Digitalmeisters - Thoughts on Olive.....

In addition to PuBul's question, as cool as the BDP-1 looks, how does it improve computer music file SQ over a device that outputs a bit-perfect digital signal, such as a squeezebox touch?

I'm making exactly this transition right now.

First, spend more time thinking about the interface. With CDs, you just walked over to your shelf and grabbed the disc, probably based on your familiarity with the color of the spine, and the location (alphabetical, by genre, whatever you used). So how are you going to accomplish that with an "all-bits" system? Even a tiny bit of interface friction can make you listen to music less than you otherwise would. And all the expensive gear in the world won't sound better than cheap stuff when it's sitting ther silently.

I really like iTunes on Mac. It's generally easy to use, and I can trust that Apple will keep supporting and improving it. Album art, lots of ways to reorganize, easy lossless-to-lossy conversion for you iPod. A free "Remote" app for that lets your iPhone or iPad control iTunes from across the room, designed by people who take interface seriously (and each version gets better). All in all, iTunes has the mix of features that works for me.

Sooloos/Meridian is another that people love. Big touch screen, lots of enhanced meta-data. But expensive.

All the others -- Olive, Sonos, "rip all your music to a hard drive and use the DAC" -- for me are far less useful from a user interface point of view. How do I browse from across the room? How fast is it to browse a library of 20,000 tracks by hundreds of artists?

Think first about how you want to "touch" your music collection. Then think about expensive DACs (BTW, I use a Halide USB-to-SPDIF bridge to get the bits from an iMac to a Benchmark DAC, or direct USB to Ayre QB-9, both sound great. There is tweaking to do, but don't assume that just because computers use 75 cent parts to output bits, that somehow they can't sound just as good as the SPDIF output on an expensive transport).

Fvl, certainly, you are correct in that there have never been more interfaces to choose from and it's a very personal decision. You will also find many people who like and hate the same interface so it has become almost as important a decision as the sound of the music.

To all... just because it says Bit Perfect, that still does not assure timing and distortion problems do not exist (jitter). In a standard Mac or PC, these still must be addressed, the 75 cent parts won't do it. Lots of converters to choose from ($100's - $1000's) and also DAC's that reclock the signal to clean it up.

So if you want to do the "tweaking", there are lots of options to choose from, but you will spend $$$ to get it right. If not, there are well engineered systems and you will spend $$$ for a good one.

BTW, I'm in the tweaking category... but I respect the efforts of those like Bryston who do it right.

Paul

Even though there are obviously 1,000,000s of folks down loading music and using their iPods and MP3 players, it still seems that the music server model is still very much in the pioneering stage as far as most audiophiles. I find it a bit daunting that there seems to be little standardization yet in terms of the hardwarde, interface, and software and till that happens, it will I'm sure, I think most audiophiles are going to take a wait and see attitude before taking the plunge and getting rid of the $$$$ transport and DACs. I would love to have a Mac Air with a 500GB SS Drive that some how connects wireless to a Berkeley DAC and that it would be SOTA and even I could figure out how to make it work. I tried the MAC stores, but I don't get the sense that serving audiophiles part of their regular business. It is evolving....

it still seems that the music server model is still very much in the pioneering stage as far as most audiophiles.

You are correct. From what I have seen the Olive and Soolos products are very expensive, but I have never heard them and cannot comment on the SQ. I second the idea of talking to Neal @ SoundScience. Depending on how you want it set up, one of his models will fill the bill. If you have a good DAC or if your EMM can accept a digital input, there would be one solution; if you want to use the DAC in a Touch or Transporter there would be a slightly different one. If you want to use a high end sound card to do the DAC, then there is still a different one, but he can customize a hardware solution for you. Most of his newer products use a very quiet power supply and CPU cooling solution so you could position if w the rest of your gear and use a wired connection if you want, or you could do like I did and connect wirelessly w the Music Server in a remote location. His music servers integrate ripping and playback software along with the storage and data transmission needs. He is a high end audio dealer so he will understand your language and goals to develop a one, two or three box solution, based on your needs. Or he will also act as a consultant to help you design and assemble the right software and hardware at an hourly rate.