Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Hardware with Roon Application How Much Will Roon Cost?

Suggested around �100 per year but nothing confirmed?

Russ

Ha!Ha!

It'll be the shortest-lived product launch/crash if that's the true cost. That's almost half a year of Tidal and they supply the music too!

~M~

M

Sooloos 3 was apparently always going to be a subscription model, I guess the cost would have been similar?

Russ

New Roon hardware + 5 years of subscription = less then entry level Sooloos Core 2nd hand. It works out at better value if you cost in 2 more endpoints.

Cheers
Tom

And that's why. Meridians 'Standard' Sooloos interface will survive.

1. It works well and is easy to use

2. No subscription fees, a turnkey solution with Tidal and MQA integration.

Now if you want more and are computer literate, Roon is your next option, only Meridian don't have to do all the upkeep and development that will be expected for �100 a year (ish) subscription.

Makes sense to me. Chris

OK - But say :

1) Roon is easy to use

2) There is an option to buy a lifetime subscription (there is) and its sold on pre-configured equipment (not yet!)

Lots of us moved from Meridian CD players to Squeezebox before Sooloos. This situation reminds me of the operating system OS/2 which was originally developed by Microsoft and IBM.

Cheers
Tom

I've already made it clear I'm a miserly skinflint so you shouldn't be surprised I agree.

In which case why did we ever buy Sooloos kit and not stick with Squeezeboxes or JRiver on our laptops? I always thought it was the Audio Quality. The clever design of the kit to reproduce high quality sound without the mush of the computer getting in the way. Is this suddenly not required?

Yah, the price is not released yet, but it'll be around the cost of a sandwich and a coffee a month, charged annually. Something very affordable, but it won't be "app" pricing. Our product will be best-of-class for data and sound quality. Our value is in the fact that we are premium at every stage. Think Photoshop, not MS Paint.

We are going after customers that range from college students to you guys with insane hardware budgets. We are shooting for something around $100/yr or so.

For that price you will get an extremely flexible media server solution that works in various topologies, streams directly to top audio hardware without quality compromise, and gives you depth and breadth of metadata like you've never seen before. Your carefully groomed collections will still be useful, but will be utterly transformed by the additional data[1][2]. We have that much metadata. At the same time, it wont feel like an encyclopedia, like allmusic.com does. Instead, it's a fun and educational experience all the way. It'll be usable by your kids, your spouses, and it'll keep you engaged too. On the sound quality side, we are working with the best of the best. You know his name, but I can't say it just yet. ;-)

If you haven't already, check out the sneak peaks at http://roonlabs.com/ and the conversation at http://community.roonlabs.com/


So still, why not 99 cents?

Well, first, we license the best and unfortunately, the most expensive data out there, to build the best metadata service in the world. We are also adding to this service all the time, with more and more sources. Some data we build, some we buy, some we hire to build.

And with Roon, your metadata is updated constantly. As we add new sources users will see the benefits live in their collection. Any grooming that's done is stored in the database seperately, so we're able to continually update the underlying data without interfering with your edits[1][2]. This is unlike anything else out there. Composers who die will show death dates, and artists will have updated photos as they age. Reviews will rewrite themselves to stay relevant over the years, as will the relationships between artists and their collaborative efforts.

We are also starting a user-generated metadata service as well, so you guys can contribute your experitise back to each other.

Our cloud services will also sync and save your edits, playlists, play history, and more... and I'm sure this will someday turn into the basis of a fully cloud based Roon offering.

Then you look at services we integrate with, like Tidal. Our Tidal integration takes their music, and does something awesome with it. We love their audio quality and the span of their library, but using their service still feels likes everything else. We've basically had to rebuild their backend databases on our side, so that our Tidal integration feels like Roon, and not a bolt-on. If you used the Rhapsody + Sooloos stuff my team did in the past, you know what I mean.

When we were doing hardware years ago, bundling these prices weren't a problem. Not just because we used fewer (and cheaper) data sources, but because the price of the hardware was more than high enough to give us wiggle room in our margin structure. This is obviously not the case any more, as we arent selling $8,000 boxes.

So, given all the above, plus much more I didn't talk about, we came up with a annual price that allows us to cover our costs, grow the offering, and make some amount of profit so we can continue to reinvest into our business.

That said, many people have asked for a single shot lifetime membership, so we are looking at that as well. Sorry, but I dont have a ballpark price for that yet.

Hopefully all this can be resolved in the next few weeks since we have to launch next month!

1: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/importing-content-from-Meridian-Sooloos-systems/205
2: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/leveraging-existing-metadata-in-audio-files/210

I think the lifetime subscription option could be key.

I know software companies are all trying to move to a software as a service annual subscription model, but I must admit it really irks me.

In the world of accountancy/payroll software, a substantial initial investment used to give you an application you could use for years, perhaps with some user-updateable screens for legislation parameters etc.

Those days have gone, and now they expect you to pay the original price and then some, each and every year, justifying that with the annual addition of new bloatware features which you will never use...

If the lifetime sub offer for Roon is anything like a reasonable price, then that is definitely the way I will go, and from the teasers and extensive information they have shared to date, I reckon it's going to be a bazzer!

Couple that with the astonishing MQA SQ most of us have now experienced, and our listening will have been completely revolutionised.

I can't wait

Neil

Actually, when I say it irks me, what I really mean is I resent paying annual subscriptions for something I used to be able to purchase as a one off, on the basis of providing me with functionality I didn't ask for, don't want and probably won't ever use...

... but I can see it makes perfect sense for a product like Roon. And tbh, an annual fee of $100 sounds okay to me, if it really is as good as we think it's going to be, and (crucial this one) if $100 doesn't puzzlingly equate to �100 for us UK customers.

But I will still probably go lifetime tho' if I can afford it!

Neil

I didn't buy a Sooloos Core (but was close to on a number of occasions). Here are some possible answers to your question.

1) We love Meridian hardware (we can still use this with Roon).

2) People liked the extra software features that it provided over Squeezebox and Sonos (I think Roon will provide a wider feature set then Sooloos).

3) The perception that there wasn't a computer involved (there was).

4) Some people liked having a large dedicated touch screen.

If you believe what is being stated, the audio quality won't change with Roon.

Cheers
Tom

I have no inside information here, but I fear the �/$ issue might have to do with pricing differences by music labels.

I do have some experience with the pricing contracts of the music labels, but in this case, I'm just speculating.

Roon won't have this issue.