Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk

Our friends from M can go two ways:
- small evolutionary step
- another revolution

I would vote for the second

At the start, Sooloos was revolutionary:
- an easy way to store lots of music
- and an enormously simple and convenient way to access it (though a beautiful UI).
- with a awesome sound quality
- allowing you to rediscover your collection

Fast forward to 2014...

Easy storage and access of music is mainstream. We're no longer interested in our collection, we are used to accessing all the music (and video) on the planet. In quality that ranges from HD to acceptable. All through streaming platforms like Qobuz, Spotify, Rhapsody, etc.

The benefits of a Sooloos system are diminishing rapidly in this light.

I don't have any CD's anymore, why would I? Music sits on my NAS. But, more importantly, I would expect that in a year or so I don't have any local music anymore. Too much hassle to maintain, with too little gain in SQ. A simple, very low cost, subscription will bring me more music to discover than I can ever procure.

But... it is still a pain to access these streaming sources. Sure, Rhapsody is embedded in Sooloos and my SBT does my Spotify access. But, both cripple the experience. The interface with these services is very restricted. Power up the Spotify app on my laptop or iPad and it becomes much easier to discover music and share with others.

Maybe the Devialet approach is a direction, and the focus would be more on a 'DAC type' linkage.
But it would be nice not to need a PC / Mac you need to setup and configure yourself.

Real awesomeness would start with a cloud based service.
A simple hook into all the streaming stuff, from one Meridian jump point, streaming with HD to several types of devices, not just the awesome Meridian set at home, but also the iPhone at work.

I'm not sure what the right solution is, but then again I am not 'M' . For me, simple tweaks simply won't cut it.

My current streaming solution, based on files on my NAS/MC200 is end of life...