Message from Olive Media: UK introduction of Olive 4HD

[Anonymous]

I was at Bristol on friday and was keen to see and touch the new olive hi-fi server, I predicted that even if it was on active demonstration it would simply be the wrong environment to judge its sound and this was the case. they had it running off a very small tube amp which looked as if it would be more at home suppying a pair of headphones. the guy I talked to about finding a distibuter said there would be an announcement in 8-10 days. He also compared the sound quality to somewhere between a £1500 and £5000 cd player subjectively speaking. I questioned him about what hi-fis comments comparing it to a marantz cd6003 (£300) he looked perplexed and seemed to think this was a mistake. I remain intrigued and can't wait to demo it with my own music and my own ears.

I am in the market for this sort of thing as a second source component. I don't see a computer as a viable alternative, they are power hungry, noisy and built for multi-tasking. ultimately I wouldn't want one on all the time in case I wanted to play something and they take an age to boot up. I own a Naim cdx2 which is nice for listening sessions but the server is great for choosing something quickly and at random to play before I go out for instance. you can just press stop rather than having to find the jewel case and mess around with pucks. It would be a shame if the price has crept up as it may push it out of my budget even though it's ideal.

 

[Anonymous]

matengawhat:but its also like comparing apples with oranges

And Olives? Making me hungry......

 

[daveg56]

Just seen on the Olive Hifi web site news of the UK distributor:

Olive in United Kingdom

Olive is distributed in United Kingdom through Henley Designs Ltd, who is building up network of qualified resellers for you. Please feel free to call the friendly and knowledgeable product professionals at +44 (0) 1235 511166 to get more information about our products, availability in your area, or if you are interested in becoming an Olive certified reseller.

[*]
Address at United Kingdom
[*]Henley Designs Ltd
[*]Unit 11 Moorbrook
[*]Southmead Industrial Park
[*]Didcot
[*]Oxon
[*]OX11 7HP[/list]
http://www.henleydesigns.co.uk/portal.asp[/list]

 

[Andrew Everard]

Good spot, daveg56 - AFAIK neither Olive nor Henley had let us know about this, or we would have passed the info on...

 

[matengawhat]

that's good news! - will keep my eyes out for them coming to local shop soon for a demo!

 

[The_Lhc]

That's encouraging, I've always been impressed with Henley, as long as it doesn't affect their turntable business, but there's no reason why it should.

 

[basshound]

the_lhc:That's encouraging, I've always been impressed with Henley

I would second that,I had dealings with them regarding a faulty Roksan amp and found them excellent,think the Olive is in safe hands.

 

[Henley]

For the record;

Yes we are going to be distributing Olive. I hinted to the WHF team the other day but have not had time to make it official.

No, it won't affect our analog business. We also sell CD players in harmony with record players.

Olive 4HD will sell for £2200 and the Olive 2 for £700.

Stocks are built built as we speak, we expect to be able to ship to dealers in around 3 weeks.

We are in the process of establishing a dealer network. However, as our agreement is only a couple of days old, it will be some time before a comprehensive coverage of dealers is established. Considering we have over 500 dealers in total, only a select few of them will be handling Olive.

In the meantime we are happy to discuss requirements and will help as much as possible. But please bear with us as our staff are currently going through a learning process.

 

[matengawhat]

excellent been waiting for news and having bought numerous stuff you ship roksan, project, fatman ect - looking forward to the dealer list!

i'm guessing from pricing you're only going to stock the 2tb model and none of the other hd sizes???

 

[Henley]

Thanks to all for your positive comments. For the meantime, the only product that will be ongoing (internationally) is the 2tB version. This is part of a longer term product plan which will become clear as time evolves.

 

[daveg56]

Thanks Henley, superb news. Time to plan the purchase now...

 

[jaxwired]

OK, I officially reverse my opinion on this product. I really like that you can output the display to a TV and navigate from across the room. And HD ready is also a big plus. It's still hard to invest this much money in something that changes so much every year. No doubt next year there will be even more amazing streaming/music server offerings. But, with that said, this might just be something I want to try.

The one year warranty is lame though. For something that costs this much, I would think 3 year warranty would be minimum.

 

[jaxwired]

Having just read several mag reviews and all the product info on the olive web site, I was feeling the itch to order one. But then I read the owner comments on amazon.com (link below). They are a bit disturbing. As a 20 year veteran of software development, I know how hard it is to make an interface intuitive and smart. I also know the massive commitment to quality that must be adopted (but rarely is) to move a software product from a buggy V1 to a mature and rock solid V2 or V3. It's a huge effort and management must commit serious resources and time to the effort.

http://www.amazon.com/Olive-Provides-collection-wirelessly-simultaneously/dp/B001LKOQ4Y

 

[matengawhat]

i stumbled across that before - those reviews aren't for the 4hd but an older model - also one which is dated as 2010 when you read it tefers to a machine bought 3 years ago, sure a lot has changed and amazon need to update those or delete as not relevant

the new product hopefully will have ironed out some of those issues now - hands on audition will tell

 

[jaxwired]

Ok, good point. I was aware it wasn't the 4HD, but those reviews are still a bit of a red flag. I'm a little turned off. Are you going to buy one? If so, I'm interested to hear how it goes for you...

 

[matengawhat]

i'm keen but would love one for a long home demo - i really need to know how user friendly they are for ripping cds to - getting album art work and just how they operate in every day use

 

[PopularPete]

|( The Olive03HD is utter GUSSETT. I have repeatedly contacted Olive by email and the service is garbage. The product works well for a year and then just stops. AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID.