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Olive One

58K views 249 replies 65 participants last post by  Jörg Buschermöhle 
#1 ·
not seen a thread for this as yet, if the case please do point me to it,


main info have found is here on the olive site,
http://www.myoliveone.com/


certainly looks an interesting item




looks like good connectivity both in analog and digital



looks like will work wirelessly or wired off any music stored either locally or in a cloud/pc/mac including itunes.


anyone know when might be released ?
 
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#52 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny Kim  /t/1473225/olive-one/30#post_23616161


Yeah, I'm seriously contemplating cancelling my $700+ Olive One 2TB order right now. I'm looking at the alternatives out there, and one possibility that I see is the Logitech Squeezebox Touch, which also has an iPad control app. The one issue with that I'm concerned about is the lack of internal storage. I need a great deal of space to house my music library.


At this point, I've bought Vandersteen 3A Signature speakers, a Rotel RB-1080 200 watt/channel stereo amp, a Rotel RC-1070 preamp so now need is a good quality media player with a top notch DAC or an external DAC. Then I have to convert/update my music library into FLAC and I will be in business. I don't really want to spend another 300-800 on a dedicated DAC when I have other more pressing costs in my music studio. With a 32-bit 384KHz Burr Brown DAC, you would think that would be good enough to compete with most dedicated DAC's out there under 800 dollars. But having it run out of a 3.5mm jack...what on earth is Olive thinking? Is there any way to modify the Olive One to create a breakout panel with paired RCA's and XLR outputs? Damn, why couldn't it look just like this?


Its quite ironic that people are considering the Logitech Squeezebox Touch over the Olive One - the SBT came out years ago and was discontinued (mostly because Logitech seems like they are managed by a bunch of morons) and the Olive One is supposed to be the thing that SBT people are going to move to.
 
#53 ·
absolutely ridiculous they say theres no room for simple analog out via RCAs when they go and include a whole class d digital power amp and speaker outputs !


FAIL !


when you go to their website they still dont have a picture showing connectivity offered. instead they say designed by you. when it should say designed by morons !
 
#55 ·
I just ordered a pair of Canare speaker cables with banana plugs and spade lugs on each end of 4 strands.

I wanted to check how quickly they would get here, and ended up talking to Kurt from Blue Jeans Cable.

I figured he would be somewhat of an authority on cables and interface jacks. When I told him my predicament

with the Olive One's lack of RCA analog outputs, he said that it makes no difference whether you have a 3.5mm

or RCA jack, that the quality from the PCB line will be the same. When I thanked him for his opinion, he said it's

not an opinion, it's fact.


So evidently a well-respected cable manufacturer doesn't think the 3.5mm jack on the Olive One is going to be

an issue at all. Anyone thoughts on Kurt's opinion/facts?
 
#56 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny Kim  /t/1473225/olive-one/30#post_23622667


I just ordered a pair of Canare speaker cables with banana plugs and spade lugs on each end of 4 strands.

I wanted to check how quickly they would get here, and ended up talking to Kurt from Blue Jeans Cable.

I figured he would be somewhat of an authority on cables and interface jacks. When I told him my predicament

with the Olive One's lack of RCA analog outputs, he said that it makes no difference whether you have a 3.5mm

or RCA jack, that the quality from the PCB line will be the same. When I thanked him for his opinion, he said it's

not an opinion, it's fact.


So evidently a well-respected cable manufacturer doesn't think the 3.5mm jack on the Olive One is going to be

an issue at all. Anyone thoughts on Kurt's opinion/facts?

actually whats on the pcb is quite different whether a headphone jack or rca. and L&R RCAs are quite different in connectivity and cables used are quite different vs a simple headphone plug and leads. that is fact !


and so now rather than simply hook up via rca leads to 2ch gear we have to use either a headphone to RCA adapter or cable thats RCA and headphone at other end.
 
#57 ·
I think that the problem with the olive one is that they are trying to build 2 products in one box.

There are people who need a easy to use source for their existing stereo system ( like me) that want ethernet, 2 rca audio out and the possibility to upgrade it with an external usb or coaxial dac. They don't need the amplifier or the internal hdd and they think that these add noise and heat. Even if you want a multiroom sysyem is better to have a nas with 2 or three olive one connected to it via powerline o wifi. And if you need an all in one system just add powered usb speakers like the b&w or the kef x300a (or powered digital coaxial speakers like dynaudio)that sound much better with their internal custom amplifier that with any class d external amplifier.

In other words: if you own an hi fi you already have an amplifier. If you don't have it, powered digital speakers sounds better than a basic class d amplifier connected to passive speakers.

On the other side there are people who want an all in one system.

My suggestion is to give the internal amp as an option or to put it in a second stackable round case and to add 2 rca stereo output and ethernet.

Bye

Alessandro

(Ls3/5a speakers, audio research vsi 60 amp, synology 112+ nas, pc with foobar dlna renderer and m2tech young dac)
 
#58 ·
thats the thing kevin if look at the original ideas where it was just a source pod.




that could stack onto other things eg an internal hard drive unit, or a speaker unit which was also presumably with power amp built in.


would have been a great money spinner for them. sell the control/source pod. and then depending on peoples needs let them buy any of the other pods eg the hard drive, nas one, speakers,




amps etc as they see their needs and requirements.






instead now we have an all in one thing. thats trying to be too many things and ended up as typically with a jack of all trades really a compromise and a master of none !


I do hope they still some day consider a control/source pod style "olive one" can still do it. woudl just be a stripped back version of what they have currently released
 
#60 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by alex kelvin  /t/1473225/olive-one/30#post_23641052


If things are in this way in october i will probably buy a cambridge sonata np30 or a naim unitiqute!

I could see the Cambridge unit but that Naim device looks pretty expensive.


So why aren't more people going to the Cambridge NP30? What is the Olive supposed to have to one up this device?
 
#61 ·
I am waiting for the release of the new Mac mini with 802ac and larger SSD then I will get one of those and use my iPad to control it! That will be much better than the olive one? Who wants to stand by their racks when playing music? I like to sit in my chair in front of my three B&W 800 DIAMOND
 
#62 ·
For me, I need a centralized music player/storage unit that is capable of playing lossless files with high quality. So the internal 2TB drive option in the Olive One is very appealing to me, since my music library is fragmented across about 6 different hard drives and devices. An SD card or external USB drive would just be another peripheral that would have to be swapped out eventually once space runs out, which it will for me. I used to work for a record label and DJ every weekend, so I'm not a casual music listener. I also like the option of controlling it with an iOS device.


Also, I was wondering if you guys think this would be a better DAC than the one inside the Olive. For about $120 bucks, you get this external DAC with digital SPDIF in and stereo RCA out, with an external power supply. This might be a solution for people who don't want to run their system through a 3.5mm output jack.
http://us.hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=51
 
#63 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by wse  /t/1473225/olive-one/60#post_23641786


I am waiting for the release of the new Mac mini with 802ac and larger SSD then I will get one of those and use my iPad to control it! That will be much better than the olive one? Who wants to stand by their racks when playing music? I like to sit in my chair in front of my three B&W 800 DIAMOND

Olive has an iOS app that you can use to control the Olive One from your iPad and your chair. I already found it on the App Store, so I know it exists. They also list it as a feature on the Olive One spec sheet.


Frankly, I don't see the need for an SSD drive for music. Maybe for HD movie playback, but it's simply not necessary for music. Plus a 250GB drive may not be big enough for me. I just want a large drive 1TB+ that can house all the uncompressed Wave files or lossless FLAC files that I have.
 
#64 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny Kim  /t/1473225/olive-one/60#post_23641916


Olive has an iOS app that you can use to control the Olive One from your iPad and your chair. I already found it on the App Store, so I know it exists. They also list it as a feature on the Olive One spec sheet.

They do plan on releasing a app for iOS, Android, and Windows mobile but the app you saw was for for their previous models that are already available.
 
#65 ·
I was initially interested in this thing as a replacement for a Squeezebox Touch (which works perfectly, but the discontinuation makes me a bit nervous) but I still can't figure out what they're trying to accomplish with it. Why does it have amps built in? Does the part with the interface work as a remote? (Olive has tons of pictures of the thing working with no apparent wiring on their site). Can it stream from a NAS and if so why have a hard drive? For a very long time (and I'm still a little confused) I had no idea how you would connect and use this thing. This does not seem to be a great way to sell things.


Ultimately it just seems like they are trying to build in too much stuff. I don't need an amp and a DAC and a hard drive, I already have those items.


Hope my SBT keeps working...
 
#66 ·
Well let's see $599 for either an


- Olive one or


- Mac mini with:

2.5GHz dual-core

Intel Core i5

4GB memory RAM

500GB hard drive1

Intel HD Graphics 4000
 
#67 ·
Any other solutions, apart from Olive and Sonos, that can hook up to AV gear and be controlled via an iOS or Android app in a more cost effective manner ?


What I like about Sonos is the central music source and the ability to play wirelessly in multiple rooms but it is expensive.
 
#76 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by j.t.k.  /t/1473225/olive-one/60#post_23657324


I was initially interested in this thing as a replacement for a Squeezebox Touch (which works perfectly, but the discontinuation makes me a bit nervous) but I still can't figure out what they're trying to accomplish with it. Why does it have amps built in? Does the part with the interface work as a remote? (Olive has tons of pictures of the thing working with no apparent wiring on their site). Can it stream from a NAS and if so why have a hard drive? For a very long time (and I'm still a little confused) I had no idea how you would connect and use this thing. This does not seem to be a great way to sell things.


Ultimately it just seems like they are trying to build in too much stuff. I don't need an amp and a DAC and a hard drive, I already have those items.


Hope my SBT keeps working...

I agree 100% - I have a bunch of SBTs around my house and while I continue to look for something to replace them with, there doesn't seem to be any legitimate options. I was hoping that the Olive One would be it, but I don't think it is.
 
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