Olive Opus: First Impressions

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 ). 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.

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 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.

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.

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?

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

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?

Thanks!

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.

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.

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.

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.