Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos v2.449 Experiences (Post Update)

Judge for yourself...

Thanks Ian.

Looks a bit basic on Sooloos, is their a cover art view? When I said interface I meant the overall usefulness of it on Sooloos, whether it works the same as it does using the Tidal app.

I was expecting Tidal to be a bit compromised on Sonos as Spotify is, but it seems to be pretty much the same as using the Tidal app, not in layout but in what you can do. I have been seriously impressed.


When browsing artists, genres etc. I take it you can add the artist/track/album etc. to either Sooloos or to Tidals 'My Music' section?

And when you browse 'My Music' it allows you to view Playlists, Artists, Albums and Tracks, and then if you select say Artist and choose one of your saved artists you get Most Poplular Tracks, Own Albums, EP&Singles and Other Albums??

I really like the way Tidal does things and would hope that it works the same on Sooloos?

Ian,

Why would you show that view of Sooloos when you could have showed the same cover art view that you show on the left (actually above in my reply)? Now the Explore feature for Rhapsody and Tidal could be improved upon but I am used to it.

Agreed, once an album is in Sooloos you just integrate it with all the other album art. Whether you choose a Tidal album or CD/File the interface is exactly the same.

Sure you have to search for the albums you wish to import in a linear fashion, but you can do that on the iPad app as well. Once you know what you want, it's easy to import it.

Metadata is the new frontier IMHO. It is woefully lacking in a lot of the music I have via CD or Tidal.

I expect this is a common problem across all platforms once you stray away from the mainstream, and often in the new mainstream as well.

Thoughts, Chris

Have to say, sounds awesome!

Once you have you music 'favored' and imported from Tidal it is just like your own.
So far so good.

The only snag is that streaming though Tidal and Sooloos provides another dimension: discovery.
Or, even better with services like Pandora.

Looking forward to Sooloos v3 and how Meridian is going to add this in.

At least the foundation is very solid.

With regard to the Sooloos experience vs the Sonos experience, they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Sooloos Advantages

The album art view of your music library is better (as opposed to browsing music services). I like the way album art covers the entire screen, rather than Sonos which only uses part of the screen. Also, the Sooloos interface lets you sort the album art several ways. Finally, the Sooloos interface is much snappier as it has already loaded the album art and other metadata into its database. Sonos has to load the album art on the fly from your NAS.

Expanded Metadata and better search (of your library). Sooloos captures more metadata and it's search capabilities (of your library) are far superior (and snappier). Sonos is better for browsing music services (see below).

I really like the way Sooloos integrates albums from music services right into your library. Sonos separates "your library" by services. This advantage is magnified when using TIDAL. Since TIDAL streams lossless FLAC, the ability to add CD quality albums directly to your own library is fantastic. Sonos will also play TIDAL albums losslessly, but you have to navigate into the TIDAL service (within Sonos) to browse albums you've added to your library.

Sonos Advantages

Sonos shows you album art when browsing/searching music services. The Sooloos UI for searching music services is all text based.

Sonos supports many more music services.

Sonos lets you search across music services to find an album.

In many other smaller ways, the Sonos UI has more finesse.

Bottom line: I can easily play Sonos or Sooloos through my Meridian speakers. If I'm not grouping rooms, I always use the Sooloos interface as I prefer it. The integration of music service albums into one integrated library, the additional metadata, better searching, and snappier interface combine to make Sooloos a better overall experience.

I, too, see the "track 2 skipping" phenomenon.

However, the same track-skipping behavior also occurs if I pause playing a song that's part of an album, then resume playback -- upon restarting, the song I was playing completes successfully, but invariably, TIDAL skips over the next track.

Perhaps a buffering glitch? I wonder how far ahead the current playlist is buffering. . .

Thanks for the answers guys, really useful. Cheers.

I really like the TIDAL interface and the way you can wirelessly stream in full quality audio - albeit only through Google chrome for some reason. Maybe M could borrow some of their tech to allow local Sooloos wireless streaming at full quality rather than the 192kb limit using their webclient... Would turn my Surface 2 into a portable C15 :-)

And then how do Meridian sell C15's? That's always the problem. Technology is catching things up fast.
Thoughts, Chris

By replacing it (when the major update is released) with a successor with new screen technology running core with no storage capability? Caskeid wireless synchronized multiroom technology would be a plus also. Come to think of it, why wait on the update?
Just dreaming.

Is Meridian coming up with a new Sooloos core with no storage but only streaming capability is the question I asked Ken at the NYC presentation last week. His answer was "stay tuned"...