Olive O4HD Music Server

Robert Kozel

Olive Media, Inc. has been in the business of digital music since it was started by Dr. Oliver Bergmann and Robert Altmann back in 2005. I have admired the Olive products for many years and had the opportunity to visit with Robert Altmann at CES 2011 this past January. I really appreciated his introduction to their products and I was especially impressed with his love of music. We recently reviewed the Olive 03HD, and here, we cover the 04HD.

Media Servers

Supernatural 22″ Universal Ride Cymbal

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Supernatural Cymbals is one of several small companies that have emerged during the past few years, who are based in Turkey, and who still make cymbals the way they have been made for centuries (except for the electric motor that turns the lathing machine). The cymbals start out as cast bronze discs, which are heated, rolled, cut into the desired diameter for the cymbal, hand hammered, and hand lathed. There is no machining at all. The results are quite distinguishable from machine hammered and lathed cymbals. It is not that one way is better than the other, but rather, you now have several additional choices in sound, and some of them are due to the old world ways of producing them. Here, we review the Supernatural 22" Universal Ride. It has a clear ping that always stays above the wash, but also, the wash is intense with a long sustain, typical of hand hammered cymbals.

Cymbals

Home Theater Movie Renter’s Guide – June, 2011

SECRETS Movie Review Team

Sanctum (Blu-ray), The Dilemma (Blu-ray), The Usual Suspects Digibook (Blu-ray), The Terminator Digibook (Blu-ray), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (Blu-ray), I Am Number Four (Blu-ray), Dead Man Walking (Blu-ray), True Blood Season 3 (Blu-ray), Le Mans (Blu-ray), Grand Prix (Blu-ray), True Grit (Blu-ray), Rocky (Blu-ray), Platoon (Blu-ray), Hotel Rwanda (Blu-ray), American Graffiti (Blu-ray), Once Upon a Time in the West (Blu-ray), The Horse Soldiers (Blu-ray), The Mechanic (Blu-ray), A Nightmare in Las Cruces (DVD), Gnomeo & Juliet 3D (3D Blu-ray)

Movie Reviews

Olive 03HD Music Server

Chris Heinonen

Of all the gear that I reviewed last year, my favorite component by far was the Squeezebox Touch. Having instant access to all of my music, and high resolution downloads, was just a fantastic thing that led me to listen to far more, and varied, music that before. However, the one thing I always said about the Touch is that while I loved it, I wasn't going to buy one for my Dad since I'd have to install a PC server component, or hook up an external hard drive that I'd have to keep ripping his music to for him. For him, a simple, all-in-one solution would be what I would want.

Media Servers

Audiolab 8200CDQ CD Player with Built-In Preamplifier

Brian Alvarez

Early adopters live in a world of potential. We latch on to a new paradigm shift significantly ahead of the adoption curve. As such, we're often saddled with legacy methodology or products. Solutions are never simple or straight forward. We push ahead and often have to improvise. Eventually the mass marketplace catches up and products appear addressing our needs. Audiolab markets a CD player called the 8200CD. The 8200CDQ, reviewed here, also contains a built-in preamplifier that can deliver 4 volts RMS through its fully balanced outputs. This eliminates signal loss in cables that would normally connect a CD player's outputs to the preamplifier.

CD Players

Dream 20″ Bliss Crash/Ride Cymbal

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Dream Cymbals is one of the new companies whose products are manufactured in China. From what we are told, the cymbals are totally hammered and lathed by hand, directly from the cast bronze disc, rather than put through rollers to flatten them before hammering. If that is accurate, I don't think I would want to get into a fight with any of the cymbal smiths, because it must take enormous strength and endurance to perform this task from the raw cast ingot. However, the sound is very revealing, and suggests that it is so. The cymbals have a very strong wash that sustains. Dream has a Bliss 20" Thin Ride and a Bliss 20" Ride, so this cymbal, the Bliss 20" Crash/Ride is a medium thin weight in between the other two. The sound quality is exceptional for a cymbal with a street price of only $144. This represents tremendous value. I expect more good things to come from this new company.

Cymbals

Olive

Secrets
Olive was founded in 2005 by Dr. Oliver Bergmann and Robert Altmann, who are not only passionate about technology but also about music.
AV Directory

Mark Levinson

Secrets

1972 saw the introduction of Mark Levinson's JC-1 preamplifier a concrete, functional symbol of Mark Levinson's approach to audio reproduction.

AV Directory

Usher Dancer Mini Two Floor-Standing Speakers and BE-616 Center Channel Speaker

Mark Vignola

Usher Audio is a brand long known around the audiophile community for making speakers of stunningly good build quality and excellent sound for the price. Often mentioned in conversations with speakers costing much more, Usher has remained a more niche company, providing its speakers slightly under the radar. That under-the-radar reputation changed somewhat with their release of the highly regarded BE-718 bookshelf speaker, which we reviewed some time ago. The current review details the Usher Mini Dancer Two Floor-Standing Speaker and the BE-616 Center Channel Speaker.

Floor Standing Speakers

Audiolab

Secrets
In the early 1980s Audiolab was founded by audio enthusiasts Philip Swift and Derek Scotland. The launch of their very first product...
AV Directory