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Advice buying a Music Server? Just Olive 4HD?

Hi All,

I have a custom tube preamp/amp and a Rega Apollo for my CD collection. It is wonderful, but I dream of having my CDs all ripped onto a simple and quiet device, that wirelessly synchronizes music from my macbook when I rip it / download.

I do not want a Squeezebox + DAC [I do not want to have to use a computer with my stereo and I do not want two components, just one simple device].

I do not want a RedWine Audio IPOD, although this represents almost what I need [easy music synching with my library of Apple lossless files, easy UI, improved acoustics, etc.]. Here the sound is not quite what I want, and the storage is limited by the iPod.

It seems like the Olive 4HD is the only thing out there that has plenty of storage, WiFi for easy music synchronization, and high quality DAC componentry. But $2500 seems crazy.

I don't need the Olive CD transport [I can rip on my macbook]. I don't need internet radio. Is there really no $1000 solution to this problem? The Olive 3HD just makes me think that I'll want a better DAC, so please don't point me there.

Thoughts?
thanks,
Keith
kbigelow

Showing 1 response by edge22

edge22
31 posts
 
I have had my Apple TV for a couple of months and love it!

I would recommend getting the 160GB hard drive version that is being phased out. This older version is also capable of streaming, and when I first synced the Apple TV I was initially disappointed with the sound -- it did not sound quite as good as my CD player going to my DAC. However, I realized that what I initially heard was streaming (that is, I began listening before the songs were synced to the Apple TV harddrive). After the songs were synced on the Apple TV hard drive, it sounds every bit as good (and possibily better) as my CD player going to my DAC.
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