Originally Posted by Jerry
But I'm curious about the rationale ("store+core in same unit being optimal"), since I've had Meridian reps tell me several times that "optimal" was to separate the electronics of storage and the "computer noise" of the C15 core from the processing, which seems at odds with your statement. Of course, maybe they were just pushing an ID40/41 option as an upgrade path, but their *argument* was best sound quality.
The rationale behind ID40/41 (and MS600 for that matter) is perfectly valid. My comment about store+core being optimal extends this in that it too separates the computer side from audio side but combines store+control functions into same box thus avoiding network traffic between the store and the core. The effects of this range from negligible to potentially significant depending on the topology of the network. It could however be argued that a box handling core and store is less optimal than distributing these functions across two or more boxes but I personally don't think that it is an issue.

My personal opinion is that MD600 (or MC200/C15 for smaller collections) + MS600/ID40/41 plus control of choice represents the optimal Sooloos system.

Meridian owner since 1992
Prime & PSU, Focal Elear headphones, Roon (ROCK 8Gi5 NUC), Explorer 1 & 2, F80. 200/203, various Sonos (via Roon).