Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Returning to Meridian - Advice please

Morning all,

I am finally looking to return to Meridian. When having our first child and moving to a smaller house 12 years ago I sold my 861 based home cinema system with DSP6000 mains and have regretted it ever since!

I was quite surprised to find my original post selling them on this forum here

Now finally with space again I am looking to jump back in - the options seem to have changed quite a bit so would value any and all advice!

At the moment my music listening is almost entirely using headphones + Spotify on either my iMac or iPhone - I have no CD's or Vinyl to speak of.

From reading this forum I am considering getting a Tidal subscription along with an 818 and a pair of 5200SE speakers.

Firstly does this make senses?

Secondly, what else would be sensible to include in this setup? I have read about QNAP storage array as an option and am quite happy to purchase say a mac mini or windows touchscreen/HTPC to round off the setup or other hardware.

Most importantly this should be really easy for my wife (big classical music fan)to use and enjoy. I don't think it effects things but we have 9" Crestron touchscreens in every room for control of the house.

Many Thanks
Chris

Hi Chris,

You can't go far wrong with an 818.3 and 5200SE combination but do take time to listen to the 7200SE's as well, they are a truly extraordinary ... and might get you to stretch the budget (sorry about that).

The 818.3 has an ID41 network streaming card fitted which can be driven either by Meridian-Sooloos or Roon streaming solutions (both support Tidal, but the integration is superior in the later).

Sooloos can run on Meridian hardware or on certain Intel based QNAP NAS units.

Roon, can run on Windows and OSX platforms and soon on Linux too.

Have a good read on the Meridian and Roon websites (and the forums) and then post any specific questions that arise.

Regards,
Carl

Hi Chris,

If you don't have any stored music (CDs records etc.) and mainly stream, then Tidal is the way to go. As Carl has said, Tidal will work with both Roon and Sooloos to connect into a Meridian system (818). With Tidal, you get your first month of membership free so you can play around with it on your iMac and see what you think. I particularly like the playlists that they create as it gets me wandering off into new (and old) music that I wouldn't have heard otherwise. To be honest, I don't listen to much classical music so I haven't really explored this in Tidal, however, a quick search has revealed 123 albums of Mozart so hopefully you'll find something on there!

I'm not sure how much experience you have of either Sooloos or Roon? Useability wise, they are both pretty simple. I am currently setting up my new QNAP with Sooloos and Roon to gain a greater insight into the differences between them when controlling Tidal. Currently, I use Roon to control Tidal on my mac

I don't know much about the Crestron side of things, but I'm sure that there are people/dealers on here who do Are you hoping to have control of Tidal on the Crestron touchscreens or simply use them for basic controls of the Meridian system?

I hope that this is of help,

Peter

Thank you both for the help. I will wander off now and check out Roon. I may even already have a QNAP lying around the place so that should be easy!

Thanks again
Chris

Hi Chris,
I've been reading through the help files located within Meridian-support.com.
There is a document in data sheets/Sooloos/Sooloos primer which gives a guide to setting up a Sooloos system. They have a section on Crestron integration which I thought might be of interest:

Sooloos and Crestron
There are three level of Crestron interface:
Overlay module, Text module, and the Meridian Sooloos Control acting as Crestron Control.
The Overlay module provides the Meridian Sooloos interface on Crestron panels with video input capability, but requires Meridian Sooloos hardware. The hardware is called the Control Bridge, which is a 2U rackmount component that has the internal components of a Control Ten. Its video outputs feed the video inputs on video-enabled Crestron panels. Then the Crestron panel sends its tap messages back to the Control Bridge to recompute video.
The Text module is for the smaller Crestron panels and Wi-Fi units, which don’t have the power to run a Meridian Sooloos interface. The interface is a basic folder tree browser, with browsing of artists, albums, and songs, as well as genres, decades, and collections, with basic playlist control and transport control.
Meridian Sooloos provides Templates for every resolution of Crestron panel that match the Sooloos interface appearance.
Lastly, Meridian Sooloos Control devices can also act as a Crestron control panel. By using the Sooloos External Control Editor, a Sooloos Control can load, store, and run an x-panel exe le, acting as a Crestron panel. The setup is very simple once an xpanel exe is created and takes about a minute.

I found the info here:
Meridian Sooloos System Primer

This all implies that there are various options that you have to gain control over the Meridian system via the existing Crestron touchscreens.

Thanks,
Peter

Do you know what the Sooloos External Control Editor is?

Documentation

Setup download

Can be used to enable a Control:One/Ten/Fifteen to look at a web page - but limitations apply.