[kbuzz3]

The death of my transport last weekend, along with the annoyance of cds all over my listening room has pushed me into taking a stab at cpu based audio.  I run a PC> itunes>wired mhdt paradisea +USB>dussun DS99> vintage LS35 system at work, which is totally absent from digititius and allows me to listen for fatigue free hours at a time. This is in contrast to my home system so bottom line is that I some early positive "feelings" towards cpu based systems anyway.

The home system in question is a modded meitner bitstream>Joule electra pre>RWA amp>Omega super narrow hemps<TBI sub. I have not heard a lot of dacs recently but do like the meitner so would probably keep it. The MHDT is really good and would like to eventually test the meitner again against the current markeplace. I totally favor a warmer sound with no treble stridency.

So with a budget of no greater then $2K -would you go with a Bolder modded SB3 or an olive? Im attracted to the olive due to its obvious one box efficency and potential RWA mod down the road-particularly if/when i move to larger digs and have more room to play with the system.  So at about $1200 i would be done temporarily until i choose to mod or sell.
Im however, a bit concerned with the interface, and neccessity to get a pda/nokia for decent remote access. I am also hesitant about having to get on the web each time i used my audio system. Heck I live in nyc and TWC is just not that reliable for web access.

Recently I have been reading alot of posting on the SB-which seems to be very well regarded.  The interface seems superior and display may even allow be to see from the couch which i dont think could be done on the olive without a pda.  I also have various hard drives with music-in mixed formats (flac, WAV)so i think that would give the edge to the slim server.  Obvious downsides would be the additional cost of a server (either music vault or dedicated PC) plus the SB and mods -making the project closer to the 2K mark.

Finally, I have an eye in the future on a modwright transporter, so the SB maybe a good first step as I at least will have a server up and running. In contrast, Flip the thought of a future all battery powered RWA system also has appeal.

So any thoughts, advise, or comments would be appreciated. Much obilged

[Jampot]

I use Squeeze Boxes but bought a dead Olive to play with. (It needed a fuse - those are the kind of bargains I like )

'Best' thing in the Olives favour is that as player it can stand alone. It will play cds as well as rip them and only needs access to the internet to get tagging info when ripping. The rest of the time (unless you want internet radio) it is independant. The stock hard drives aren't very large but can be supplemented with an external device. The display is small, but the jog wheel is easy to use and if you control it tha way you are standing at the player anyway. The drive is actually a pc-cd rom so it's a cinch to burn compilations from your library. If you already have music ripped in anything other than flac or wav you will need to re-rip or convert it before you can play it on the Olive.

The box actually is a fully fledged wireless router, so even if you don't have networking in your home now, you can create one with only the addition of an internet modem. I believe remote players are available (SQ unknown - at least to me) so that in a larger home you can have tunes in the kitchen / garage / bedroom.

Which is the main reason I will be sticking to the squeezebox. I have one (Bolder) modded in my main system, another with digital mods only playing via a nos dac in a second system, and fully expect to add at least one (stock) in the future. The beauty is that they can either play exactly the same (and precisely in synch.) or completely different music at the same time.

I think Vinni's mods must make the Olive pretty special - he is on record as preferring it to his iMod for instance, and I have one of those so I have a feel for the SQ. You already know how well thought of Wayne's mods to the Squeezebox are.

I think it come's down to whether you want music without computing - if the pc is 'always on' in the house and you already have networking the squeezebox is a no brainer - IMHO. If not the 'dedcated server' you refer to need only be an old box or laptop with a nice big hard drive hanging from it. It doesn't need a lot of computing resources to run slimserver.

If you have noisy AC and feel you benefit from the RWA battery ethos then I could quite easily argue in favour of the olive for that reason also (and I have both Clari-T and RWA Teac and love the silent background).

Off topic - I just ordered stuff to refurbish an old pair of JR149s - looking forward to joining you in that old Jim Rogers sound

Jim

[reddmadder]

Hi,
 I'm using the Olive w/ the RWA mods plus the 24 external battery...sounds excellent.
  I think using the 24 battery provides another step up in the performance of the player.
    R.

[bpape]

I have Wayne's Statement Mod SB3 and his PS.  I absolutely love the sound.  I've not heard the RWA Olive so I can't speak to that in terms of sonics. 

I will say that I personally prefer to have my music NOT on the device itself.  I run a separate server and can add storage capacity as I need to.  To me, that's the one big drawback with a 1 box solution.  When the disk is full, how do you add more?  I currently run 4 500GB hard disks in a RAID 5 configuration that gives me 1.5TB of fast, fully redundant storage.  If I lose a disk, no biggie.  Shut it down, replace the disk, start it up and give it an hour to rebuild itself and I'm back in business.  If I need to add more, shut it down, add a disk, start it up, and give it an hour.  What happens when you lose the drive on the Olive?  Unless you have an external backup of everything, you have to rerip it all - so you still need the external storage.

The other thing is that if I decide to go another route later on (not planning on it), I can change to the SB9 or whatever is out at that point and still use all my storage with no hassles.  Lastly, it offers me the option to stick in a thumb drive or portable hard disk and copy what I want to it and take it to someone elses house with a SB or other FLAC enabled playback device/storage system.

Just my 2 cents from a non-audio related perspective.

Bryan

[Double Ugly]

I will say that I personally prefer to have my music NOT on the device itself.

Same here.

[maxwalrath]

I will say that I personally prefer to have my music NOT on the device itself.  I run a separate server and can add storage capacity as I need to.  To me, that's the one big drawback with a 1 box solution.  When the disk is full, how do you add more? 

When the Olives are full, an external hard drive can be connected.

[reddmadder]

You can also access your i-tunes library. (no hard wire connection needed)

[bpape]

I will say that I personally prefer to have my music NOT on the device itself.  I run a separate server and can add storage capacity as I need to.  To me, that's the one big drawback with a 1 box solution.  When the disk is full, how do you add more? 

When the Olives are full, an external hard drive can be connected.

Yes.  1 External hard drive can be connected.  What if you need more?

Bryan

[Vinnie R.]

I will say that I personally prefer to have my music NOT on the device itself.  I run a separate server and can add storage capacity as I need to.  To me, that's the one big drawback with a 1 box solution.  When the disk is full, how do you add more? 

When the Olives are full, an external hard drive can be connected.

Yes.  1 External hard drive can be connected.  What if you need more?

Bryan

There are 2 USB ports on the back of the Olive.... two external hard drives can be connected. 

[Kurt]

Hi,

I have two (main and bedroom) SB Transporters and an SB3 in the shop. Fed from a 2TB ReadyNAS NV+ which hosts Squeezebox server to stream directly from the NAS. I am very happy with the results! I use dbPoweramp to rip to FLAC.

Anyway if you are in the market I wanted to point you back to the Squeezebox website (no connection) because they have a new product similar to SB3 but now interface display is on the remote which has a 2" lcd and the controls look very similar to an iPod.

I would like to find out if I can integrate the new remote to my tranporters etc. They are often playing in synchronized mode anyway.

[bpape]

I will say that I personally prefer to have my music NOT on the device itself.  I run a separate server and can add storage capacity as I need to.  To me, that's the one big drawback with a 1 box solution.  When the disk is full, how do you add more? 

When the Olives are full, an external hard drive can be connected.

Yes.  1 External hard drive can be connected.  What if you need more?

Bryan

There are 2 USB ports on the back of the Olive.... two external hard drives can be connected. 

OK.  2.  My mistake.  The point still stands that you still need a backup of this as I'm pretty sure those 3 drives aren't set up in any kind of redundancy.  I'm also quite sure that adding internal drives is considerably cheaper than adding external ones though the prices are coming down these days.

On the other hand, if you don't want to leave a PC on all the time (which is actually better for them) then a stand alone solution may be preferable.  I have 5 PCs in my house and none of them ever go off except when we're having heavy storms or other power issues so for me, that's a non-issue.

Not trying to cause a rift.  I was merely trying to point out some of the other factors to be considered when making a decision between the 2 systems - audio quality aside.

Bryan

[kbuzz3]

Hi,
Anyway if you are in the market I wanted to point you back to the Squeezebox website (no connection) because they have a new product similar to SB3 but now interface display in on the remote which has a 2" lcd and it looks like controls very similar to an iPod.

I want to thank everyone for such detailed and well thought out responses. This thread even a few hours old has exceeded my expectations re opinion and info.  This really shows why i think AC has been consistently a great forum, with solid opinions and minimal flames. THANKS ALL, even if the info on both sides was so good im still on the fence

As for the above, that is the new SB Duet. I think if wayne/Bolder or someone else believes it is worth modding, it would be the one to choose. This is becase the remote and interface issue would be solved in one swoop.  Particularly, if SB sites forum's are correct and the hand held will work with other existing SB's and transporters "to be bought later." 

Well im going to chew it over for a few days. Maybe i should drop bolder a note to see if he's going to conisder modding the duet.  i have to email him about something else anyway....

thanks again. Glad to be an active audiophile again. 

[Kurt]

Particularly, if SB sites forum's are correct and the hand held will work with other existing SB's and transporters "to be bought later." 

This will save me a research trip too so thanks as well. That remote would be especially handy when I am in bed with my contacts out! I have a modded Jolida 801 pushing Merlin TSM's in my bedroom that I think we listen to more than my main system.

Which brings me to another thing to mention about my setup. The NAS server can't server up the HTML for building playlist too quickly. Kind of painfully slow actually. One drawback with my setup.

Now that I think more about this I still have some reading to do about how data flows with the remote...