Group Buy for OLIVE Media players for VMPS'ers

John Casler · « **Reply #40 on:** 27 Jun 2006, 06:20 am »

Quote from: DavidDG on 26 Jun 2006, 11:14 pm

Hi John,

Any updates on when the Musica's will ship?

Regards,

David Graham

Hi David,

As it turns out, OLIVE said they had the units, they were waiting for the 250g Hard Drives, which were supposed to arrive last week, but did not.

I called today to get status, but Matthew wasn't available. Should get more definitive info tomorrow.

Dracule1 · « **Reply #41 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 05:17 am »

Hi John,

Looks like I missed this thread. Only recently found out about the Olive. Is there still a chance of me getting in on the Opus/Musica group buy? Please email me with the details. Thanks.

John Casler · « **Reply #42 on:** 29 Jun 2006, 07:19 am »

Quote from: Dracule1 on 28 Jun 2006, 05:17 am

Hi John,

Looks like I missed this thread. Only recently found out about the Olive. Is there still a chance of me getting in on the Opus/Musica group buy? Please email me with the details. Thanks.

You have a PM (I don't have your e-mail

)

John Casler · « **Reply #43 on:** 29 Jun 2006, 07:23 am »

Good News First:

I was notified today that OPUS should ship the end of this week.

Bad news is the 250G drives had another delay and it looks like at least another week to 10 days yet.

Sorry!! It seems like some type of "inspection delay" of the cargo ahead of the drives.

DavidDG · « **Reply #44 on:** 8 Jul 2006, 03:58 am »

John, Any updates?

Thanks,

David Graham

John Casler · « **Reply #45 on:** 9 Jul 2006, 03:52 pm »

Quote from: DavidDG on 8 Jul 2006, 03:58 am

John, Any updates?

Thanks,

David Graham

As of last week, the OPUS is shipping (they are going through back orders), and they are still waiting for HD's (which may have come in Friday) for the Musicas

John Casler · « **Reply #46 on:** 10 Jul 2006, 08:46 pm »

To all those patiently waiting for their OLIVES, as above, I have been told the MUSICA's will be shipping today or tomorrow.

Turns out they were a little incorrect about the 500G OPUS shipping last week, it was the 400G, backorders.

I should get a shipping idea of the 500G OPUS tomorrow (which is the one I am waiting for too)

Berndt · « **Reply #47 on:** 11 Jul 2006, 03:11 pm »

John, I went to Olive last night and got my musica.
It sounds nicer than I expected it too. It is a great toy and I am having a blast loading cds into it.
Justa FYI, the antenna is fragile! I was leaning over the box hooking the interconnects and it snapped off when I leaned on it.

John Casler · « **Reply #48 on:** 11 Jul 2006, 04:08 pm »

Quote from: Berndt on 11 Jul 2006, 03:11 pm

John, I went to Olive last night and got my musica.
It sounds nicer than I expected it too. It is a great toy and I am having a blast loading cds into it.
Justa FYI, the antenna is fragile! I was leaning over the box hooking the interconnects and it snapped off when I leaned on it.

Hi Bill,

That is great news! Let's see what it sounds like with a few miles on it.

Sorry to hear the antenna didn't make it off the beach.

ehart · « **Reply #49 on:** 13 Jul 2006, 02:59 am »

Just thought I would let everyone know that I received my unit (Musica) today. DHL ground. So your patience will be rewarded. I haven't had a chance to listen yet....

John Casler · « **Reply #50 on:** 13 Jul 2006, 03:45 am »

Quote from: ehart on 13 Jul 2006, 02:59 am

Just thought I would let everyone know that I received my unit (Musica) today. DHL ground. So your patience will be rewarded. I haven't had a chance to listen yet....

More great news

Doesn't look like OLIVE will be getting me tracking numbers although they said they would try.

I would expect everyone to be getting the "MUSICA's" within the next 5-7 days.

500G OPUS orders have not shipped yet. They did ship some of the older 400G orders last week, but none of the group was for that size HD.

Looking forward to hearing how they sound in all the different systems and rooms.

Let us know when yours shows and any impressions.

I'm "pumped"

DavidDG · « **Reply #51 on:** 14 Jul 2006, 06:03 am »

Hi John,

I got my Musica yesterday

.

Thanks much for offering the group buy.

David Graham

ehart · « **Reply #52 on:** 16 Jul 2006, 04:41 am »

Well, I've been ripping music onto this unit (Musica) for the last few days, and am very pleased. It's exactly what I wanted -- a drop-in replacement for a CD player that does oh-so-much more. Dead easy to use. To play a CD -- insert it, and press the big play button (you can even set it to automatically play when inserted). To rip a CD -- insert it, press the big record button. This is very important to me -- my wife has to be able to use this thing.

The freedb database is the thing I am most amazed with. Every one of the 30+ CDs I've inserted so far has been recognized. Ever heard of the African band "Tarika" on the "Xenophile" label, and their album called "D"? freedb has. How about various free "sampler" CDs from obscure record labels, with various artists? Yep.

Of course I can think of various improvements I'd like to see. I'd love to see Olive start Forums of their own for posting this sort of thing.

-- Eric

Homefuture · « **Reply #53 on:** 16 Jul 2006, 08:04 am »

Hi John,
I just found out this. Will that be a chance for me to join the group buy? Please let me know the details if there still a chance. thanks

BarrelChief · « **Reply #54 on:** 16 Jul 2006, 02:24 pm »

Ehart:

I am one of the folks that is anxiously waiting for the Opus that I ordered as part of this group purchase.

I intend to load all of my cd's into the Opus's hard drive before I start tinkering w/play lists, compilations etc.

I have approximately 700 cd's. I forsee that this can be a very tedious, time consuming project.

On average, how does it take your unit to copy a cd on to the hard drive?

Thanks

John Casler · « **Reply #55 on:** 16 Jul 2006, 05:42 pm »

Quote from: Homefuture on 16 Jul 2006, 08:04 am

Hi John,
I just found out this. Will that be a chance for me to join the group buy? Please let me know the details if there still a chance. thanks

Homefuture,

I'll PM you as to what I can do for you.

John Casler · « **Reply #56 on:** 16 Jul 2006, 06:13 pm »

I'd like to hear what the "internet radio" system sounds like?

If any of you get a chance to take a listen.

John Casler · « **Reply #57 on:** 16 Jul 2006, 06:16 pm »

Oh and my friend and fellow VMPS dealer, Wayne at BOLDER has an excellent Mod package for the MUSICA, which has been reported as an excellent sounding package.

He now has the details listed on his site:

http://www.boldercables.com/servlet/Detail?no=380

ehart · « **Reply #58 on:** 16 Jul 2006, 09:06 pm »

Hi Barrel,

I suggest you take a look at the manual while you are waiting. Oddly, they don't include a printed manual (at least, not with the Musica), so you may want to print it out now (about 50 pages). Go to olive.us and click on "care" link and drill down from there (let me know if you can't find it).

The "import" process happens in two steps (this is explained in the manual). The first step is to read the CD and write an uncompressed copy to disk. The second step is to "encode" that copy (if you've chosen to do so -- I'm using FLAC compression). It's all pretty clear, but it took me awhile to understand the difference, and to be able to tell from the display where in the process the unit is (and whether it's OK to move to the next CD). It turns out you can swap CDs as soon as the first part of the process (the "import" process) is done. This takes about 10 minutes. The encoding takes longer, maybe 30 minutes per CD for FLAC. You can, however, feed CDs to the unit pretty much as fast as it can import them -- it queues the images for encoding, so it will just keep working on those until it is done.

You can listen to the CDs you are importing during the import process with some limitations. As far as I can tell, you can't be importing one CD and listening to another. Also, if you are compressing/encoding your CDs, that process is pretty processor-intensive, and causes occassional "skips" (maybe every 10 minutes or so) in your playback if encoding is going on while you are listening. So this is not "critical listening".

You choose some settings upfront -- whether to play CDs while they are importing, what encoding you want to use if any, and whether you want to automatically start import on CD insertion.

It couldn't be easier to use. To import, just stick in the disk. Press one button (if you haven't set to automatically import on insertion). That's it. If you've set to play while importing, you hear the CD as well.

John,

I've played with the radio stations. They are all Shoutcast. Sound is good provided you choose the higher-quality streams. This is easy to do, as they are sorted by genre and then stream speed. I find the lack of DJs a little disorienting. At least the stations I've tried so far are just straight music with no one talking about what you're hearing. But there may be more conventional radio stations in the mix too.

There was nothing to getting the radio stuff setup. The unit discovered my existing wireless network, connected easily, and just worked. I'll switch to a wired connection if I hear any artifacts. I think the only potential hangup would be getting the network working, but they make it as easy as possible.

Cordially,

Eric

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #59 on:** 17 Jul 2006, 01:45 pm »

Thank You John !!

Olive Musica just arrived in fine shape....(thanks DHL)

I'll set it up tonite,and check out the instructions......gotta make some room here.

Chris