Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Roon alternative for Tidal streaming to DSPs

Perfectly stable.
Mine was a machine that I bought from new. So its a 2011 2.7Ghz Core i7.

The model I have max'd out at 8Gb of RAM. In general, Id fit as much RAM as possible.

I replaced the stock spinning hard disk with an SSD which made all the difference. I run it headless in the living room and its virtually silent. I use Screens on another laptop to remote into it, if needs be.

You do need to run a utility like Caffeine or Amphetamine to stop it going to sleep.

Cheers
Greg

Some will say that they site their Mac (or NUC) remotely from their listening room.

The benefit of running a Roon Rock fanless ‘appliance’ (such as Nucleus) is that it can be used in your listening room - without any concerns about errant fan noise (that would occur if using a Mac).

Also, if you also have a separate Headphones rig located in your listening room, it ensures using a direct connection to Roon Rock easier - unless you introduce an additional Ethernet Bridge into your system.

If you don’t already subscribe to Roon/Tidal…

The solution to Tidal Connect not being available directly on the Meridian 210 is to think outside the box (pun intended).

Rather than using a Meridian 210, use a Meridian 218 (or 258) instead.

Add a Sonos Port to the Meridian 218.

Connect Sonos Port to Meridian 218 via Coax to bypass the Sonos Port’s internal DAC, thereby utilising the 218’s DAC.

Integrating a Sonos Port with your Meridian 218/DSPs is cheaper than adding a Meridian 210.

The associated Sonos App will provide you with the direct Tidal connection you crave for - without requiring a Roon subscription - with full Meridian Control app functionality.

Or alternatively use a Raspberry Pi with a SPDIF output as a streamer and run the Tidal data stream through that directly. Put Ropieee or Hifiberry OS on it and it'll connect direct to Tidal as well as being a Roon endpoint. 1 device to rule them all

Cost <£100 and job done without having to buy into yet another architecture (Sonos).

The benefit of integrating a Sonos Port into a Meridian system is that it’s designated as a Works with Sonos product - that fully integrates within the Meridian app when linked to a Meridian 218 (that facilitates ‘Tidal Connect’ without requiring a Roon subscription).

Plus, unlike being restricted to Tidal and Qobuz in Roon, Sonos provides access to numerous third-party music apps - such as Apple Music, for example.

I have the iFi Zen Stream which uses Tidal Connect. I previously had Tidal via Roon NUC and I can definitively say the Zen Stream + Tidal Connect sounds better.

I also enjoy having my collection with me wherever I go, and no longer need to worry about keeping playlists in sync. On top of that, music discovery is better on native Tidal app, and you get updates/bug fixes much more frequently than Roon.

For cloud only connections, feels like a no-brainer to me.

Take a look at the $80 WiiM Mini which connects to most streaming services, including Tidal and Qobuz, and has Toslink out. Compared to my Allo transports (DigiOne and USBridge Signature), it sounds pretty good if you give it a quality 5v supply and reclock the optical with a iFi SPDIF iPurifier (which also outputs coaxial for our DSP speakers). Their software is no match for Roon, but I find it quite useable considering it comes free with this cheap streamer.

In light of Roon 2.0, this is no longer an option given the new minimum hardware requirements.

Regards
Greg

Yes, very disappointed that my Mac is not compatible with Roon 2.0. I have not yet checked my iPad but fear the worst.

Great new facility for Roon, however, a big future expense for me if I wish to continue with my previously perfect set up.

Frustrated!!!

I have always run Roon as a Virtual machine on my home server, I can give it as much RAM etc. as required.

What's the sound quality like through Tidal Connect? This is the cheapest device I've seen that offers this...

It sounds “digital” out of the box, but is bit perfect so can be cleaned up to compete with an Allo DigiOne SQ if you replace the crummy 5v power supply and massage it’s Toslink SPDIF output. That re-clocking effort adds at least $300; still a bargain because the user interface is worthwhile.

The developer is a credible software company that keeps sending updates to functionality, with MQA compatibility possibly on the horizon.