Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming MS200 Sooloos

I run SB wireless with no problems at all, and Sooloos via home plugs also with no problems. I suspect Sooloos would work perfectly well on a good wireless network.

Just so that you know for the future...

Sooloos is a four part recipe and you need all four parts to get the dish:

1) Store the music on hard disk = Sooloos "Store" (you cannot use a third party NAS - this must be Meridian)
2) Main engine of the system = Sooloos "Core" (you cannot use a PC or other computer for that - must be Meridian)
3) Get analogue or digital music out = Sooloos "Audio End Point" - again must be Meridian
4) Send instructions to the "Core" with a user interface = Sooloos "Control" (iPad / iPhone / iPod Touch / PC / Mac / Browser running Flash such as that on a Playbook)

So in answer to the question, this new MS200 is a standalone part 3 above. This means you'll need "Store", "Core", "Control".

Fortunately a MC200 has both "Store" and "Core" so would be an ideal partner. After that, you'll still need a "Control" of some sort. I imagine that most here use an iPad but I use a Blackberry Playbook for the time being. The iPad interface is vastly superior but the Playbook (running Meridian Control:Web in a browser) suits me fine for the time being.

/Marcus

You don't actually need the iPad. You will have to have a computer (PC or Mac) to load the Sooloos, and that can control it as well (as can an iPhone, if you happen to have one).

I have managed without an iPad for many months. If money is tight you can get one later.

iirc SB uses the TCP protocol which is better suited to less robust networks such as wireless. Still iirc, but early SB used UDP as used by Sooloos and changed to TCP due to issues found with some wireless networks. So a working SB over wireless is no definitive confirmation that Sooloos will work over wireless in the same environmental conditions.

Ok - thanks for that.

Pity. I suppose in this respect Linn and Naim's offerings are more flexible and affordable than those of Meridian. It would be much preferable if Meridian were to offer something similar.

The problem with the MC200 is the 'fixed' internal hard-drive. There is no upgrade path other than buying the latest model with larger capacity drive. What is more, by their nature, it is not a case of if the hard-drive will fail but when.

I don't have the budget for a MC600 so the greater flexibility of buying that version of Sooloos is impractical.

Personally I'm still finding 500 GB rather a lot. I had in the back of my mind the size of Hi Res files and that causing a capacity problem but they don't sound (hardly any) better than an upsampled CD to me. If you've got thousands of CDS, fair enough.

When my drive goes (all safely backed up) I will be politely enquiring whether it can be replaced by a 1 TB one. I expect the "official" answer to be no...

Meanwhile in terms of zones, I'm Airplaying ControlMac to wherever I want, via Airport Express, direct to a rather funky pair of Airplay speakers and using ControlMac on any spare laptop using optical out. I've got more zones than places to put them, without buying anymore M gear (I'd love an MS200 linked to a pair of 3200s and a DSW please Santa).

And you can get a TwinStore, or whatever the latest incarnation is. Once you have Sooloos you will want more zones in time.
It ain't cheap, but there you go. Chris

The new MC200 1TB at �2,000 (less discount) would allow a Library of up to 3,000 Albums

If that were not sufficient, then the MD600 at �2,500 would be the next step up, not necessarily the �6,000 MC600

The MD600 with 4TB Drives in Raid 0 config would allow >20,000 Albums in the 8TB space, which should be enough for most collections!

Or
Well let me just say I sold a Naim NS-01 (infrastructure version) for a Sooloos. People say they want to use their own NAS, which I have, but I could not be happier with the Sooloos. Naim was far less stable and expansion zones were not any cheaper. I would add that customer / corporate support is better with Meridian than with Naim.

I wonder how many people really have more than one place where critical listening would necessitate the MS600? I know I only have one! Will also be interesting to see how much MS200 actually gives up in terms of sound quality.

Today I saw the MS200 'in the flesh' at the RS AV Solutions open day (thanks to everyone at RS AV for an interesting display and discussions) and I must admit it's seriously cute! It's significantly smaller than I expected (think hip flask or cigar case).

As others have said it will be interesting hear it - I think it was said it should sound better than MC200 audio outs.

But back to the size: the electronics inside must be quite compact; it must be 'easy' to fit those electronics into a box the size of a F80/M80 (OK I know the F80/M80 is a packaging marvel already...) and build in the Sooloos end point.

Chris