Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos Control 10, Source Five, Store One - Good idea?

So, I may have the opportunity to pick up a Sooloos store demo system (Control:10, Source Five, Store One) at a pretty good price. The potential issue is that 2 of the system components are older. The Control:10, while not as current as the 15, is just fine as far as I'm concerned. However, I'm a little hesitant about the Store One and the Source Five. For those who may have experience with these pieces, I wonder if you could answer some questions:

- While I believe the Control:10 uses gigabit ethernet, these older pair only use 10/100?
- The Store One's redundancy is from box to box over ethernet, which I don't love. That seems to create unnecessary network traffic, though seemingly only during content import (or Rhapsody DL). What is it like in practice? Any noticeable lag using these vs. the TwinStore or Ensemble?
- Unlike the Ensemble and TwinStore, the Store drives are not user replaceable, correct? I'm thinking here that if I wanted to upgrade them with off the shelf 2TB drives, it would be a bit of hassle.
- I had a brief chat with someone from Meridian a while back talking about 2.1 I remember them saying something about older components like the Source Five not being fully compatible with all the new features. One issue was zone synching (my guess being that the issue was with a slower NIC or older chipset that that didn't handle such functions well). Anyone using a Source Five with 2.1 who can comment on this? Anyone know any potential limitations with 2.1 on the Store One? I'd hate to jump into the system with hardware that will not be able to handle updates going forward.

Any other thoughts experienced users might have for me? I am perhaps considering trying to buy the demo Control:10 only and then getting the Ensemble or TwinStore instead (assuming the store would part with only one piece).

Thanks for the feedback!

Jeff

Well, I answered my own question. The system I bought already had the latest software running and I can say after having played with it a few days, it works great. The only issue relates to exactly what I had already been told - zone syncing the Control:10 digital out with the output form the Source Five isn't reliable. It may work initially but drops do occur. That limitation doesn't cause any problems for me in my setup and certainly, this isn't an issue on newer source components.

I will say this, the thing is freaking cool. It might not be the ideal system setup for everyone but, for me, it works perfectly. So far I'm very, very pleased.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

The zone linking makes demands on your network, try it again with nothing else connected to the Sooloos, no wi-fi APs, no broadband router.
Just the Control:10, Source Five and Store One connected together.
You'll probably have to have the router connected to boot them up, but disconnect it again once they have booted.

I'm not promising anything, but you will learn where the problem lies.
If this doesn't work then this must be a limitation of the source five.
But if it does then maybe some playing with your network configuration could keep it robust.

Glad you like it!

Rick

Hey Rick,

Thanks for the tip. However, it appears that the limitation is the source 5 hardware. This was not only verified by my testing, but also by a Sooloos employee whom I've had contact with this week to get some answers to technical questions. If memory serves correct, zone sync was not originally part of the system featureset (I think it may have only been added recently in 2.1). In fact, I can remember thinking a while back that it seemed silly that Sooloos couldn't zone sync as a wired system when Sonos can wirelessly. So, they probably knew the older hardware couldn't support it properly and therefore didn't roll it out until 2.1.

Jeff