Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Meridian Audio transfers software apps business to Roon Labs

In other news...

It seems Bob Stuart or someone posing as him has joined HH.

Soundserge

Bob Stuart has posted before, most notably on 03/03/11 under the user name Meridian HQ. If, as I think we might all hope, this really is Mr Stuart, I look forward to hearing from him when he has time to come and share his wisdom with the forum.

Regards

Richard

Several folks at HQ have posted under "Meridian HQ".
That works as a generic for info, but, all the better if folks post directly.

Roll on...

Yes, the HP business moved to Roon Labs.

I think I have read most of the previous 12 pages, so hope I am not repeating what someone else has said.

Firstly Meridian will do very well from MQA, which I would see as the basis for this change. Instead of storage on a home server, which was cutting edge till recently, HD music can now be streamed. I guess Meridian will continue improving and licensing MQA, which is great.

My own experience of the Sooloos interface and the accompanying software, was that it was always pretty archaic; one had to put in a lot of effort to use it properly, which I never did. With the size of the Sooloos user base, I suspect it was never really financially viable to make Sooloos what we and Meridian wanted it to be. So the solution was to allow a third party, in this case Roon, to develop a user interface that is far better, but viable because it could be used with far more systems, which will equate to a larger revenue stream and make the whole venture profitable. That's my hypothesis anyhow.

Should work far better and we will all have a user interface that is far more intuitive.

Has my vote

Rob

I'm inclined to agree.

I think my first reaction was 'Sooloos hasn't been updated in a while (new streaming provider aside)' and 'did the major upgrade to Sooloos just disappear?'.

Having had a chance to play with Tidal on Sooloos properly, I would say it is very well integrated and it seems Meridian to have the ability to move Sooloos forward, although I'm not sure how much focus this will have, given the importance of their work on MQA.

Given the choice, I would probably prefer Meridian to focus on making MQA a success and have another vendor dedicated to making Roon a success.

I also believe that anyone migrating from Sooloos to Roon has the likely upside of less expensive server components and greater compatibility across the home. Anyone staying with Meridian may not see the updates they will see on Roon, but I really don't think Meridian will pull the plug on it either.

Overall, I feel somewhat optimistic about the change (but not without a little apprehension).

I brought into Sooloos because it appeared to provide an Apple-like solution of matching a designed for purpose hardware with software designed for a superior user experience - but the end result wasn't for everyone, it was for audiophiles and it is awesome. It was and remains a premium priced solution. Overtime the hardware has improved (e.g. ID40 -> ID41) but the user interface has remained largely stagnant.

Streaming may be some people's answer but, not exclusively I would suggest, for the vast majority who already own an extensive catalogue of music already ripped onto a Sooloos drive. Tidal is only part of the streaming answer and it will never have a complete catalogue to everyone's taste. To me, the integration of Tidal into Sooloos software is just - okay - as if you know what you want to listen to it works. If you want to listen to something new or popular it may be available (subject to your tastes) and may even be recommended, but you have to switch to the Tidal app so you can see a discernible album cover or read anything about the music to help you decide - and then switch back to Sooloos to play it. Overall, it is a band-aid upgrade and is lacking in a richness of user experience.

MQA, which I have not had time to experience, if it (1) delivers what is promised, (2) is broadly/universally adopted by the music catalogue owners, (3) who are then prepared to invest in producing MQA-masters for (4) a broad selection of their back catalogues and (5) is supported by the desires of current artists, it will be a great advanced that is being shared with/licensed to the world. A lot of ifs still remain. IMHO M's ability to make MQA a success/industry standard is very limited and revolves around executive/marketing time and not engineering time save for updating/enabling its own product ranges.

Roon's software may well deliver a better music streaming / ripping / browsing / exploring / listening experience. It may be presented as good value as a Tidal subscription in the UK. A version may hit the Google app store. But already having paid a premium price I am paying again and no doubt a premium price again. While other can justify it - I do not - the music player on an iDevice comes for free. Apple gives their iOS and Mac OS updates for free. Who knows for how much M will earn from licensing MQA or what premium pricing will apply to the MQA encoded version of a track. The back catalogue owners and M's private equity investors reap their returns and the consumer gets gouged - well most probably the UK consumer at least.

In the absence of a clear roadmap for M's Sooloos software and being influenced by the normal levels of viral conjecture of HH threads of this nature (to which I am not doubt in part adding but trying not to), I will be disappointed if the current software version becomes an end of life product. One of half of the solution is kinda gone -although still usable. For me, it would also mean that some very expensive hardware is now probably of very little value given its proprietary nature if I on a rainy day I ever needed to sell it. The premium I paid and as an M Sooloos early adapter in that reality appears foolhardy.

Which makes me think that, in a lot of ways, the Sooloos/Roon situation is a bit of an asymmetrical outcome for HHs - those who invested in an M core, source and endpoint in an exciting and expanding M product range hailed as the audiophile's integrated solution by-in-large loose and those who didn't by-in-large gain by a much lower entry price for a Win/Linux core, source and (M) endpoint but for a much higher price for the software to drive it.

Did you read this from Bob Stuart posted recently?

Personally, I don't consider "a lot of excitement and activity here around Sooloos" to be a clear roadmap.

It's a darn sight clearer than any other roadmap M have ever given us publicly... No wonder so many familiar user names (including mine) are appearing on the Roon forum.

I'm reminded of a friend of mine who got blown off course during the truly dreadful '79 Fastnet race. The only map of the Irish coast they had on board when they got there was on a tea towel.

Ok but I have TIDAL on my C15, so far I am happy with it and patiently waiting the arrival of MQA, but all this Roon debate and other Sooloos related is making me nervous. I am holding back in investing in any new kit until this whole thing is fully sorted.

The nightmare scenario might be that MQA on TIDAL would only be available on Sooloos 3, which is no longer in the hands of Meridian - though for all I know they may Licence it back from Roon to service their loyal customers- I have been a Meridian owner for 18 years , and I know there are lot of other folks on this Forum with similar loyalties.

Seems to me that it's time that Meridian communicated some clarity on this. Even if they are not ready to launch imminently , then at least an announcement about what and when is now overdue.
What we have currently is reams of unqualified speculation- which is not helpful.

Regards
Huw

PS just to clarify when I refer to back Licence from Roon to Meridian , I was referring to Sooloos 3 itself , not MQA, which is clearly Meridian IP.

Hi Huw,

Meridian own the MQA IP, so it would be Roon that have to licence it from Meridian. There is a short discussion over on the Roon Labs forum on this, where Danny is more forthcoming with their road-map although it's not a 'concrete' one and that's fine.

We know that Sooloos now support Tidal and we know that Sooloos has be demoed both playing MQA files and more recently a PR demo was held with Tidal streaming MQA to Sooloos. So I believe it's safe for us to "take it as read" that this will become available to us shortly on Sooloos.

I totally agree that communication from M is poor, Meridian need to step up to plate and engage with it customers and inform us all what they have planned for Sooloos at least in outline form. Whilst I welcome Bob's input re the recent Metadata server issues it doesn't really help to fill the information vacuum, and in the absence any steer from M speculation is rife.

Regards,
Carl