"Official" Olive Thread Opus 4, Opus 6, Melody 2, Olive 2, Olive 4/ 4HD, 06HD - Page 12

Be aware that that list is TWO YEARS OLD, along with being quite incomplete. Although I applaud the effort, there are a whole flock of new DACs to tempt us. :-)

Actually, I'd venture a guess that there are only a couple of DACs on that list that can compete with modern 24/196 or higher DACs - despite the atmospheric prices of some of the equipment in the list. Sure, they might sound good, even approaching great, but you could equal or better them now for much less money.

Correct...
Just Google for best dac or so.
personally I was intrigued by http://www.headphone.com/products/di...esktop-dac.php
Or better: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/...0News/2106537/

Marc

Marc - That 32 bit DAC certainly looks impressive. If it can truly handle both PCM AND DSD streams it will be unique in the field. Next problem will be to get some SACD (or other DSD product) player manufacturer to offer a DSD digital out. There is no such unit in existence that I know of. I don't even know if there is a standardized format for that. Oh well, nobody said it would be easy...

Hi all,

Newbie here. My current research on Olive Opus4 led me to this wonderful forum.

I would like to own the Opus4 v much but worry if it has multi-language support for Chinese & Japanese song titles & artiste? My library of 200-300 CDs consists of mainly of Chinese & Japanese pop songs...

Also, I will prefer to rip on the Opus (than using PC) but again worry if the freeDB will support my unique music collection at all & whether I can edit the tags in those languages?

Actually I do not feel optimistic at all but just want to confirm...

My other consideration is Harman Kardon DMC-1000 which uses Gracenote Media Database but I have similar concerns with it..

Any thoughts or recommendations are most welcomed...

Once in a while I import a cd and it gives me only Chinese characters (that I can't read). I'm sure that this information comes from freeDB. I guess that you can edit it if you use Chinese or Japanese on your pc. I can delete it anyway.
But, that said, I don't know how this works, or if FreeDB is multi-lingual in design. I guess not.

To know how FreeDB treats your cd's, you only have tor read them on your pc with some grabber/ripper. EAC for instance. It uses FreeDB.

Marc

Hi all,

I'm about two mouse-clicks from ordering an Opus 4, but I'm not able to find what I want to know before I do.

Can anyone comment on the quality of the sound? i read one post where the user said the digital out sounded poor compared to a different transport device. Yet the DAC in both cases was (obviously) the same. The only thing I've seen consistent on playback is the analog is low volume. Can anyone compare playback (both analog and digital) to a known source? Say a Rotel, Krell, Denon, etc.?

Also, I'm concerned about the UI. I've read plenty of unpleasant things about problems using the Opus 4 to rip music, and I've read some unhappy posts about lag/slow response when using both the remote and the touch screen. I also know a new software version was recently released (version 4), but I'm not seeing as many posts about how it affected these issues, if at all.

I've also read about high heat issues, and only one person who said his was "just warm".

I've read several times about an Opus 6, but can find no official mention of it. Does it exist? When is the next version coming?

Finally, I cant find ANY information about the incorporated DAC.

I would really appreciate any input I could get. I almost bought one today, but for $1500+, I expect something that will work seamlessly and sound at least as good as a $700 Rotel CD player. From what i've read, it doesnt sound bad, it just doesn't sound like a $1500 piece of audio equipment.

I'd really like to hear from anyone who can speak first-hand about these issues, either to verify or debunk them.

Thanks a ton!

Thanks, Marc!!

Just to clarify, do you mean you've ever seen chinese characters appearing on both the Rondo & Maestro screens??

I will try out EAC as suggested - i did not know it uses the same FreeDB..

I recalled someone posted ripping problem on the Opus if the CD contains foreign characters like Ã* é, ç etc, where the CD will be rendered unreadable & spins forever. I will not want this to happen to me as all my CDs will certainly contain gibberish to the Opus...

Grit-
I will preface by saying I am not an audiophile. I almost always multitask while listening to music, so, while I want and do notice quality, I rarely sit and "listen" for extended periods. My system is probably considered budget: Marantz PM7001 integrated with Polk Lsi9s and a Velodyne sub.

I haven't been able to find anything about the DAC either, and I suspect that information is not being made readily available somewhat intentionally--others may comment more specifically on this, but I recall the earlier Opus versions including high end DACs, but they were selling at much higher prices (around $3,000 US, I believe) with far less storage capacity. Personally, I noticed a slight drop in quality (analog) from my Marantz player, which has a Cirrus Logic. It does also have a low volume level. Others obviously get around this with an external DAC. I think perhaps comparing it to a $700 Rotel is the wrong approach--what you're paying for with the Opus is an all-in-one device unlike any other I've seen. Sure, there are other digital servers with presumably superior DACs, but they also come with a higher price tag and a different (and for me, more limiting) set of features.

The Opus is not, nor even near, perfect. However, I have no regrets about my purchase. I love the convenience of selecting what I want without getting out and putting away CDs. The random function has gotten me excited about music I had basically forgotten about and never would have gone through the trouble of putting into my player--so I'm listening to more of my music. And I (sort of) enjoy the (limited) control I have over it from my various networked computers around the house. The Rondo interface (essentially the touchscreen accessed via computer, iphone, etc.) is the weakest link here and I hope it improves. If we could use it as a reliable virtual control pad--including pause, play, skip, shuffle--it would go a long way toward that "near perfect" rating. I've had some problems with Maestro too, particularly moving or deleting tracks within a playlist.

You will be frustrated at times: like any computer, the screen will occasionally hang, or lag a bit. The touchpad buttons are not very wide either and it's easy to "mistouch" (I sometimes use a stylus, particularly for alphabet searches). I've gotten used to (and better at dealing with) these quirks though. It will not be "seamless" as you say, but in my opinion, the features outweigh these glitches.

Ripping: So far, I've ripped about 400 CDs directly to the Opus and been pleasantly surprised. I know others feel differently, but I've been pleased. Yes, there have been a couple oddities where it didn't recognize a fairly common album. Yes, there is a little end work through Maestro making sure the album art, titles and artists are correct (or how you want them). And yes, there should be an post-rip prompt that doesn't vanish. That said, the CDs I had trouble with were ones I knew I'd have trouble with (scratches and such) and I plan on simply redoing those and importing via PC.

Mine is warm, but not overly.

Hope that helps.

Thanks DrMolitor. I appreciate the time you took to detail your answers, and it does help. My wife is more of the casual listener... background music. I am more of a sit down and listen person. I enjoy background music, but could care little for the quality of it. But when I sit down, I want to be able to enjoy the quality.

I guess my last question is about the digital output. It sounds like I'd be ahead to let this Opus run via coax into my Rotel processor, using the Rotel for DAC. I'm still concerned because of one forum post where someone stated the Opus sounded poor compared to a CD transport over the same digital connection to the same DAC. I know several people are happy with their outboard DACs, but can anyone else comment on comparing the Olive's digital output to any other source? The concern I have is the Olive may be introducing jitter into the system, which can never be removed, only masked and compensated.

Hi - Welcome to the club!

I'll give a try at answering your question about the Opus digital out. I am not alone in believing that the output of a hard drive is superior to the reading of a CD by a laser. Sure, bits is bits, but the streaming of those bits from a hard drive seems to be easier on the downstream equipment used to read & interpret them. Jitter is an often-blamed source of digital nastiness, but I think any modern, decent quality digital replay device - and the Olive products certainly qualify there - have a low enough jitter threshold to be non-interfering with the music. Hook the Opus up to your outboard DAC, and you'll enjoy your music - possibly even more than playing a CD through it. Even as a CD player, I believe the Opus transport is more than adequate for decent sound if fed through a decent DAC. I have one of the best-sounding DACs ever made, run through a truly outstanding replay system, and I can state that even playing FLAC files from my Opus I am impressed by the overall sound quality of my system. Bottom line: No worries, mate!

Enjoy, Ed

Heng,

I was pretty sure that the Chinese CD I had was one with Yo-Yo Ma in a cello concerto.
Unfortunately, when I rip it now, after deleting it, it's plain English.
But I have an Asus netbook that can talk Chinese, so maybe tonight I will try to get some Chinese characters in Maestro (if I can figure out where I am)

About those á è characters: these are only a problem in the album title, not anywhere else, and besides, Olive is working on that.
You might ask them if Chinese is one of the upcoming languages (and ask them if Dutch is considered too )

Marc

I have compared playing a cd with the Opus and with a Marantz cd-player via a DacMagic. The Marantz did a better job.
But, after ripping this cd, the opposite is true.


Since the last(?) update, the response is much quicker! No complaints about this.

I can confirm that.

In reviews of hdd players and streamers, often the userinterface is overlooked. The magazines tend to stress the audio quality, and, while this is important, I consider the user interface the more important issue. If that is awkward, or even is non-existent, you can't use it on a day-to-day basis. One can upgrade the output with a better DAC, but you can't do that with the user interface. In that regard, I consider the Opus as unique.
Also, the interface is the most expensive part of such a device. Given the fact that Olive is still busy updating and bettering it, while it is already pretty good, is very promising.

I have never regretted my purchase. My goal is to get the most music as possible out of my >1200 cd's. If I need a better DAC for that, I can buy it. I can't buy another hdd-player with such interface and ample space for all my cd's.

There is not much choice for me.

Marc

Haha, thanks Marc!! Deeply appreciate your help on trying out some Chinese..

I've emailed Olive my questions on language support a few days ago. No reply though..

Hi Heng,

I think I succeeded in my effort to convince both Maestro & Opus to take Chinese characters as input.
Here are some images of my 'effort' I hope i didn't write anything nasty
1) Opus, overview


2) Opus, playing


3) Maestro, index


4) Maestro, edit


The screenshots are from my pc, but the Opus interface shows the same image on the Olive Opus.

There is however some glitch... You can search albums and artists on the Olive Opus, but this interface takes the Latin alphabet only.

Marc

Hi folks,

Has anyone seen a picture of the inside of the Opus No. 4?
If not, what screwdriver do I need to open it? It has screws with two tiny holes in the screwhead.

Marc

I think you are right. So, I'm looking for a "we don't want you opening up the case" type screwdriver.
I have been googling around and found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sc..._-_Spanner.svg
and:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/18/m...curity-screws/

Maybe I give it a try.

Marc

I wanted to say thanks to egoss and marc. I cant tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to post your opinions and experiences in enough detail to satisfy my curiosity. In the end, your posts convinced me to pull the trigger.

I had forgotten what I read about jitter and hard drives as a source: any HDD should provide limited jitter (due to its speed) over a CD drive. And your points about external DACs is well taken. In the past, I've chased getting the best analog sound out of my CDs by upgrading the player (for better DACs) or my receiver (for better DACs). Maybe its time I tried an external DAC. I know this question belongs in another forum, but what DACs are you using?

My only concern now is the above-post about new pricing and drive sizes. I purchased a 500GB unit, given that my lifetime collection of CDs only amounts to 300. I figure the 500GB unit will hold about 4-5 times that. By the time I get to that level, I'll probably want to upgrade. But if I'd known about this new pricing, I'd have waited and either saved $100, or gotten the 1TB drive for the same cost!

New question, new post

I'd like to rip my CDs on my computer THEN import them to the Opus. My reasoning is to have a backup copy of them on a HDD that I can access several years down the road if needed. I'd be content if I could access them DIRECTLY on the Opus. As I've not fired mine up yet, I don't know if that's the case, or if they are protected once imported into the Opus HDD.

So, can you access the music files from your computer that are stored ON the Opus? Not to play them, but say to copy the file onto my laptop?

And, what software are you using to rip CDs to your computer before importing them to the Opus? I'd like something that'll rip them, properly format the meta data via CDDA or some equivalent, and store them in a unique folder for that CD. Thus, I can keep ripping CDs, have all the songs for each cd in that cd's folder, and have all the correct meta data.

Thanks again for your input!

Grit, once the music is on the Opus, you can't access it anymore. The only way is to backup the Opus, and open the backupfiles on your pc. But that showes a not-so-intuitive layout.
The way you propose is the best to go, in that case.
Most people rip with EAC.

I myself feel bound to what the Opus provides for the metadata, because I have a lot of classical albums. Combining and splitting cd's in compositions is not something that can be done with EAC or any ripper I know of.

I have the 1TB version. But, if that proves too small, I surely will consider to replace the hdd. If somehing else goes wrong, I'll consult my dealer.

Marc

Hi -

Your proposed method of ripping to computer for backup and then importing them to the Opus is what the vast majority of us on this forum use. Backing up from the Opus 4 to a hard drive leaves you with a list of song files with no structure as far as albums, artists, etc. The Opus "Library" text file is not backed up in any usable form on your backup drive.

Question: What computer are you using, a PC or a Mac? If you have a PC, then the preferred software program for the other guys seems to be Exact Audio Copy (EAC), and there are numerous references to how that's used on this and the "Older Olive" Forum. Here's the link to that, but be warned there are over 1,000 posts on that forum!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=703405

If you have a Mac, it's a different story. Then you can talk to me, since I seem to be one of the few Mac guys on the Forum. :-)

We are on the same track. The chase you mention is just how I look at it.
I believe that, after ripping, there is only the DAC to be considered for better quality.
For me, the chase is not over. I have a modified Cambridge DacMagic. The modification concerns the analog output, and some other areas, but not the digital part.
The more I read about digital music, the more I'm convinced that the future is in hirez music. And while the DacMagic can cope with 24/96 KHz files, it also has trouble with such high resolutions, in that there is more jitter in this region.
So, I'm not convinced that the dacmagic is the ultimate answer to this future.

In a previous post I have mentioned the Sabre 32 bit DAC. That looks promising. And cheap.
I just read about the Scarlatti DAC ($ 24.000) and clock ($ 10.000) in Stereophile. I hope I don't have to spend so much to end my chase.

But first things first, I don't know if the Opus is able to output 32 bits...

Marc

Thank you so much, Marc!!!

Opus development team had also replied to confirm that Japanese & Chinese languages are supported with the current version of software. I'm a happy camper

Ok.
But current? I see English, Portugese, French, Danish, German.
There is no update yet...

Marc

I will clarify...

I suspect they mean using English but doing it the way you showed me above. I will not be able to search album & artiste as you highlighted, hopefully it'll not introduce other functional limitation or software glitch...

You are more than welcome, Grit! All of the fine folks on this and the "Older" Olive forum have been great to me, and it's only fair that I try to return the favor!

As for which DAC I'm using, I have a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 21 tubed DAC - which I believe to be the best-sounding DAC ever made. Of course, I'm kinda prejudiced. :-) I have owned more than a dozen DACs down through the years - including the mighty dCS Elgar - and the Tri-Vista 21 is the smoothest, most detailed, dynamic DAC I've ever heard in my system. It's hard to describe how something can be smooth AND detailed AND dynamic, but the proof to me is in the listening. The T-V 21 was a limited edition run of 1300 units that sold for $2500USD new, but they come up for sale now and again on Audiogon for $1000-1200. Not cheap by any means, but I can heartily recommend it based on pure performance. Most of the other external DAC users on this forum seem to like the DacMagic or Benchmark models. If you're serious about a relatively affordable DAC, make sure you audition the Musical Fidelity V-DAC. It takes up very little room, and sounds fantastic, IMHO. Others will hopefully chime in with their preferences as well.

Ed

I'd been looking at that dac myself. Do you have one? Have you tried it with the opus and if not, do you mind giving it a go and reporting back?

Since I own the V-DAC's "big brother" the Tri-Vista 21, I have not tried the V-DAC myself. But a friend of mine in Chicago - in who's ears I trust - has reported it to be a stellar DAC and a real bargain at the price. You give up having 3 or 4 digital inputs (as do I with my T-V 21), since the V-DAC has only two, but that's usually enough for most folks.

FWIW. I bought one for my GF to go with a Wadia ipod dock. Sounds fantastic. I'm used to Meridian DACs, which I think are awesome, as a point of reference. The system I set up for my GF is modest. Only two BW 685s. With the V-DAC I've never heard a better small system set up--especially when you consider that her music server is an ipod. A friend of mine--who has a nice two-speaker set up--listened to it as well. He had the same opinion. Considering the price, it is a real value.