Oladra Guide

Installation

1. Remove your Oladra DAS carefully from its packaging and place it in your equipment rack on its own levelled shelf with good ventillation and away from direct sunlight.
2. Note that an Oladra DAS performs best when power delivery is fast, and has purpose-designed noise reduction circuitry, so some power conditioning reduces sound quality.
3. If connecting direct to a DAC, and you are using power conditioning, it is good practise to connect the DAC and DAS to the same AC earth plane, for added insurance that you will not be resolving earth potential differences through your signal cables.
4. For the best sound, we recommend leaving your DAS booted up and restarting it once a week.
5. Ensure the DAS is connected to the same network as the device you wish to manage it from. See our troubleshooting page for further information on resolving network issues.

- Back Panel Connections

Connect the following cables to the back of your Oladra DAS. All cables should be high-quality audiophile grade and different cables may have a marked impact on sound quality.

1. A power cord from your AC wall receptacle to the IEC AC inlet on the back of your Oladra DAS
2. A network cable from a network outlet to the Network connection on the back of your Oladra DAS
3. If you are going to play digital audio (USB, AES3, S/PDIF, I2S) direct to a DAC, connect one digital cable from your DAC to a digital audio output on the back of your Oladra DAS. Note that connecting a second digital cable to your DAC will reduce sound quality and should be avoided.

- Power On/Off

The front panel has two buttons and four LED Indicators that show the current state of the DAS. From left to right are the Light Button; 4 Light Indicators for: 'Network', 'Ready', 'Power', 'Standby'; and the Power Button:

1. Turn the back panel power switch on and the Standby LED will glow. In this mode the Oladra is not running but key power capacitors are kept charged so that the Oladra will warm up faster.
2. Click the front panel power button to power up or power down. The LEDs will track progress and are useful to diagnose any problems that may arise. The DAS has successfully booted up once the Network light turns on.
3. When powering down, the light sequence occurs in reverse until the Standby LED is lit.
4. When in standby, the Oladra DAS meets legal requirements for low standby power consumption, but keeps a charge on power supply capacitors to reach optimum sound quality quickly after a restart. Turning power off on the back panel of the Oladra will turn off the Standby LED and all capacitors will discharge. If the DAS is not turned back on within a few minutes, reaching optimum sound quality again may take up to four days. This is true for all digital devices because of their need for very stable power to perform to specification.
5. Click the Light switch to toggle the front panel LEDs on/off at any time. This may be desirable when listening or viewing a movie in a darkened room. Note that if the LEDs have been toggled off, then any press of the Power button will toggle the LEDs back on, to display on/off progress and then all LEDs will be turned off again after a few seconds. Click the Light Button again and the LEDs will return to their normal operation.

Network Issues

It is not unusual to encounter problems communicating across a home network and this can cause Oladra Play to not find your Oladra. Here, we explain how to troubleshoot this issue if you experience it.

Oladra Has No Network

• Check whether the Network LED on your Oladra is on or off. You can also check using an IP sniffer app, or by logging into your router to see if it has connected to the Oladra.
• If the Oladra does not have a network connection, check your network connections.
• If the problem persists, try using a different network cable to your Oladra.
• If the problem persists, remove any 'audiophile' switches or 'regenerators' that are connected between your Oladra and your router. Many of these use non-standard or older network standards that can improve sound, but risk introducing compatibility issues in your network.
• If the problem persists, power down both the Oladra and your remote device, restart your router and wait two minutes, then restart both the Oladra and your remote device.
• If the problem persists, try moving your Oladra next to your router, connect the Oladra direct to the router and restart both devices - to eliminate the possibility that the netwotk cabling from the router to your stereo is faulty.

Oladra Has Network

In some cases, your Oladra has a network connection but Oladra Play still cannot find it. Your remote device and the Oladra may be on separate networks, so cannot 'see' each other. This can happen if:

• Your remote device is connected to the cellular network not to your home network, and if so you should switch to wifi on your remote device.
• You are using a VPN service for your remote device, but not for your Oladra - in some cases this means you need to turn the VPN service off on your remote device.
• You have multiple routers in your network, and your remote device is getting its IP address from a different router than your Oladra is. You need to ensure they are both connected to the same router, or that you turn DHCP off on all routers except for your main router, thereby creating a single network.
• You may have introduced a second router if you added a wifi mesh. Nearly all mesh wifi solutions are shipped with DHCP on (meaning that it issues IP addresses in a different address range to your router). This creates a separate subnet for the devices connected to it. You won't notice any problems using the internet but devices on different subnets will not be able to communicate with each other. You need to turn DHCP off on your mesh wifi hub so that your remote device uses the same subnet as the Oladra.
• A building owner or management company is providing the internet services to a multi-unit dwelling you live in. Often the service is provided using a PVLAN for each dwelling or even port isolation for all devices being served. Again there will be no internet problems but communications between your devices will fail. You need to request a dedicated VLAN for your unit so that your devices can communicate with each other.
• Your employer is providing a secure connection for your work-at-home requirements - your remote device is on this secure network and your Oladra is not. You need to use a remote device that is not on the secure connection.

If you are a little computer-savvy, you can detect what is happening. The first thing to do is compare the IP Addresses of the two devices, to see if the first few blocks of numbers indicate they are on the same or different subnets. If they are on the same subnet then attempt to ping the Oladra from your remote device. If ping fails, and you are in a multi-unit dwelling, then it is likely that PVLAN or port isolation are in effect.

Last Resorts

While we cannot re-configure your network for you, if you book a remote support session, we may be able to help find the cause of the problem. But if it is convenient, we recommend that you return the Oladra to your local Oladra Partner for testing.