If Roon is the Sooloos 3 we think we all want, if it runs on a QNAP and Roon will drive Meridian end points, your MD600 and mine will be worth at least as much as a used QNAP. If Roon takes off, plays nice with MQA, and is reasonably priced, this could be a good thing.
Last edited by Mtns; 2015-04-0504:47. Reason: Forgot to post last sentence
Cambridgeshire, U.K. -- Meridian Audio sold off its music-software applications business to Roon Labs, a newly established company run by the two men who developed the original Sooloos media server technology that Meridian later acquired. The new company �will create software sold directly to end-users and software for manufacturers, including Meridian,� said a Roon spokesperson. New software products are already in testing at Roon Labs, and the first will be made available in the second quarter, he said. Although Roon is an independent company, said Meridian CEO John Buchanan, �Meridian Audio and Roon Labs will continue to collaborate and work closely together into the future.� The deal �enables our software applications team to establish a separate company to address specialist software requirements for other consumers,� Buchanan said, noting that Meridian has �fully absorbed the Sooloos experience into Meridian�s hardware product offering.� Meridian retains the Sooloos brand name and �remains fully committed� to the Meridian Sooloos system, which has been upgraded to add Tidal�s CD-quality streaming service, he said. Roon co-founders Enno Vandermeer and Danny Dulai were the original pair behind the development of Sooloos system. Their company, also called Sooloos, was purchased by Meridian in 2008 because Sooloos needed to partner with a company with hardware-development experience, Vandermeer said. �When we first launched Sooloos as a company, we had to make dedicated hardware to create the experience we wanted to achieve. When we wanted to grow, Meridian was a perfect partner, being a pioneering leader in digital audio hardware,� he said. TAGS: Meridian Audio Sooloos Roon Labs - See more at: http://www.twice.com/news/financial/Meridian-spins-Sooloos-software-group/56615#sthash.VmO2hsGZ.dpuf
I think I'm one of the few that thinks this is positive news for M and us in the long term although it will perhaps hurt current customers (including me).
What I see from this is Roon having the resources, commitment and expertise to develop the best music serving interface software out there, continually changing and improving the experience. Lets consider what M have really done with the Sooloos interface since they acquired it - which is not anywhere near as much as I(and many others on here) expected. The way Sooloos deals with individual tracks is pre-historic and the only upgrade I can remember of note that actually improved my experience was being able to go to album details from the Explore function.
My personal concern is that the C15/C10 will not be able to support top of the line streaming solutions which would make use of swipe and much better responsive touchscreens. I also very much doubt it would be cost effective for M to improve this with the low cost of tablets these days. But in the longer term, if I can have a top notch app on a tablet that will control my M system and deliver superior quality sound to what I have now - which also shouldn't put me out of pocket (in the context of what I've already spent) then I'll be a happy camper with a nice ornament (aka C15!).
Main: MS600, G61R, DSP3100Vx3, DSP33x2, SW1600, Samsung 65JS9500 TV, Sony X800, Wireworld Star*light video cabling, Isotek Vision, Isotek Elite/Prem mains cabling. Office: Roon ROCK on NUC7i5, Allo USBridge + iFi PSU, Prime Amp/PSU, Fostex TH900. On the Go: Surface Pro, Explorer2, Sennheiser Momentum M2 Smyth Realiser2 on pre-order :-)
So at this point, why would anyone buy anything other than an MC200? It seems like having the NAS option will give better flexibility while keeping legacy M hardware will limit ones options? I sure hope I am wrong, but based on comments from Roon, it seems like they are not focused on anything other than the NAS option...
Primary: MD600, MS200 (SpeakerLink to AES), Trinnov ST-2, Ayre V6-xe, Salk SS8 3x LRC. Secondary: MC600 (whole house). Zone one: 568.2, G57, MS200, Spatial Hologram M2SE. Zone 2-6 (Awaiting assignment).
What really is the MD600 but a NAS with programmed restrictions? Endpoints will soon be able to run from Roon (Sooloos 3 to me) in addition to Sooloos 2.2 for some fee which is unknown. I hear the cries for patience but silence itself speaks.
At the end of the day the parties leave the separation with the intellectual property left with the creator. As M is partially (assumption on my part) owned by Private Equity, they surely would have enforced any intellectual property contractual rights M held; unless in the mutual self-interest of both parties this is the way forward.
I take comfort in the fact that I can't see why their interests and M's don't align and hope this can help MQA really get off the ground.
So at this point, why would anyone buy anything other than an MC200?
Why would anyone even buy that?
Surely if Roon can talk to an MS200 and use that as an end point that is all anyone really needs, they of course may want an MS600.
Roon have pretty much said that you will not be able to install Sooloos 3.0, sorry, I mean Roon, on Merdian hardware, you will just be able to use it as an end point.
And let's be honest, how many will want to continue using Sooloos 2 when Roon arrives. Especially if Roon include far more streaming services, which is the way music is going. As much as I wanted Sooloos a few days ago I had held off because I listen to Souncloud and Mixcloud a lot, same with Calm Radio, now I don't expect Meridian to ever add those, but I bet Roon will allow them, either officially or through end user hacks as happened with Squeezebox and Sonos.
So I can see why Tyler Bell feels disgruntled, if I had just bought into Sooloos to be told the new software won't work on his unit going forward I would be pretty jarred off too.
This is the sort of thing I never get with Meridian, they announce something massive like this without announcing how it will affect their customers, customers who have ploughed thousands into some of the most expensive hifi you can buy. They seriously need to think about some levels of reassurance to their customers.
Same with MQA, how many are buying new M gear at the moment while there is no idea what kit will even work with it and what will need to be replaced? The only reason to keep quiet that I can think of is a fear of loosing sales currently, which makes me think their will be some pretty serious hardware upgrades needed. If it were a case of only needing a firmware upgrade then I think we would know by now.
However... for all we know Meridian may be working with Roon to create a version that does run on Sooloos hardware, which would change everything, but this should have been agreed before the split, and should have been part of the announcement too, to save pissing customers off.
Personally I love the news, NAS into MS200 into my 5200s, being controlled by my iPad or Galaxy Tab, is a nice way to move away from Sonos, so a big thumbs up from me, but for those that have bought into Sooloos I understand why they may be feeling a bit sick right now.
I've been mulling over this since the acnnouncement. I can see that it has pro's for both parties, but for us consumers, the devil is in the detail that we (or at least, not all of us) are privvy to. I have a number of thoughts that I will put out there.
Do Meridian retain a share holding in Roon? It would be nice to see Roon do well and it woukd also be nice to see Meridian benefit from their past faith (and lifeline?) in the Sooloos/now Roon founder and current members should Roon be bought.
Assuming that S3/now Roon was always destined to be a paid product, whilst in Meridian ownership there always remained the possibility that ones purchase in Meridian hardware (that one must assume carried a premium for its ongoing software development costs that has now become Roon) could have earned a credit towards a subscription to S3. Now that S3 is Roon, has the possibility of this credit been lost on both past and future hardware purchases?
Following on, what does this announcement mean for the MD600, MCx00, C15 lines?
And finally, Meridian have a strong track record of supporting past purchases with future enhancements. It's what attracts many to the brand. With products such as MD600, MCx00 and C1x, they contained internal compute capability enough to run Linux builds. With no longer any obvious need for Roon to be handcuffed by less powerful platforms and, in the case of C10/C15 screen capabilities, this will benefit Roon with their ability to target modern 64 bit, fast multi core, GPU accelerated platforms, is Sooloos S2.x now the only route for C10/C15 and in case of MD600/MCx00 the choice between S2.x or reusing it as a very expensive NAS and/or audio endpoint in addition to the additional (unsubsidised?) Roon subscription and finding suitable additional modern compute needed to run Roon?
All that said, currently Sooloos is a real product that many have enjoyed over the years, Roon remains a future product (Q2?) with what appears to be no native app support on phones/tablets nor DSP that may be needed for MQA. I guess that time will tell whether Roon is a better, or indeed economically viable product for all.
Meridian owner since 1992 Prime & PSU, Focal Elear headphones, Roon (ROCK 8Gi5 NUC), Explorer 1 & 2, F80. 200/203, various Sonos (via Roon).
As far as I can gather it is original Sooloos kit eg: Ensemble, Store:One, TwinStore, C10 etc. that won't work with Roon, I think this was always likely to be the case with the 'Sooloos 3' upgrade anyway?
The issue for people is that it appears from Roon announcements that none of the current core devices eg: MC200, MC600, C15, MD600 are enabled and powerful enough CPU wise to run the Roon software, Roon suggest an Intel NUC running an i7 CPU! So personally I have a C10 and MD600 that will not feature in my future plans, however all endpoints are good to go (we still don't know if that is correct for MQA)? Currently everything that works on Sooloos 2.2 carries on working and being fully supported by Meridian.
Your future system appears to be missing the 'PC' to run Roon?
As I said, I'd love it if Meridian would offer a Roon software upgrade for the MC200 and other cores. The new software has higher CPU and ram requirements, but I'm sure it'd work.
The endpoint only devices at Meridian would not need any upgrades. MS200, MS600, ID4x, etc...
If Meridian does not offer an upgrade to the "cores", you can still use them as an endpoint, and I believe the storage is already exposed as a read/write SMB share. It should work fine.
If you want to get going with Roon ASAP, it'll be a simple thing to do with existing gear, and maybe some upgrades will possible later, from Meridian and others.
Until there is: 1. Deal between M and Roon 2. Roon packaging and testing an MC200 linux distro with Roon server
If you want Roon, probably need to atleast slap another RAM DIMM into MC200.
If no MC200/linux distro is announced then I guess it could be time to think about replacing the mini itx board with something that can run windows 10 with passive cooling and install roon.
DSP8000SE, DSP7200SEHC, DSP5200SE sides, DSP7200SE rears, 861v8, 210, Sim2 Ultranero 4, Stewart Cinecurve 2.35:1, XEIT CM-5E Anamorphic lens, Dune HD Duo Cinema 8K and Wireworld Platinum 48G HDMI -> UHD722 -> Shunyata Omega Ethernet. Shunyata/Furutech power-cables/filters. SR Master Fuse@861v8. Uptone Etherregen with 10MHz OCXO clock.
That is ok for those who would feel confident taking on that task, the vast majority of owners I suspect would not feel confident or indeed willing to do so, I wonder what will be offered if you go to buy a Sooloos system after May?
1: Sooloos 2.2 2: Sooloos 2.2 with the option to upgrade to Rune 3: Rune
I suspect option 3 as any dealer would surely want to show the system off to its best advantage, it just might be awkward when the Linn and Naim systems at the dealers are running the same interface!
I can foresee the day that we will look back on the 'Retro Charm' of Sooloos 2 with its simplicity and ability to just play music. This seems to be happening in the computer game world, only time will tell. Just don't junk your C15's yet.
Chris
No 18 in the Hall of fame I have simple tastes; I am content to settle for the best: GIK monster bass panels, rear wall. QNAP TVS 471i3. Roon into DSP5200SE via 210/ 218 zone... Explorer 2. Bluesound Pulse 2, Mini & Flex. 596v1, 518, Foxsat HD, Sony BDP, Pioneer 5090, 2 Chromecast's for LRB videos. MS200 to F80 for a Roon zone
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