Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming MC200 Query

This may be too soon, but does anyone know if you can get an output using both the Sooloos card on an 861V6, and simultaneously from the digital out put to some remote DSP speakers.

What I was wondering was whether to run a long Cat6 cable to the router, which was also connecting to the Sooloos card, and keep the MC200 close to the DSPs. Would this work? IS it possible already with the Control 15? It would save buying an MS600 too.

Richard

You mention: 861v6, Sooloos Card [ID40], C15, MC200, MS600 and DSPs. However, as I think you suspect, you don't need all of this kit for a two zone system.


The ID40 Card in the 861v6 is one zone.
The digital audio (SpeakerLink / SPDIF) out the back of the C15 is another zone.

Each zone can have independent output, which can be selected via the C15, ControlPC (which also adds another zone), iPad, iTouch, iPhone.

For the best audio quality use C15 to 861v6+ID40 via LAN.

Thus a two zone system would look a little like this:

C15 --LAN--> 861v6+ID40 --> DSPs
.... --SpeakerLink---------> DSPs


Regards,
Carl

Hi Carl,

That is just the answer I needed. I only mentioned the C15 as it is currently available, and the MS600 in case the MC200 couldn't feed two zones.

I have to say that the MC200 appears to be such a fantastic design, to have better than the 800 in two zones for �2k! (Or �3k with ID40).

I wonder when they will get the Sooloos input via LAN into G series.

Richard

Hi Richard,
I'm not quite sure from your original question, but I think you're asking if the MC200 can send content to it's own output/zone and also to an ID40/861 at the same time?

If so the the answer is, yes it can. The MC200 can run it's own outputs (one zone) and also stream to other Sooloos sources/zones at the same time. Usually, different content to each zone, though any of the zones can be linked together to play the same content.

The core in the MC200 could most likely drive another ten sources such as the MS600/C15/ID40 etc, each with different content, before running out of steam.

Is this ten zones a basic limitation of Sooloos?

Hi Nic,

It is not quoted by Meridian, but there must be some upper limit to the number of sources a Sooloos Core could support.

Regards,
Carl

Oh not at all, the architecture can support more sources than any real system would need.

Each source needs some processing on the core and network bandwidth so there will be a limit.

An MC200 will probably drive more sources, but if you have that large a system then the MC600 would be a better choice as the core in that is much more powerful.

Um, how do you know? Guessing, or inside knowledge?

I've seen things here and there...

Richard,
one thing that might help you spec your system is to understand how the 'logical blocks' that make up a Sooloos system are spread amongst the various products. (something Meridian doesn't explain very well on it's Sooloos web site)

A Sooloos system is made of four logical blocks :-

Core (AKA broker) - The control software for the entire system, all control and status messages are sent to and from the core.

Store - As the name suggests all content resides here. The store also manages backup and upgrade packages.

Control - Runs the user interface

Source (AKA zone) - Takes content from the store, decodes and sends to digital and analogue outputs.

There must be only one Core, but there can be multiple Stores/Controls/Sources.

In general each source drives a separate zone, the content library may be spread across several stores and each control is synchronised via the core so that changes to one appear on them all.

The physical products each contain some mixture of the logical blocks:-

ID40 - Source (digital)
MS600 - Source (digital & analogue)
Control 15 - Core + Store + Source + Control ('All-in-one')
MC200 - Core + Store + Source
MC600 - Core + Store + 6 x Sources
iPad/iPhone app - Control
ControlPC/Mac - Control + Source

As long as your system has one each of the four logical devices you can 'mix and match' at will.

In a system with multiple cores, the surplus ones can be easily disabled so that only one is active.

Excellent post

Thanks for the info

But the ControlPC or ControlMac can only Act as a Source (or Play) the MP3 version of the Files???

Is that Correct or not???