Olive ONE

Sorry if this has been posted here before, but have any of you digifiles checked this out yet? I just heard of it...

http://www.indiegogo.com/OliveONE?c=home

 

Hard to tell exactly what this is. Looks like it can present a good touch interface and stream files from "the cloud" (is Olive actually providing a cloud service?), on your network or play off of its own hard drive. The amp/speaker module gives it a boom box capability that would seem to compete with the iPod docking boom boxes. Maybe younger music listeners would appreciate this. Not sure if this can produce digital output via SPDIF/USB/i2s or a line level analog signal to a stereo or home theater setup or if it intended to be a portable digital player. Maybe it would be more compelling if it could be more of a media center that could handle movies/video as well.

It seems to me that streaming off of clouds will be commonplace with phones and tablets eventually, and more and more products would want to provide for the docking of mobile phones to get the music to wherever the amplifier and speakers are. IMO this type of product will not have a long product life in the marketplace.

 

It seems you can either add their 2tb hd or it can access your pc full of music to wireless shoot over to your stereo system. They also make home network music servers

 

Yes, I know, I have an old model O4HD and an O2 streamer. The version of the O4HD i have is replaced by models that include amplifiers. The O2 streamers were discontinued. I wonder about the Cloud strategy. I'd hate to be locked into a company's cloud without the ability to migrate to another, or backup locally. It would certainly be nice if standards develop to make media Cloud accesses plug and play.


Ken

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Hey McGruder, we've recently added digital coaxial output to the Olive ONE's specs. You can see the official announcement over at http://www.indiegogo.com/OliveONE/x/1849709?c=activity. In terms of video, the ONE is going to support YouTube playback but it's really designed to be a music player first and foremost. You will have the ability to create local backups directly to a NAS drive located on your home network.

 

I have so far about 2Tb of lossless music on a HD using iTunes via my Mac and on through to airport express and into my Rotel system. I still have thousands of CDs to load in but I don't love iTunes interface or apples remote app. Does Olive help this set up in any way ?

 

Wow, is that 2TB in ALAC? That must be something like 5,000 CD's. I'm at 1TB with about 2,500 ripped to FLAC.

Regarding your iTunes question, I don't see how you would know if Olive would be an improved interface without using it. I'm looking forward to seeing what JRiver for the Mac platform will look and sound like. What do you not like about iTunes? The Olive will probably be capable of higher resolution digital than your Airport Express. My O4HD is capable of 24/192 and the O2 is 24/96.


Ken

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

How does the O1 work with "the cloud". Is Olive providing one, or will they establish agreements with Cloud providers like Apple.

Regarding the local backups, what file format is the backup in? Can the files be restored to non-Olive devices, and used by other media software instead of Olive? With my O4HD, I can't just restore my O4HD backup to a NAS or other non-Olive server. I have to painstakingly use XBMC (XBox) Media Center software to do a straight copy of FLAC files from my O4HD to a network drive. I hope you have provided a more open solution, because it becomes a risk to put files in a proprietary solution when you could potentially go out of business someday.

I appreciate any information you have to offer about the new Olive products.


Ken

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I basically like iTunes but the latest 11 update seems not as intuitive and more of a clunky interface. So unlike apple. I have about 6000 cds and I've been loading them in for about 5 years, not every day mind you. So I still have a long way to go. One thing that always bugs me in itunes is while you are loading in a cd, iTunes is virtually useless to do anything else at the same time. If you go in artist view and try to scroll down to another artists name (to view the albums and songs already loaded) the ball stalls for a second or two and you jump back to the beginning The As. It's as if there is not enough memory to do several things at once in the app. If I scroll down in albums while I load a cd, the app freezes and I have to force quit. So these are problems only when loading music in. It's virtually impossible to multi task. And this has been the case in all versions of iTunes. It seems it wants to do too much more now and not as useful for those of us who primarily use their own original music source. I have no cloud interest but even though I'm keeping my CDs and LPs, I love having my entire library at the touch of my hand. And their updated Remote app is also clunky. It used to be a bit better before the latest update. Again apple used to be so great with their interfaces. I think they are slacking a bit. Remember Steve jobs always said , no more than two keystrokes to do anything. Now they are slipping beyond that.

 

That is one helluva collection! I can understand your frustration w/ iTunes, and I'm still getting used to

 

All in all I do like it and it is pretty easy to use, but it is now, more than ever, designed for the music lover on the go, downloading songs ( which i rarely do) and sharing between devises with added weight that users like us probably don't need. Too bad you can't customize a bit for your personal needs. Having said that, I use it every day and I'll probably load in another 100 CDs this weekend and enjoy the music.

 

That is one helluva collection! I can understand your frustration w/ iTunes, and I'm still getting used to version 11. Olive is pretty good about being able to play music, rip CD's, and edit metadata and images concurrently. Also, the Maestro and iMaestro software is very good once you understand a few quirks with page refreshes. I have a similar set of goals as you, and the Olive setup basically gives me all of the convenience to get to my music from my laptop, phone, or iPad. I'm not a fan of the changes to the product line, with the inclusion of amplifiers in their devices, and the discontinuing of models that are barely 2 years old. The access to the file system and usefulness of their backups is not very open, and adds a proprietary aspect that could have you ripping thousands of CD's again, unless you jump through a bunch of hoops to copy files using software Olive does not provide.

Ideally I'd like to establish a solution that works with an open file system, and leaves the options open for the user interface and remote controlling. I'd buy another complete Olive solution if they do a good job on the software and server implementation, while letting me access the files in an open fashion. I'd want the option to change the server, or the media center software if someone starts slacking, as you put it. With the rapid changes in the multimedia, media center hardware-software, server hardware, cloud, etc it,s pretty compelling to make choices that will allow you to change direction with the least penalty in the future. Some gravitation, maturing and true adherence to standards like upnp-dlna would be a positive development.

I hope Olive considers some of what I've written here.

 

Right now, I'm thinking I'll eventually invest in a NAS and move all of the Olive files there. Moving the files will be a PITA unless they turn up with some software that allows their customers to do this. If they want to play the proprietary game, that's a shame. With the right upnp-dlna software running, the Olive can see the files and stream them. Then I want the most robust user interfaces I can find to support each channel - laptop, phone, tablet. In the meantime, the Olive setup works well with my older models, and hopefully they will continue to provide support if I need it and stay in business.

 

ThanksMcG. Another reason ill probably stick w iTunes is that you pretty much know it will be around for a long time. At least through my lifetime. The quirks will be with any device or software. My gripes are things which they should be able to fix. Eventually. Maybe.

 

Most haves for streamers
being able to see art work for all your cds at once
being able to play a few cds in a row
being able to play High Rez files
something missing from a lot like I Tunes
being able to read all files ,I Tunes

 

Looks like Olive will starting shipping the One from July 2013. I'm thinking about ordering one and finally moving on from physcal media. My entire collection is ripped in ALAC format and I've been checking out streaming options over the last year.

The Olive One seems to be fit my need - has local 1TB drive (so no need for NAS), provides digital output for connection to AVR or DAC and can be controlled from an iPad or iPhone remote. I probably will wait for more reviews on the hardware and software elements before investing the $500 but this might be my future music solution.

 

I'm going to wait for some reviews before making my decision, but this looks very appealing.

 

I don't think the Olive products support Apple lossless (ALAC).

 

The Olive One does - http://www.myoliveone.com/Ones/tech_specs

 

My mistake. The older product line that my O4HD and O2 belongs to doesn't support ALAC. It looks like the new product line supports it across the board..

 

Did anybody ever buy one of these?

I have one sitting in an online shopping cart and am considering...

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

Final bump from me.

I'm still eyeing this in my shopping cart...

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

There was a thread on AudioGon a few weeks ago titled "Olive sucks" or something like that. A bunch of members chimed in with agreement. A few defending the products. I think it was deleted as it was so negative to the company.

 

Yikes! Thanks for letting me know!

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

I have one. I was part of the Indiegogo program. At first it really sucked. We were truly given a beta product. And we were even promised a free 1tb drive if enough people contributed, but that was later taken away. Anyway, I have to admit that they have constantly been upgrading the software and it is much better. I don't use the internal DAC but feed the digital signal to my preamp. It sounds good and I can remotely control it through my phone. I probably wouldn't buy it again especially at the $599 price. Even at $399, I would still debate. It does play the new hi-res tracks very well. So that is one reason to get one. I will keep it for now as I haven't had time to investigate the alternative.

Any specific questions?