Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Anyone moved from Sonus to Sooloos

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Thanks Joel

Rod

Sorry to join this thread late, but, does Sooloos import CD's as a single FLAC file still ? I seem to recall that was how it was described at HH2.
If that's the case then it will probably have an impact on the tagging as described above.

Although I am admittedly biased I would add that there is also the issue of customer service and i) being both a Meridian and SONOS owner and ii) having expeirenced the customer service from both there is no doubt that SONOS' customer service is far superior...

The other point that I will raise is that the SONOS just works for everyone in the house...this is a huge advantage...

The other point worth asking / noting...do people believe that SONOS will, with time, release a hgh rez capable unit?

With that I will readily admit that the clear advantage that Sooloos has over SONOS is being a self contained unit (i.e. no need for a NAS, no need for seperate ripping software, etc.)...but, that said, I actually prefer the "build what you like and use what you like" approach as it give more control and tweakability...worth also adding is that I do not think that setting a NAS and ripping software is that tough...

I don't know if high-rez wireless synchronized music "works" in a multi-room core product. I hope it does, but I wouldn't buy Sonos if you are really care about high-res.

I'm pretty it now uses single track flacs.

+1 on the customer service difference. And not just service but support. Being one of the least computer knowledgeable members of this forum I occasionally need help with simple questions. Sonos support staff has directly, immediately, friendly and patiently walked me through every time. I have had no need to join a HH for Sonos forum.

Also from my perspective although Sonos is not a one box solution, they have made it very user friendly to put the pieces together. If I can do that, it is not really a "clear advantage" for Sooloos. My G91 all in one box solution was a mystery to me and it spent a lot of time travelling to different places to get repaired. With the Sonos set up I am able to fix the one inexpensive piece that I may have trouble with.

While with my G68 and downstream I am a hardcore Meridian fanatic, I cannot take the risk that a Sooloos would be a G91 experience for me. I have to patiently wait to see if Meridian comes up with a box to put between my Sonos and G68 to get all the special sauce that I am willing to pay for.

I gues time will tell but in comporaing Sooloos to SONOS one needs to compare Sooloos to a wired SONOS system because the Soooloss is wired...

I can also tell you that a wired SONOS is bullet proof...I have 9 SONOS units in my house with 7 of the 9 being hardwired and the hard wired are bullet proof (i.e. never ever fail) and the wireless ones are near bullet proof (i.e. once every 3 or 4 months there is a momentary drop out in one zone due to some wireless interference but, all and all, it essentially always works)...

+1 on Sonos tech support

I've not recently dealt with M customer support so have not seen the down turn that people hav experienced, but past experience it was exceptional like Sonos, except with Meridian, the tech guys had the power to get problems fixed quickly and not, as I suspect with Sonos, become just another item on the bug list. That said, only found one bug with Sonos and it's pretty minor and I haven't even reported it. Nice on both counts to have stable software. When I was in IT, our software quality was better with 6 month rollouts rather than monthlies.

Sonos might be bullet proof. But if you have more than four units around the house, you have to set the analogue line in to "compressed" (WMA 320 kbps). Or else you get nasty dropouts.

Apart from that, everything is fine. I still think that CDs through my G91 (not mentioning DVD-As) sound better. But lately I've been experimenting with different coax cables (please don't laugh).

A van den Hul D-300 III hybrid made the Sonos sound more organic, almost tube-like. Still quite different from CD, but better than Sonos with my usual Monster D Interlink ($30).

I've also tried a Tara Labs Prism (much of the same as the van den Hul, but more detached), and I'm waiting for a Jenving Supra Trico.

All inexpensive cables (in the $50 range). I'm tempted to try the really expensive "snake oil" ones. Maybe they will bring the Sonos box up to Sooloos standard?

Sorry Guy,
I can't argue with your experiences, but my Sonos experiences have been different and for about five years now

I use Lossless tracks only and a 17 Zone System around the house, with Six of those being strategically wired, to maximise on the coverage of the Mesh Network

Many times as a test, I've selected 17 different Lossless Tracks to play in each Zone independently. No issues what so ever. Even with the 32 Zones that Sonos is capable of, and using Lossless tracks of 900 to 1,000kbps each, you are still still only looking at a network bandwidth consumption of 32Mbps max. That is far less than most home networks should be capable of and also less than the 54Mbps that the Sonos Mesh Network is capable of (more with the ZP120 and ZP90 Zoneplayers)

I've also set up Six and Eight Zone systems at relative's / friends' houses, again using lossless and agin without the dropouts you refer

I would look again at the issue you refer to above, as the Sonos is more than capable of handling more than four zones IMHO

You're absolutely right, Ronnie. But what I meant was analogue input. Digital works fine, of course, whatever the bitrate and/or zones.