Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Something NEW in Jan 2012?

Easy to hide - i.e. wife will never know it was acquired?...

Yes...exactly. The manufacturer that cracks that one will win

As well as my headphones guess (DSP powered and input via speakerlink obviously) I will also add the Sooloos dongle that was unofficially anounced a while back then subsequently denied (as if the dealer had his hands slapped by M). This will also make Sooloos available to non M amplification.

I'd love to see a small source zone. I've thought for a while that with Sonos offering the ZP80/90, other distributed server/zone solutions should offer the same. Sooloos has offered a multi-output source for ages, but the single source zones are too big. Even the MC200 is almost twice as big as the Sonos and contains features that wouldn't be necessary - core and HDD.

Going further, I'd love to see them also offer such a source as a wireless zone. Sooloos has always strayed away from wireless, but with a zone like this, it makes sense and hardwired placement limitations are significant for certain installations. Sonos is not only attractive to users because of the price - it's also because of the flexibility. I use my Sooloos system for primary zones but can't justify or accept the compromises doing so directly with "casual", non critical listening zones. I haven't hardwired my home for audio distribution, so units like the MS600 are of no use to me. However, I do feed Sooloos outputs into my Sonos. Sounds crazy, I know, but it allows me to make use of the Sooloos interface and still have audio distribution that is both flexible and wireless.

Just my 2 cents.

Jeff

BTW, if Meridian did release some sort of small form factor source, we'd finally see follow through on 2 components Sooloos conceptualized years ago, but never produced. Those would be the Sooloos Control:Micro, Source:Micro, Remote:Micro

I'd argue strongly that only the version of the iPad app coming soon is the true realization of a proper wireless version of the system interface for those who do not have/want AMX or Crestron control systems.

Jeff

Talking purely about Sooloos:

- new iPad app (announced)
- MD200 (hinted in firmware - weren't there other unknown devices listed in firmware too?) - appears to have been released as MD600

other ideas:

- Small source ("MS200")
- Ensemble replacement with single 2Gb desktop disc ("MC400")
- G-series processor incremental update to incorporate SL input for Sooloos

But the image doesn't seem likely to be any of those.

As far as I'm aware that's now released, but with a different name, the MD600

Rick

OK, thanks.

I agree, as far as I know the Control remote / Control 20 development was shelved as soon as the iPad became a reality.
Thanks for the Source:Micro info, I'd never seen that!

Rick

I'm struggling with the Sooloos wireless zone concept. After my own experience in trying to run Sooloos across a wireless N link and having it fail, I'd have to believe that they would need to feed a wireless system with MP3 or other lossy formats. That seems to be a major departure from the Sooloos architecture.

No Problem Rick. It's interesting how little tidbits like that get forgotten once we get far enough past them. I followed Sooloos development for a long time before I bought - even the pre Meridian days back to 2006. The holdup for me had a lot to do with the architecture and the absence of a quality wireless remote solution and the small zone that could be tucked away anywhere and was wireless. I eventually got past all that and just got sucked into the UI and have been happy with it. That being said, these 2 missing pieces are items that I want and I'm glad to see that at least the remote is coming to fruition.

On that front, I heard the same from Sooloos tech folks when the iPad was announced and I certainly don't blame them for taking that route. It made far more sense than doing their own hardware and now, with the unmitigated success of the iPad as a tablet platform, it seems silly to think that anyone would bother with a wireless proprietary hardware remote solution. My disappointment is simply the length of time it has taken to get to here - and we're still not quite there yet as the updated app isn't yet available. Once it's here, all that will likely be forgotten, but IMO, it Meridian should have prioritized this earlier.

Jeff

WIRELESSLY Streaming 24/96 material at ~2.8Mbps around a house is easily achieved as long as a decent Wireless Infrastructure is in place

Streaming 16/44 material at ~1Mbps is even easier

Even Wireless Streaming of ~15Mbps HD Movies is also quite straightforward

This is all pretty straightforward stuff in today's world......and Sooloos needs to catch up in this area