Comments on the Olive Opus CD Player

Based on my research so far, I am going to keep my MCD205 CD Player and forget the Olive Opus or the McIntosh MS300 Music Server. The music server concept is very interesting but I have too many technical issues connecting a music server to my Router that I do not want to deal with. I am not convinced that the extra money spent for either unit is worth it. Playing one CD at a time works for me and my McIntosh MCD205 sounds great. Thanks again for all your help.

Hgefiman,

Isn't the MCD205 a 5 disc changer? If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's a great sounding machine, you won't do better in terms of sound quality.

I wanted to be sure you understand that the Olive units do not *require* a network connection. One of the beauties of these units is that they can be used as a drop-in CD player replacement. You can play CDs, rip CD's to the hard drive, and burn CDs, all without an Internet connection. Once ripped to the hard drive, you can use the front panel to find music by genre, by artist name, etc. Likewise, the built-in CD database will recognize most CDs and display album and song titles, without an internet connection. So basically a digital CD jukebox that holds hundreds of CDs in "lossless" format, plays individual CDs, and burns CDs. Again, no Internet connection required for any of that.

If you use the network connection, you get these additional benefits (again, totally optional -- I myself only currently use the CD update out of all these features):
- Updates to the CD database
- Ability to play certain Internet "radio stations"
- Ability to retrieve music off other computers from your network
- Ability to "serve up" music to other computers on your network
- Ability to do certain administration tasks via a web browser

So you get additional capabilities with a network connection, but the base functionality is all there without it.

Cordially,

Eric

Eric- Nice to read some feedback on the Olive. The two things that concern me about their units are the small
display and lack of outputs/inputs for an external display,
keyboard and mouse. I've read that they're working a a PDA
style remote.

Hi Kana813,

The Olive is explicitly aimed at people who want a drop-in replacement for a CD player, and do not have room or want "computer-style" hookups for their CD player. Given that fact, the display is as tall as it can be (as tall as the component).

For the person who can tolerate a monitor and keyboard as part of their rack, there are other good options, such as a Mac Mini. This is really a different audience.

More important for me than the remote you mentioned will be an enhancement to the web browser interface. This cannot currently be used to play music. When it can, I will not require a remote -- I will use a remote computer to select music. Really a better solution than having a keyboard and monitor attached directly to the unit. This feature is supposedly "on the list", but there's no date set.

Cordially,

Eric

New Olive users group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Olive-Media/?yguid=215291007