After
plugging in and powering up the unit, it takes about 40 seconds (I
didn’t time it) for the unit to boot up for the first time. After that,
it will go into standby mode if left alone long enough or you can
manually shut it off with the power button on the remote or the unit.
The “turn and select wheel” is easy to use to navigate the screens.
Part of me just REFUSES to read the manual before I have to. In some
ways, I think this makes me better equipped to judge the usability of
the unit in the way that Joe Consumer would. Hey, let’s face it, most
of us don’t read the manual unless something starts smoking. Basically,
I had the entire unit configured, set up, and connected to the network without having to crack the book. That, my friends, is what I’m
talking about when I say the interface is intuitive.
Basically,
out of the box the unit comes configured with quite a few albums from
Olive for review. On my unit that consisted of mostly jazz, blues, and
easy listening, but there was some Steely Dan and Tool to placate the
masses. Most of it was really well recorded and had exceptional audio
quality. It was nice of Olive to include some music that really showed
off what the unit could do. After you get the network configured for
the Internet, a number of Internet Radio stations pop up as default.
For some reason, in my area, I got like 133 Dance/House stations and
like 13 Rock ones. Go figure. You can manually add your own stations if
you like.
After
spending a few moments on the phone with Olive, they determined that
some of my questions could be addressed by upgrading my software to a
new beta version that they are rolling out soon. I agreed to use the
new software and hope that some of my observations will help refine it
before release. Olive gave me a list of some of the differences in the
2.2 software over the 2.1.8:
-
MP3
CD/DVD can be played back and imported, MP3 and data CDs can be burned
(to be found under SETTINGS > BURNING and >IMPORT FROM CD). When
burning a CD the Symphony automatically asks for the desired format.
-
Support
of USB based MP3 players that handle like USB flash drives (i.e.
devices that require no software). Olive will prepare a list of
supported MP3 Players.
-
Navigation/Typeface is zoomed when Symphony is controlled via Remote Control to improve legibility from distance
-
Improved sorting of the Internet radio stations (categories according to bitrates)
-
Memory-Feature:
The Symphony saves the current position of the track when put to sleep
/ turned off so users can continue listening where they stopped. Music
is automatically faded in and out.
-
Music
volume can be adjusted to match for all tracks (i.e. recordings with
different gain level are played back at the same volume).
-
Turning
on PREVENT CHANGES (under SETTINGS) ensures that guests (at e.g. a
party) do not accidentally delete or mess up your music collection
-
You can now burn several marked songs (also from SEARCH- and PLAYLISTS)
-
Combining of the first 2 tracks of a recording is now possible
-
The
Symphony can now automatically adjust its time/date via the
network/Internet. Olive has also included different time zones
(SETTINGS > DATE & TIME)
-
Users
can transcode songs that are in WAV, AIFF and FLAC to MP3 (set encoding
to MP3 in SETTINGS > IMPORT FROM CD and then select song, artist,
album > click on INFORMATION and highlight ENCODING. The CONVERT
button allows you to transcode the music to MP3)
The
most important (all are important but some affected me more than
others) are numbers 3, 4, 8, and 11. Zooming was the ONLY way to use
this unit from a distance but the unit wouldn’t stay “zoomed.” I’d
constantly have to go back and “re-zoom” it from the main menu. I’d
like to see the text stay large so that you do not have to constantly
back out to the main menu. The display was plenty legible from a
distance but not really that well off axis (these types of LCD screens
are like that).
The
sorting of the Internet radio stations was a HUGE help. Before, the
only way you could tell the bitrate was by selecting the station and
hitting Info. If you are using a wireless connection, bitrate suddenly
becomes VERY important (see below).
Transcoding
songs are important if you plan on importing them at a high bitrate
(like you should) and want to download them to an MP3 or similar player
and need a lower bitrate. While I’ve not had to deal with the problem
personally (I live in an iPod free zone as per my wife) I understand
that it can be a real hassle for some.
Set up and Performance – Music
Getting
music on and off the Symphony is a snap. Insert a disc and select
“Import”. If you are like me, you fiddled around with the settings
beforehand and configured the unit to automatically import upon loading
a disc. If you load the same disc twice, it lets you know. You have a
great number of burning options available - from low res MP3s to
lossless FLAC and WAV files. I asked Olive why they had the lower res
options available on a unit that is marketed to Audiophiles and their
response was that even Audiophiles have children. And sometimes those
children want to record Britney Spears on your Symphony. And when they
do, MP3 at 128kbit/s is good enough. Can’t say I can find any fault
with that logic.
Getting
music off the unit is just as easy; find the album you want to burn and
hit the “Record” button. The unit will ask you to insert a blank disk
(you can use any CD-R, not just the CD Audio ones) and ask if you want
to record an Audio, MP3, or Data CD (this functionality is new for the
beta version of the software I was using). Once you select “Audio”, it
starts burning. When it’s done, it spits out the disc. I ripped Death
Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism to the unit in just over 6
minutes. It took just over 10 to burn to a disc (I wanted one for the
car, anyhow). The only problem I had was the first time I burned a
disc, it wouldn’t eject. I tried EVERYTHING (it is supposed to eject
automatically). Finally, I turned off and unplugged the unit and the
disc ejected upon restart. I tried to replicate the problem by burning
a bunch more copies but every other time it worked perfectly.
I’ve
noted the ability to rip the music to various formats. There is also
the ability to apply different compression algorithms to the music for
playback. This would be useful in a professional setting (if you used
this unit in a restaurant or office) or during a dinner party where you
don’t want to have to continually adjust the volume. I’ve had a couple
of discs (namely some LaserLight classical discs) that have tripped up
machines in the past. Not the Symphony. Almost everything I threw at
it, it recognized and identified correctly. The ONLY exception was a Very Best of Bach
CD from VOX Cameo Classics. So far, no one has gotten that one correct
- though it did get a number of other ones correct that the DMS-701
messed up. Basically, you don’t really have to be concerned that this
unit won’t properly identify your music, it will… at least in my
experience.
The
one disconcerting thing about the unit is how the discs are loaded. As
I stated, there is no tray so you just insert the disc into the slot.
Well, I expected the unit to grab the disc when it was about halfway
in. Nope. Kept pushing, still nothing. I got nervous, broke out the
manual, everything I read made it sound like the unit was working
correctly so I tried again. You literally have to push the disc until
only about a half an inch is showing before it grabs it. Scared the
bejesus out of me. I was terrified I’d get it stuck and have to call
Olive and say, “Dude, I, uh, just shoved it in and it wouldn’t take it
so I kept shoving and now it won’t come out.” I could just see the look
on my colleagues’ faces with that call, “Your reviewer is a moron,
we’re not sending you another unit.”
Playlists
are fairly easy to define and set up. If you have the unit networked,
you can dial into its IP address (viewable if you hit INFO on the main
menu) and do it on your computer (far easier than on the unit). If you
do it on the unit, you can either use the remote or the wheel. Go to
“Playlists”, select “New”, give it a name, then run through and “Mark”
the songs/albums you want and “Add” them to your Playlist. If you want
multiple songs from an album (but not all of them) there is even a way
of marking multiple songs and adding them at the same time. Very nice.
Once you have a Playlist defined, you can burn the entire thing to a
disc. Or try rather. It will give you an error if the Playlist is too
big. So basically, yes, you can make mixed CDs with the thing!
There
are also Searchlists, something that was a bit new to me. Basically,
you can define some search parameters that has the unit search though
your database and only play the songs that fit the simple “if”
statements you define. As an example, the directions have you create a
Searchlist called “The Best” which plays all songs rated 5 (out of 5)
stars by you. Of course, I didn’t rate any of the songs so none popped
up. I made a couple of other lists to test it out, one playing any song
by any artist whose name started with “The.” A second Playlist played
any song that I had listened to more than 4 times (which is another way
of asking for my favorites). Personally, I found the Searchlists to be
a fun, easy, and informative tool. I was surprised to see what played
during my “4 or more” search. It is also nice if you have a particular
artist in mind that has songs on a number of different compilation
albums plus their own. Rather than constantly update a Playlist, you
can create a Searchlist on that artist’s name. If you load a new disc
with one song by them, you can rest assured that it will be added to
the Searchlist with no work on your part.
