Comments on the Olive Opus CD Player

I cannot answer your specific questions. I have not seen or heard the Olive Opus. However, I have the following on good authority from someone who has one.

The case is gorgeous and the build is definitely audiophile quality. And, just like a box of Cracker Jacks, there is a surprise inside. The power supply, DAC, and maybe more parts are labeled "Resolution Audio Opus". It appears the common surname is not just coincidence. The two are blood relatives.

I am surprised this has stayed a secret for so long and that Olive has not used the relationship in its marketing.

I was told that both the McIntosh MS300 Music Server and the Olive Opus require an Ethernet connection. My stero equipment is a long way from my Router and it will be very difficult to connect to the Router due limited crawl space. Can I use a wireless connection from the device to my Router?

Do your homework. Yes you can use wireless for the Olive Opus. The web site is full of information including great pictures of the front and rear.

http://www.olive.us/p_bin/

The following is from the data sheet available on the web site:

Networking
Wired 4-port switch, auto-sense (10/100) Fast bandwidth for seamless multi-room audio streaming (up to 5 rooms simultaneously)
Complete infrastructure to set up your own home network.

Wireless 54 Mbit/s WLAN-Access point (802.11g)
Protocols UPnP A/V and Apple Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous) Automatic recognition of networked devices
Allows streaming from and to MP3 player software such as iTunes.

With anything that requires an ethernet connection, you can get a wireless bridge that will let you use it wirelessly. They sell them for the original Xbox, but there wouldn't be anything stopping you from using one with a music server.

Check out comments on audiocircle.com about this unit.

My Opus is on the way...scheduled to deliver on Monday. As I develop my opinions, I will post them.

That audiocircle thread is wild! The main gist seems to be that OPUS digital out is less than top-notch for some reason, but that the internal DAC sounds very good. If I understand it correctly... (the lower-end Musica and Symphony units have fine digital out, it appears).

I have a Musica and like it. My intention is to eventually use it with an external DAC. That's an option worth considering if you can live with the smaller hard drive -- it's much less expensive, and the extra money can go towards a good DAC.

YEs Musica is the way to go.
I am the one who started that thread on the circle.

Anthony

Based on my research so far, I am going to keep my MCD205 CD Player and forget the Olive Opus or the McIntosh MS300 Music Server. The music server concept is very interesting but I have too many technical issues connecting a music server to my Router that I do not want to deal with. I am not convinced that the extra money spent for either unit is worth it. Playing one CD at a time works for me and my McIntosh MCD205 sounds great. Thanks again for all your help.

Hgefiman,

Isn't the MCD205 a 5 disc changer? If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's a great sounding machine, you won't do better in terms of sound quality.

I wanted to be sure you understand that the Olive units do not *require* a network connection. One of the beauties of these units is that they can be used as a drop-in CD player replacement. You can play CDs, rip CD's to the hard drive, and burn CDs, all without an Internet connection. Once ripped to the hard drive, you can use the front panel to find music by genre, by artist name, etc. Likewise, the built-in CD database will recognize most CDs and display album and song titles, without an internet connection. So basically a digital CD jukebox that holds hundreds of CDs in "lossless" format, plays individual CDs, and burns CDs. Again, no Internet connection required for any of that.

If you use the network connection, you get these additional benefits (again, totally optional -- I myself only currently use the CD update out of all these features):
- Updates to the CD database
- Ability to play certain Internet "radio stations"
- Ability to retrieve music off other computers from your network
- Ability to "serve up" music to other computers on your network
- Ability to do certain administration tasks via a web browser

So you get additional capabilities with a network connection, but the base functionality is all there without it.

Cordially,

Eric

Eric- Nice to read some feedback on the Olive. The two things that concern me about their units are the small
display and lack of outputs/inputs for an external display,
keyboard and mouse. I've read that they're working a a PDA
style remote.

Hi Kana813,

The Olive is explicitly aimed at people who want a drop-in replacement for a CD player, and do not have room or want "computer-style" hookups for their CD player. Given that fact, the display is as tall as it can be (as tall as the component).

For the person who can tolerate a monitor and keyboard as part of their rack, there are other good options, such as a Mac Mini. This is really a different audience.

More important for me than the remote you mentioned will be an enhancement to the web browser interface. This cannot currently be used to play music. When it can, I will not require a remote -- I will use a remote computer to select music. Really a better solution than having a keyboard and monitor attached directly to the unit. This feature is supposedly "on the list", but there's no date set.

Cordially,

Eric

New Olive users group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Olive-Media/?yguid=215291007

Hi,

Just wanted everyone to know that the ability to remotely control the Olive via the web interface (as mentioned above) is part of the latest (free) software upgrade, and works great! Olive also supports a Nokia handheld for those that don't want to use a computer as their remote.

Cordially,

Eric