drives. Some people want an all in one sort of solution which Olive doesn't provide or it isn't very easy to back up directly off the Opus (as I recall there are problems with the way songs get listed or categorized).

Also the ability to stream to other rooms has been removed (at least temporarily) because Olive pulled the so-called Sonata unit off the market.

Perhaps most important: I'm satisfied with the sound quality.

To me the bottom line still is that there is not a competitor to the Opus in this price range. There might be better units, such as the one marketed by Mcintosh, but they cost a lot more money.

Thanks Jack!

I guess the biggest issue I was looking for was how it sounds, I think I am going to have to do some upgrades to my system to get the true enjoyment from it.

Thanks Jack!

I guess the biggest issue I was looking for was how it sounds, I think I am going to have to do some upgrades to my system to get the true enjoyment from it.

Of course it's always good to have a great sound system around your source. As I said, I'm happy with the sound. Detailed and clear. But how much of that is the rest of my system? Can't say for sure but I don't think the Opus gets in the way. I'm not using the DACs in the OPUS as I output via coax digitial to my Meridian Pre-Pro.
Still I don't know, maybe if I tried the Mcintosh music server on my system I might think it sounded a lot better. I just don't know.

A buddy of mine keeps bugging me to try it with the analog outs to test the Opus DACs because he is considering getting one and would need to use the analog outs on the Opus. I haven't got around to it so far.

I have been using my Olive Musica (160GB) for about a year and a half now, and still absolutely love it. I use the internal DACs, as the Musica is in my two-channel system (no DACs in pre-pro). I think the sound quality is excellent. To me, the best part about the Musica (and Opus) is the ability to play music in random order, by genre. I have about 250 CDs ripped to mine, and I 'rediscover' my old CDs all the time.

As for backups, it couldn't be more simple. I leave an external hard disc (200GB) permanently hooked up via the USB port. Every now and then, after I've added 5-10 new CDs, I'll do a full backup (or I back up one-at-a-time if I'm not adding many). The external drive stores all of the songs as individual .flac files (my lossless format of choice). If you ever need to restore the music to the internal hard disc, it's just a matter of copying all of the songs back in. The Musica organizes the CD content based on the meta-data stored with each song. (Yes, I've had to restore...but it has been a long time...knock on wood.)

As for backups, it couldn't be more simple. I leave an external hard disc (200GB) permanently hooked up via the USB port. Every now and then, after I've added 5-10 new CDs, I'll do a full backup (or I back up one-at-a-time if I'm not adding many). The external drive stores all of the songs as individual .flac files (my lossless format of choice). If you ever need to restore the music to the internal hard disc, it's just a matter of copying all of the songs back in. The Musica organizes the CD content based on the meta-data stored with each song. (Yes, I've had to restore...but it has been a long time...knock on wood.)

I have heard not so good things about backing up files from the Opus. Has it been worked out that songs with the same name don't get overwritten? Say, I have ten pieces all called "I. Adagio", what happens to them when they get written to the external disk?

I think a safer way to back up one's collection is to rip the CDs on a computer, store them on a disk or archive them in some other way, and then transfer them to the Opus.

Best - MM

I think a safer way to back up one's collection is to rip the CDs on a computer, store them on a disk or archive them in some other way, and then transfer them to the Opus.
If I was going to rip my CDs on a computer and store them on a disk, I would probably go with the Slim Devices' Transporter (http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html). The reason I got the Musica is because it is self-contained, and does not require me to use the computer.

If I was going to rip my CDs on a computer and store them on a disk, I would probably go with the Slim Devices' Transporter (http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html). The reason I got the Musica is because it is self-contained, and does not require me to use the computer.

I totally agree, but if the Opus software indeed scrambles the backup, it is of little practical use. That's why ripping the CDs to a computer might be the better way to go. However, I don't know for sure if the Opus software still has that problem. Thus, I am interested in hearing from someone who has first-hand experience.

Best - MM

I tried to gently warn Mr. Bergmann in my email exchange with him that people were going to be unhappy if they didn't deliver... it has now been a month and nada. I think at least Amex should be notified.

As far as custom build... I'm fairly sure the Olive Opus is a rebadged Hifidelio, which comes out of Germany, and can be seen here

http://www.hifidelio.org/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html

http://www.valcenter.ch/images/grandes/her_hifidelio.jpg

They could be taking these units and modding them, or getting them from the same source in Asia. If you do a search on Hifidelio and Olive Opus you'll get all kinds of info. Who really knows.

Guys,

I'm not part of the AMEX deal but wanted to add my .02.

I have been to their San Francisco HQ and know for a fact that they are built there. They actually have a great setup with assembly, build and quality test in one location. Their DAC is an in-house design and is the centerpiece of the products. I also saw them at CES and they do have some new products coming out and are very busy.

Since Oliver is German, I would suspect that he has another webpage for the European market. Didn't know about it so never asked.

I would be as patient as you can. I believe they will deliver as promised.

marty

Since Oliver is German, I would suspect that he has another webpage for the Eurpopean market. Didn't know about it so never asked.
Like this one? hifidelio (http://www.hifidelio.org/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html)

I totally agree, but if the Opus software indeed scrambles the backup, it is of little practical use. That's why ripping the CDs to a computer might be the better way to go. However, I don't know for sure if the Opus software still has that problem. Thus, I am interested in hearing from someone who has first-hand experience.

Best - MM

Go back to post 131 in this thread. There was a discussion about backing up that started there. It was a year ago so maybe Olive has made improvements with the newer firmware.

I can tell you that in my case, my backup crashed (it my desktop computer) and I was able to pull my entire library from the Opus and reload it on my computer without major problems. I had to do a bit of reorganizing some songs that were not associated with the proper album but nothing horrible.

The biggest hassle for me was that the USB drive that one attaches to the Olive has to be formatted with FAT32 and it is not straightforward to format today's large HDDs that way. The standard is NTFS. Seems a bit archaic of Olive to configure that way.

I should note that I do not have much in the way of classical music in my collection and that is where I imagine one could run into problems of overwriting etc. if the Olive software is not sophisticated enough.

The biggest hassle for me was that the USB drive that one attaches to the Olive has to be formatted with FAT32 and it is not straightforward to format today's large HDDs that way. The standard is NTFS. Seems a bit archaic of Olive to configure that way.

Here is a snippet from an email I recently got from Olive regarding the backup disks:

"Please use one of the following file systems:

FAT32 (MS Windows)
EXT3 (Linux)
UDF (UNIX)
HFS (Mac)
ISO9660

Other file systems like NTFS are not supported! FAT32 supports hard drives up to 2 TB, but formatting hard drives with bigger capacities under Microsoft Windows (in the above mentioned formats) requires special software/utility packages. We recommend the Freeware H2Format. You can get more information here (http://www.techolio.com/rd2780_upgrade/) or contact Olive support for details."

I should note that I do not have much in the way of classical music in my collection and that is where I imagine one could run into problems of overwriting etc. if the Olive software is not sophisticated enough.

I have mostly Classical music, where a good management system is absolutely crucial.

Best - MM

Does FAT32 sound better than NTFS? ;)

Here is a snippet from an email I recently got from Olive regarding the backup disks:

"Please use one of the following file systems:

FAT32 (MS Windows)
EXT3 (Linux)
UDF (UNIX)
HFS (Mac)
ISO9660

Other file systems like NTFS are not supported! FAT32 supports hard drives up to 2 TB, but formatting hard drives with bigger capacities under Microsoft Windows (in the above mentioned formats) requires special software/utility packages. We recommend the Freeware H2Format. You can get more information here (http://www.techolio.com/rd2780_upgrade/) or contact Olive support for details."



I have mostly Classical music, where a good management system is absolutely crucial.

Best - MM

Yes there is also another neat little program that I discovered that allows one to format a big HDD with FAT32. I posted the link to the program ealier in this thread when I was sharing my experience of having had my backup hard drive crash.

Does FAT32 sound better than NTFS? ;)

I can't imagine that it would have any effect. It's just a way of managing the files on a hard drive. Also we are talking about the backup USB HDD that you can plug into the Olive if you wish. You don't play off that drive you just use it to copy songs for backup.

I just find it odd that Olive would require that you use FAT32 knowing that people are going to be using gigantor modern HDDs and that you cannot format such drives with FAT32 with the newer versions of Windows. You have to go search on the internet for shareware. Why not make it easy for us?

Sorry Jack, I was just being sarcastic. Hence the ;) But I do agree on why the heck do they not use NTFS... probably has something to do with the software being Linux based, and they haven't taken the time to modify the Linux code so it can mount a NTFS volume.

I can't imagine that it would have any effect. It's just a way of managing the files on a hard drive. Also we are talking about the backup USB HDD that you can plug into the Olive if you wish. You don't play off that drive you just use it to copy songs for backup.

I just find it odd that Olive would require that you use FAT32 knowing that people are going to be using gigantor modern HDDs and that you cannot format such drives with FAT32 with the newer versions of Windows. You have to go search on the internet for shareware. Why not make it easy for us?

Sorry Jack, I was just being sarcastic. Hence the ;) But I do agree on why the heck do they not use NTFS... probably has something to do with the software being Linux based, and they haven't taken the time to modify the Linux code so it can mount a NTFS volume.


Oh sorry for being slow. :)

Well thanks for the addtional information guys, and I'm really looking forward to actually getting in my hands. It should be sometime next week but we will see. . .

So anybody get anything yet? I called today and they said Friday or Monday they would ship mine out, but I was lead to belive that units had already shipped. . . Anybody?

Nothing here yet. E-mailed them today for an ETA.

Yes there is also another neat little program that I discovered that allows one to format a big HDD with FAT32. I posted the link to the program ealier in this thread when I was sharing my experience of having had my backup hard drive crash.
]Hi Jack,

You may recall that in an old post, I mentioned that Olive had promised a firmware update enabling NAS support. After more than a year, nothing has materialized, so I tried backing-up on a USB drive, since I believe that the "solution" consisting in ripping CDs in iTunes, storing the files on a computer and transferring them to the Opus defeats the purpose of having a stand-alone music server.

In my opinion, the lack of NTFS support is only a minor issue as drives pre-formatted in FAT 32 are readily available for those who do not want the hassle of reformatting. More serious: a) The process is extremely slow (about 5 hours per 100 GB0; b) There is no provision for incremental backups, which means that either you manually update your backup whenever you load new music into the Opus, or you periodically erase and redo your full backup: c) Looking at the contents of my backup disk, I suspect that files bearing duplicate names ("Adagio", "Aria" etc. are skipped, which is going to result in incomplete backups I did not test the "Restore" function, not wanting to erase the intrnal disk just to see what would happen. For peaple storing mostly classical music, this is a major problem.

My impression is that Olive is reluctant to offer a more sophisticated solution involving external drives, lest people might find a way of using such drives for storage expansion (they obviously prefer to prompt customers to buy their models with the largest hard drive possible, since they charge an outrageous premium on capacity increments).

About classical music: as is well known, metadata for classical CDs leave much to be desired and always need to be heavily edited (that of course is not Olives's fault). However, Olive has so far failed to improve its web-based editing interface, which remains extremely slow, hangs frequently and does not offer any batch-editing facility (for example, if you want to change the "Genre" classification of 50 albums to "Baroque", you have to do 50 edits, each requiring 5 or 6 mouse clicks and long waiting times for recording the change).

Apart from that, I am quite happy with my Opus (using the internal DAC with excellent sound quality). I am, however, concerned about Olive's survival after reading in Stereophile that they had sold only some 15,000 units so far...

Best,

MG.

Hi Jack,

You may recall that in an old post, I mentioned that Olive had promised a firmware update enabling NAS support. After more than a year, nothing has materialized, so I tried backing-up on a USB drive, since I believe that the "solution" consisting in ripping CDs in iTunes, storing the files on a computer and transferring them to the Opus defeats the purpose of having a stand-alone music server.

In my opinion, the lack of NTFS support is only a minor issue as drives pre-formatted in FAT 32 are readily available for those who do not want the hassle of reformatting. More serious: a) The process is extremely slow (about 5 hours per 100 GB0; b) There is no provision for incremental backups, which means that either you manually update your backup whenever you load new music into the Opus, or you periodically erase and redo your full backup: c) Looking at the contents of my backup disk, I suspect that files bearing duplicate names ("Adagio", "Aria" etc. are skipped, which is going to result in incomplete backups I did not test the "Restore" function, not wanting to erase the intrnal disk just to see what would happen. For peaple storing mostly classical music, this is a major problem.

My impression is that Olive is reluctant to offer a more sophisticated solution involving external drives, lest people might find a way of using such drives for storage expansion (they obviously prefer to prompt customers to buy their models with the largest hard drive possible, since they charge an outrageous premium on capacity increments).

About classical music: as is well known, metadata for classical CDs leave much to be desired and always need to be heavily edited (that of course is not Olives's fault). However, Olive has so far failed to improve its web-based editing interface, which remains extremely slow, hangs frequently and does not offer any batch-editing facility (for example, if you want to change the "Genre" classification of 50 albums to "Baroque", you have to do 50 edits, each requiring 5 or 6 mouse clicks and long waiting times for recording the change).

Those are deal breakers for me, and are precisely the reasons why I in the end decided to cancel my order.

It's a pity, Olive has an appealing concept, but - at this point at least - its implementation has many holes.

Best - MM

I just canceled my order as well. It has been two weeks and nada. If I don't see a refund on my Amex card in the next two days, I'm going to dispute the charge. Time to start looking for alternatives...

I just canceled my order as well. It has been two weeks and nada. If I don't see a refund on my Amex card in the next two days, I'm going to dispute the charge. Time to start looking for alternatives...
While this is NOT a high quality option, I have been using my Ipod connected via a wall dock with analog outputs to my A/V Receiver. I put everything on my IPod using FLAC, but the obvious weakness is the analog outputs.

Considering the IPod can now be purchased for under $400 and 160 GB, the Opus only advantage is it's DAC and digital output. If someone could find a digital output for the IPod, then once IPods come out with 500 GB capacity (probably in less than two years) then the Olive products lose their luster.

Both my PC and my HP MV2020 (running Twonky) function as music servers, making the storage on the Olive somewhat redundant. I was willing to buy it anyway for the bargain price just to play with it, but I'm tired of waiting. I'll probably go with the Slim Devices Squeezebox, and run the SlimServer on my primary PC that is on all the time I'm home anyway. I may end up re-ripping all my CDs to FLAC (I'll have to see how ALAC sounds first), but I was going to have to do that with the Olive anyway. I'd really like to buy the Slim Devices Transporter, but $2000 is overkill when compared to the components of my somewhat modest 2-channel "listening" system.

While this is NOT a high quality option, I have been using my Ipod connected via a wall dock with analog outputs to my A/V Receiver. I put everything on my IPod using FLAC, but the obvious weakness is the analog outputs.

Considering the IPod can now be purchased for under $400 and 160 GB, the Opus only advantage is it's DAC and digital output. If someone could find a digital output for the IPod, then once IPods come out with 500 GB capacity (probably in less than two years) then the Olive products lose their luster.

If I may ask...

How long did it take you to get the refund on your Amex?

Thanks.

Those are deal breakers for me, and are precisely the reasons why I in the end decided to cancel my order.

Best - MM

While this is NOT a high quality option, I have been using my Ipod connected via a wall dock with analog outputs to my A/V Receiver. I put everything on my IPod using FLAC, but the obvious weakness is the analog outputs.

Considering the IPod can now be purchased for under $400 and 160 GB, the Opus only advantage is it's DAC and digital output. If someone could find a digital output for the IPod, then once IPods come out with 500 GB capacity (probably in less than two years) then the Olive products lose their luster.

I'm using MacMini connected to my receiver via optical cable. I can't tell the difference between CD and lossless file coming from the MacMini. Not the best solution but acceptable for me.

If I may ask...

How long did it take you to get the refund on your Amex?

Thanks.

Funny you should ask. I notified Olive over a week ago that I decided to cancel, but haven't seen any refund yet. I sent an email yesterday and was assured that my refund request had been forwarded to AmEx and that they should have refunded my $$$ by now. I just looked, and there was no refund yet. I'll give it until next week...

Best - MM

I would suggest you call the Amex wishlist number directly and let them know. Truth be told, I called both Amex and Olive to make sure the refund wouldn't linger, and it sounds like Amex will process the refund in two days.

1-800-824-3327

Funny you should ask. I notified Olive over a week ago that I decided to cancel, but haven't seen any refund yet. I sent an email yesterday and was assured that my refund request had been forwarded to AmEx and that they should have refunded my $$$ by now. I just looked, and there was no refund yet. I'll give it until next week...

Best - MM

I'm using MacMini connected to my receiver via optical cable. I can't tell the difference between CD and lossless file coming from the MacMini. Not the best solution but acceptable for me.

That is what I have decided upon. No wonder you can't tell the difference between CD and Apple Lossless, because there is no difference (I'm sure someone will jump up and dispute this statement...).

Now, whether the Mac Mini is a good transporter, that is a different question. However, for me, it is definitely more than sufficient. The combination of a Mini with a Time Capsule (or similar) sounds like an awfully nice solution for playing music through a stereo system and also streaming music (at least to one client) and serving video, etc.

Sorry for temporarily hijacking this thread.

Best - MM

I would suggest you call the Amex wishlist number directly and let them know. Truth be told, I called both Amex and Olive to make sure the refund wouldn't linger, and it sounds like Amex will process the refund in two days.

1-800-824-3327

Thanks.

Best - MM

Guys,

I was just browsing the Olive web site and it seems that the only option to upgrade firmware is via CD. At least I could not find where they indicate you can do it directly via the internet. It used to be that you could just do it directly from the internet to your Olive.

Am I wrong? I hope so. That would be a large step backward and I can't imagine why they would do something that retrograde.

Also seems a bit disappointing that the latest FW update was over a year ago. I was hoping at least they would improve the Rondo interface. Frankly I can't remember but it seems to me that there were FW upgrades more recent but the last one listed on the web site is January 2007.

Guys,

I was just browsing the Olive web site and it seems that the only option to upgrade firmware is via CD. At least I could not find where they indicate you can do it directly via the internet. It used to be that you could just do it directly from the internet to your Olive.

Am I wrong? I hope so. That would be a large step backward and I can't imagine why they would do something that retrograde.

Also seems a bit disappointing that the latest FW update was over a year ago. I was hoping at least they would improve the Rondo interface. Frankly I can't remember but it seems to me that there were FW upgrades more recent but the last one listed on the web site is January 2007.
Jack, go to Settings & Specials > Olive Music Information > Software Update on the Opus user interface. Chances are there are no new updates, but AFAIK you can still do it via your Internet connection.