News

Olive Media and THIEL Audio Introduce the Olive+THIEL HD Music System (21/1/2010)

Digital Music Server Leader and High-End Speaker Legend Swap Speaker Cables for Ethernet Cables to Produce Breathtaking Sound in an Easy-to-Use System.

Leading music server manufacturer Olive Media Inc. and legendary high performance loudspeaker maker THIEL Audio today introduced the Olive+THIEL HD Music System (HDMS). The system bundles award-winning Olive and THIEL components that easily connect over a network – eliminating the ugly and expensive amplifiers, speaker cables and interconnects of traditional high-end audio systems.

The Olive+THIEL project combines the expertise of two companies devoted to high-end audio and simplicity at an unbeatable value. The basic system only has three parts: Source, speakers, and cabling.

Driving the HD Music System: Olive’s flagship 4+ HD music server, which can store 6,000 CDs or 20,000 24-bit HD music tracks. The built-in touch-screen LCD allows users to find and play their music with ease, and if you want to kick back and relax, a free app turns your Apple® iPhone™ or iPod™ Touch into an Olive remote control.

With the Olive 4+, it’s a breeze to rip, play and burn music CDs – or import a digital music collection from any networked PC or Mac. Don’t want to spend time loading CDs onto a new server? Olive offers a preload service, ripping your CD collection onto the Olive 4+ at the factory. THIEL’s SCS4D loudspeakers deliver all this amazing sound quality in a small package. The time- and phase-coherent, bookshelf-sized two-way speaker can be placed either upright or sideways with no effect on sound quality. Its die-cast aluminum baffle and robust cabinet construction with ample internal bracing reduces enclosure resonances. Each speaker features a high-performance 24-bit DAC and a 200-watt class D amplifier.

Conventional cables are gone with the Olive+THIEL HDMS. The Olive 4+ HD music server connects to each speaker via simple Ethernet cables – no need for difficult installations or special shielding. The SCS4D speaker employs THIEL zöet proprietary IP-technology, which eliminates latency issues that typically plague network-connected systems. As a result, you get perfectly synchronized sound from the Olive 4+ to up to four pairs of THIEL’s SCS4D, anywhere within your home network. Hook up your Apple® iPod™, satellite radio or computer to the Olive 4+ analog or USB audio inputs to broadcast music to all speakers in the network.

Clearly the companies’ two CEOs are pleased with their new baby: “Olive and THIEL share a mutual passion for audio perfection at reasonable prices,” said Dr. Oliver Bergmann, founder and CEO of Olive. “Joining forces on the Olive+THIEL HD Music System allows us to offer a home music experience that plays normal CDs, but also extends the listening experience to the gold-master standard of 24-bit/192 kHz signals —the same quality used by studio recording engineers.”

“THIEL views the Olive+THIEL HD HiFi Music System as an important step forward in our quest to give consumers uncompromised sound quality in a complete package that is effortless to set up and operate,” commented THIEL president Kathy Gornik. “We wanted to eliminate all of the confusion and techno-babble and just let our customers enjoy listening to their music,” Gornik added.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

The Olive+THIEL HD HiFi Music System will be available in the US in January for a retail price of $7,900 and will be sold through a selected number of resellers.

www.olivethiel.com