New Olive+THIEL HD Music System

At CES, Olive and THIEL announced that they have teamed up on a new networked HD music system, the Olive+THIEL HD Music System. The multi-room system combines the Olive 4HD music server with THIEL's SCS4 IP-based loudspeakers for high-resolution audio anywhere in your home network.

The Olive+THIEL system streams music over Ethernet in HD quality directly into THIEL's IP-based SCS4D speakers. The system features a built-in touch-screen LCD to easily find and play music, and a free iPhone app is available to allow an iPhone or iPod touch to act as a remote. Music can be copied to the hard drive via the built-in CDRW drive (which can also burn playlists for the car), or from a networked computer. The system can also connect to your TV via HDMI. Did I mention that this system can store a whopping 6,000 CDs or 20,000 24-bit HD music tracks in lossless quality?

THIEL's SCS4D speakers used in the HD Music System are based on the company's SCS4 bookshelf speakers and feature a die-cast aluminum baffle; and the cabinet construction has internal bracing to reduce enclosure resonances. For the Olive+THIEL HD Music System, THIEL modified the SCS4 to include THIEL zöet proprietary IP-technology which eliminates latency issues found on many network-connected systems. Also, there is an ultra-high performance DAC and a 200-watt class D amplifier.

I think Oliver Bergmann, founder and CEO of Olive says it best:

"Olive and THIEL share a mutual passion for audio perfection at the best possible value," said Dr. Oliver Bergmann, founder and CEO of Olive. "Joining forces on the Olive+THIEL HD Music System allows us to offer a complete HD audio experience at home that maintains the golden-master standard of 24-bit/192 kHz—the same quality used in the studio by high-end recording engineers. Combining source, amplifier and speakers in one system allows us to offer an unprecedented complete sound solution from start to finish."

The Olive+THIEL HD Music System will be available this month (January 2010) for $7,900. More information is available at www.olivethiel.com.