Help! Olive Symphony and FLAC files

Gordy · « **Reply #20 on:** 10 Sep 2006, 03:10 am »

Hi Tony,

Hifidelio is the German manufacturer and the name the units are sold under everywhere except here in the states.... http://www.hifidelio.net/

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #21 on:** 10 Sep 2006, 01:22 pm »

Quote from: jackthecat on 10 Sep 2006, 02:43 am

Hi Vinnie
More Olive questions
Can you explain why youre not doing any mods with the Opus? ...only the musica and symphony ?
And would you know if the olive brand is sold under some other name outside the US? I saw something looking very similar here in NZ but with a different brand name.
Thanks for your time.
Tony

Hi Tony,

Gordy is right on about Hifidelio....they made the same units (except for the Opus, which is only made by Olive). Olive units are sold in North America.

Regarding the Opus, I am not offering mods for it because is essentially a modded Symphony/Musica (modded with a Resolution Audio dac board and power supply) with a larger hard drive and new enclosure. I convert to all battery power and have no interest in the Opus power supply, and I would convert the analog output stage back to that of the Symphony/Musica and then mod it my way (as detailed on my website), so the Resolution Audio dac would be wasted.
As for the larger hard drive, you can use an external USB drive and get more storage for the money this way. IMHO, it is a much better value to get a RWA modded Symphony or Musica.

Best regards,

Vinnie

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #22 on:** 10 Sep 2006, 01:30 pm »

Vinnie :

Quote

As for the larger hard drive, you can use an external USB drive and get more storage for the money this way.

Hey Vinnie....Any that you might suggest that match up well with the Olive ? Thanks...
Chris

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #23 on:** 10 Sep 2006, 01:45 pm »

Hi Chris,

So far I have only used a Seagate 300GB and Seagate 160GB external USB drives.

They seem to work great....very quiet and plug-n-play. I bought mine at Best Buy, but I'm sure you can find an even better deal online if you hunt for one.

Best regards,

Vinnie

ZLS · « **Reply #24 on:** 10 Sep 2006, 01:49 pm »

   I can shortstop this question. I have a RWA modified Olive Musica (160 GB Memory) and also a Seagate outboard HD,( 160 GB) that get this, has been modified by Vinnie to run on battery power. Therefore, I have 320 GB's of memory without paying through the nose to Olive.
   I f you have any questions you can PM me.

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #25 on:** 10 Sep 2006, 01:50 pm »

Thank you Vinnie and ZLS....have a great day.....

jackthecat · « **Reply #26 on:** 10 Sep 2006, 11:43 pm »

And thats a thanks from me too guys!

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #27 on:** 11 Sep 2006, 11:30 pm »

Guys,

Glad to help and if I learn of any new "tricks" with the Olive I'll be sure to post them.

Also, Larry Borden of www.dagogo.com will have his review of the RWA modded Musica posted in the next issue. He is mainly using it as an all-battery powered transport into his external dac. He also has a stock unit that he will be comparing them. Should be interesting...

And Sandy Greene of Dagogo is up next to do a review of a RWA modded Olive Symphony + Signature 30 + Omega Max Hemp combo!

-Vinnie

bgavinski · « **Reply #28 on:** 19 Sep 2006, 04:30 am »

Quote from: Vinnie R. on 10 Sep 2006, 01:45 pm

Hi Chris,

So far I have only used a Seagate 300GB and Seagate 160GB external USB drives.

They seem to work great....very quiet and plug-n-play. I bought mine at Best Buy, but I'm sure you can find an even better deal online if you hunt for one.

Best regards,

Vinnie

Vinnie,

Just setting up my newly arrived Olive (and Sig 30!) and I notice this in the Olive manual FAQ:

"Can I connect any external hard disk to my music center?

Only Oliveʼs music center Backup Hard Disk can be connected. This allows
easy backup and restore of the contents of the music center (See section 3.7
«Backup your music collection» on page 22)."

How did you manage to connect the Seagate directly to the Olive? Can it be done?

BG

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #29 on:** 19 Sep 2006, 12:09 pm »

Hi BG,

Welcome to audiocircle and the RWA forum!

That Olive Manual is quite outdated and they really need to update it.

The latest software is version 2.2.2 PRO. This allows for the connection of an external USB hard drive.

If you network your Olive to your wifi, you can get the software update through the Olive. Or, you can download it from their website and burn it as a "CD Image File" onto a CD-R and then install it to the Olive.

Best regards,

Vinnie

studley · « **Reply #30 on:** 19 Jan 2007, 11:18 pm »

I'm thinking of buying a RWA Symphony (Hi Vinnie

) but I have a question about hard drives/ FLAC etc.

I currently have an apple ibook with plenty of music files on an external HDD in apple lossless. If I get the Olive I will want to hook up the HDD to it. However I know the Olive will not play apple lossless and so I need to convert the files into FLAC (which I want to use instead). As a first step I could (I think?) use itunes to convert the files into full wav files. However, how do I convert the wav files into FLAC files that the Olive will play? Am I right in thinking the Olive can't do this, and if that's right can anybody see a solution?

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #31 on:** 20 Jan 2007, 01:37 am »

hi Studley,

Quote

Quote
As a first step I could (I think?) use itunes to convert the files into full wav files. However, how do I convert the wav files into FLAC files that the Olive will play?

The Olive can play the WAV files, so you don't need to convert to FLAC. If you use an external hard drive (make sure it is formatted for FAT32), you can transfer WAV files onto the Olive's hard drive (and vice versa), or just play off of the external hard drive.

You are correct.. the Olive does not support Apple Lossless (ALAC), but it supports just about everything else

Best regards,

Vinnie

studley · « **Reply #32 on:** 20 Jan 2007, 10:21 am »

Vinnie

That's OK but I'd rather convert the files into FLAC to reduce storage.

I do have have access to a laptop running Windows. If I download FLAC to it and hook up the HDD with the wav files, could i convert the files to FLAC using the laptop?

KRs

Ian

ehart · « **Reply #33 on:** 21 Jan 2007, 12:24 am »

I have not done this, but I believe it's possible. Assume you figure out a way to convert from WAV to FLAC Here are some pointers and thoughts on how to read and write the OLIVE external disks:

1. The Olive runs a version of LINUX. Windows cannot read LINUX disk drives natively.

2. There are different versions of disk formats used by different flavors of LINUX. I would suggest a call or email to Olive (they usually take a week or so to answer, so be patient) to ask what disk format they use and what flavor or LINUX they run.

3. Once you know the disk format, just google a utility to allow you to read it from within Windows. Here are some examples (that may or may not be for the format actually used by the Olive; they would probably work, actually): http://www.fs-driver.org/, http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs.

There may be another option. If you have a network, the Olive exposes an "IMPORT" directory over the network. You can copy files into that directory and then import them on the Olive. I'm not sure the format accepted in that directory (it may be .WAV, actually -- whatever the "native" format of the CD is). The Olive might do the FLAC conversion on those imported files (or it might only allow cataloging them, I'm not positive). Again, an email to Olive is the best way to find out more about this (or perhaps others can fill us in).

Cordially,

Eric

p.s. Let us know what you discover.

studley · « **Reply #34 on:** 21 Jan 2007, 11:41 am »

Eric
thanks for that and I will certainly post any useful guidance I discover.

Rgds
Ian

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #35 on:** 21 Jan 2007, 03:51 pm »

Quote from: studley on 20 Jan 2007, 10:21 am

Vinnie

That's OK but I'd rather convert the files into FLAC to reduce storage.

I do have have access to a laptop running Windows. If I download FLAC to it and hook up the HDD with the wav files, could i convert the files to FLAC using the laptop?

KRs

Ian

Hi Ian,

Yes, with FLAC software you can convert WAV to FLAC. See: http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

Before you convert them all, try one or two albums and make sure that the Olive properly recognizes them. When you use the Olive to make FLAC files, look at how the Olive add the "tag info" to the files. You want to mimic this when you convert the WAV to FLAC (so the Olive can read them properly).

The external hard drive needs to be formatted in FAT32 to be able to work with the Olive.

When you plug it into the Olive, it will take 5 to 10 seconds for the Olive to see it. In the Olive's Menu, it will say "USB." You will then step into this directory and see all your artists, albums, songs, etc. just like you navigate for the Olive's internal hard drive.

Best regards,

Vinnie

ehart · « **Reply #36 on:** 21 Jan 2007, 04:15 pm »

Vinnie is right as usual. Just reading up on the Olive specs, and it reads a variety of disk formats. It *doesn't* read NTFS, which is the default for newer Windows operating systems, but it does read the older Windows standards, including FAT-32. So as Vinnie says, just make sure you don't allow Windows to format the external disk drive as NTFS and you should be set.

studley · « **Reply #37 on:** 21 Jan 2007, 04:21 pm »

great guys, sounds like a plan!

Rgds
Ian

Verne M. · « **Reply #38 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 05:42 pm »

I've started experimenting with FLAC files. I'm on Mac, and I found a program called "Max" to rip and convert, and a program called "Cog" to play the FLAC files. Both are freeware.

I wanted to test audio quality of FLAC and Apple Lossless. I listened to "More Than This" by Roxy Music. The Apple codec seemed a shade more clear, FLAC a little more smooth. I don't know if I'm imagining things or not, because both seemed to have different encode levels - Apple's was a little hotter - so I didn't have identical A-B levels. As far as I could tell on my headphones they sounded really close otherwise.

I wonder if anyone else has A-B FLAC and Apple Lossless. Curious as to what people have found.

Verne

ehart · « **Reply #39 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 11:45 pm »

I have not done a comparison. In principle, they should be identical (they are both "lossless"). Any differences would have to do with the efficiency of the decoder on each format, associated equipment, volume levels, and the like. So there could certainly be differences, but I would expect them to depend on your particular hardware/software, not on the format generally.