Todd how are the WFS Dac and Olive sounding , I am about to pull the trigger on both myself. Is the Dac in the olive as good alone or are you playing it thru the WFS Dac.
Nice picture by the way! thanks for your input.
Hey Repman,
The combo (W4S+Olive) is sounding really very, very good and seems to be getting better every day. A lot of things changed sound-wise here when I installed the W4S and then (of course) CLXs. Most of the perceived brightness in this room is now gone (thank god). There's more "there" there (to use an overused not very clever play on words). I did compare the Olive analog outs to the W4S and it took all of one listening session to gleefully choose to keep the W4S DAC in the loop on a long-term basis. Much tighter, far better control, more coherent. In fact, I'll be honest, I'm not sure I really ever was able to truly hear "coherency" or the lack thereof before. I've read it a million times, I know what the dictionary says about it, I imagined I thought I knew what it should be in terms of audio, and even offhandedly used the term myself... but honestly, humbly, never really think I new what "coherency" actually sounded like... UNTIL I installed the W4S DAC2 (prior to the CLX arrival). Now I think I know what coherency really is. It is an alignment from top to bottom of the musical presentation... it is a more focused image... it is MUSIC. My system has never been this musical. Now add the CLX to the mix... really hard to describe how "right" this system sounds now. Inadvertently or not, I believe I've clumsily stumbled into a wonderfully complimentary collection of components. (say that 50 times fast).
Bottom line, I wholeheartedly recommend the W4S with zero reservations. I like everything about it, very much indeed! Now... about the Olive... With the iPhone app it is an absolute dream to operate. Imagine instantly accessing any of thousands of discs, tens of thousands of songs right at your finger tips... ready to go - and not having to dick around with a computer or laptop for song selection, radio station, playlist, etc. (it's almost too good... I find myself occasionally selecting a tune and then not giving it a chance to play before selecting something else. Not something I would have done using physical discs, unless a mistake was made, etc). However, there are certain things about the Olive that I'm less than thrilled about... I think full disclosure is only right here if you plan to pull the trigger. So let me briefly list the pros and cons as I see them and don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or would like further elaboration.
Pros:
Solid Chassis (if almost non-existent feet… though a non-issue for me as I use cones)
Nice back-panel I/O compliment
Nice aesthetics IMO
Sound (via the W4S) à glorious
Wireless function came right up and ran with no setup and no hassles
Internet Radio - works great
Easy HDD backup (although quite manual… would have preferred an auto-backup option via wireless)
General ease of use and responsiveness (via iPhone) is excellent.
HDMI out for monitor option - useful for reading front-panel display at a distance.
CD ripping time… 5 to 7 minutes depending on the CD (not super fast, but OK)
CD reading accuracy… Of over 700+ discs I’ve ripped so far, only one could not be read.
Olive HQ has been fairly easy to reach on the two occasions I called them
Neutral:
Serviceable touchscreen - takes some getting used to (which is why I just use my iPhone)
CD insertion… you need to feed the CD into the slot almost 90% of the way before the mechanism grabs … for the money spent, it seems like they could have crafted a much more elegant transport mechanism.
General ease of control via Olive front-panel of remote is functional but a bit tedious
Olive 4 front-panel screen is not readable (to my eyes) from the listening chair. See HDMI above.
Takes a few minutes for the Olive to wake-up when first turned on… boot time is boot time.
Price… I think it’s a tad high for what you get, but not out of bounds.
Cons:
Won’t play SACD layers (nor was it ever intended to… I just wish it did)
Meta-data manipulation via the wireless connection to a PC is slow and tedious for album editing
The iPhone wireless IP connection seems to have a mind of it’s own at times, but re-connect is easy and fast.
Well… hope there’s some value here for you. Again, just let me know (post or PM) if you want to talk further about either product.
Cheers
