Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Meridian Offer QNAP & dBpoweramp Support

Is this possible?

To me it doesn't seem right that the purchaser of an ID41, QNAP and iPad also needs to buy an MC200. I will be quite surprised if the QNAP plugin is a Sooloos Core, but I'll be delighted if it is.

IMO, it would be sensible (though bold) and very much non-short-term sales strategy to accept the hit on Core and storage sales with a view to driving audio endpoint sales and the overall number of Sooloos users. My gut feeling is that M would not only pick up new customers, but additional endpoint purchases from the "savings" made in the areas of Core and storage.

Only six days to go...

Personally I don't see it happening for a number of reasons.

Firstly, too cheap an entry would devalue the Meridian brand. Meridian is something to aspire to, not an equivalent to bits you buy in PC World (substitute your local equivalent of mass market shops with kit being sold by people not clued). The post just today in other thread about Porsche not building a family hatch is a good analogy.

Second, Sooloos uses a 'lockstep' release mechanism (everything released in one hit) and by pushing out a component as major as the core onto third party system would limit the changes that could be done. That said, a total replacement of QNAP firmware with Sooloos firmware would still fit in with this (and at least the last few releases had some code for QNAP devices but I do not know in what form) however, there are compromises when software has to be configured to run on multiple hardware variants if you are not in control of both software and hardware - i.e. Windows/Mac.

Thirdly, I do not see a reason why Meridian would want to give out their intellectual property for nothing. The Core IS Sooloos and I personally feel that bundling it with another hardware component of their making at a marked up price (i.e. MD600) is a perfectly reasonable way of charging for the cost of Core.

Finally, I'm not convinced that the future of Sooloos is totally core based. If you look at recent products and developments, Meridian HP Connected, Explorer, USB inputs in latest 8xx series products, I believe that there will be a differentiation between a PC/Mac based standalone system as with HP Connected (HP PC only) and a distributed core based system as we have now with Sooloos. If you want budget entry point, you go PC/Mac and have music when PC/Mac is on or you go up market with a distributed music system 24/7 and pay the premium for the Sooloos core and associated Meridian badged hardware needed to drive it.

Just my 2p.

I agree with all the above, not to mention that they'd p*ss off customers who had just spent a lot on an MC200... ahem...

As recently as 12 months ago, most would have considered �500 Sooloos Endpoints and Third-Party Storage to be essentially "impossible" for Meridian's strategy, and yet those Two have already fallen

Hopefully, Cheap "Core" functionality is the last shoe to drop... not so much for most Users here, many of whom already have Sooloos investments, but to encourage new Sooloos Users which I think is in Meridian's benefit and is therefore in our long-term interest as well.

Yes, I'm certainly holding off buying anything until the dust settles. Actually quite excited to see what comes out of these announcements (but I guess I'm not the only one).

Yeah, I was kidding (partly!) but I seriously don't think you'll see the price of core drop *that* much. We still don't know which QNAP will be supported, and it may well be one of their high-end 4-bay pro drives, which are well over �1K, and which I expect will be used as extra storage, rather than having any core functionality. That does seem sensible - I don't see why, after shelling out for core/store and endpoint, you should be stung on extra proprietary storage if it is simply a NAS and if it has no effect on SQ.

It should be remembered that the MC200 IS essentially a store/core/endpoint, as it has DACs and can be used direct to an analogue amp, or into DSPs, etc. By the time you bought what is likely to be a high-end QNAP, paid for whatever core plugin it supports, and added a decent DAC, would you be far short of the price of an MC200 anyway?

If a QNAP is enabled to run core, I would expect there to be a premium for whatever plugin or card is required to make that happen, I highly doubt Meridian are going to give that away for free! To make an analogy, the software for my Avid Media Composer is 'free', it's the little USB dongle which unlocks it that costs �1K

I totally agree. My question to M is how to take the uber high end theatre back from Kalaidescape(K) and the like, on a world wide basis. That has got to be the market that sustains the feasibility of high end processors/end points not to mention DSPs. I presume there is nothing to prevent hooking up a K digital feed into a Meridian theatre as just an additional source. Then it's music can be apodised, up sampled, processed to multichannel, etc. capturing the lion's share of M's advantages. THE SAME EASE NEEDS TO BE TRUE PUTTING M ENDPOINTS IN K's INSTALLED BASE.

Oh, how I wish Meridian could punch out a Kalaidescape like product. Kalaidescapes latest mass market release is interesting, but really is disappointing with the Bluray requiring a $5K disk changer. Kalaidescape cannot backup to a 3rd party NAS, it requires a proprietary server.

I would love to think that this is M's first step to boost capacity capacity in anticipation of a video option, but I severely doubt it, without clarity on the ongoing Kalaidescape lawsuit.

This thread is starting to drift, can we stay on topic please.

Regards,
Carl

Talking of QNAP...

I notice from the following table that significant amongst NAS manufacturers QNAP can boast as many as 7 of its models that are capable of transcoding PLEX in audio, SD (480p/576p), HD (720P), and HD (1080P).

Surely, that would make QNAP an ideal Sooloos - plus video - NAS.

QNAP Comparison

You know, looking at the specs of those (Intel powered) QNAP boxes, a Core is not out of the question. Would still be a pleasant surprise though.