As you expect here at HQ we're working flat out on many exciting projects and I am now pleased to provide you with a comprehensive update on Meridian Sooloos, addressing your FAQs and presenting a roadmap for just some of the developments you'll be seeing from us soon.
Meridian’s mission is to provide the very best audio experiences for our customers. Exquisite sound quality is our DNA and our purpose is to provide rich musical experiences from superb products that deliver peerless performance.
Meridian provides the very best loudspeakers and complements them with 2-channel and multichannel controllers and advanced system integration.
As music formats have evolved, Meridian has been at the forefront – contributing technology, pioneering the CD, DVD and Blu-Ray formats, and supporting that with superb, ground-breaking products. As music distribution evolved to include download, it was our desire to deliver a fully integrated, engaging experience, especially for customers with large or particular music collections.
Those considerations led us to acquire Sooloos in 2008 and to incorporate that music cataloguing system with our state-of-the-art hardware and signal processing. Today the Meridian Sooloos products deliver our legendary sound quality and every part of the software and hardware is developed and manufactured in-house.
In 2009 we added streaming services, but had to wait until 2014 to offer suitable lossless audio as an alternative to physical media or download. The recent addition of TIDAL to our Sooloos system is the beginning of a new era on our journey combining great sound quality with great convenience.
Those of you who have been paying attention will also have seen that Meridian has been investing heavily in technology and research to improve the quality of sound in recordings and music distribution. The announcement of MQA makes it clear that we are rapidly on the way up here too.
Meanwhile, the small team we acquired with Sooloos concentrated since 2009 on supporting the HP software and evolving music cataloguing and metadata systems suited to a mass market.
What has changed at Meridian?
Meridian has recently spun out that part of the team dedicated to supporting HP along with IP relating to high volume music data management. Meridian retains all of its IP, patents, brands, trademarks and expertise, including the in-house team that has been developing and managing our Sooloos system since 2009.
Why did Meridian do this?
Ultimately Meridian is a high-end audio systems company, not a bespoke software consultancy. We therefore decided to divest our B2B software applications business and have supported the eight staff dedicated to that part of our company to leave and establish what we hope will be a successful business in Roon Labs. We think they can make a successful software services business – we part as friends and wish them well. In fact we are proud to be their first customer for a customised metadata service to enhance our Sooloos range.
What does this mean for owners of Meridian Sooloos streaming systems?
There is a lot to be excited about! We are very serious about sound quality and have a roadmap to evolve our Sooloos audio platform rapidly in a number of directions.
An intuitive, immersive user-interface is key to a compelling high-end audio system. We have always believed that our customers are best served by high performance products that are designed as part of a stable, dedicated and complete end-to-end audio system. To that end, we have been investing in product development resources over the last 18 months and several significant projects are nearing completion.
What is next for the Meridian Sooloos product range?
Even though Meridian has an enviable track record of innovation we tend to be reluctant to discuss details of future products or upgrades too early in their development cycle as we really don’t like to disappoint our customers if, for whatever reason, they don’t materialise. Despite that, we want to share with you some information on a few of the upcoming Meridian Sooloos updates:
Format Roadmap • Changes are under way to enable core support for 24-bit ALAC, DSD, and ‘8x’ sample-rates including DXD via MQA. As currently, the core mediates all formats to the various endpoints and no-one will be left behind. • We are adding support for albums and sets with mixed-sample-rates. • MQA. The current system is MQA-aware but during the next few months MQA decoding will be added. • As currently, the Sooloos system is able to send the optimum signal to each end-point.
Hardware Roadmap Our recently announced 818v3 and 808v6 fully support the formats listed above, including native decode of DSD (DoP) and MQA and, as you might expect, there are a number of other announcements coming.
Exclusive content Curated collections via TIDAL. One of the biggest problems for newcomers to serious music listening is building a collection that suits their taste. In the past this involved ripping CDs or laboriously accumulating downloads. With our special integration of TIDAL we can add simple-to-install curated music sets as a small download.
Core and Storage Hardware Last year we released a plug-in for the QNAP NAS range that provides Sooloos-compatible storage. Beginning with the next release we add an option to run our Sooloos Core on QNAP. This means that more music lovers can join the Meridian Sooloos world without any compromise to sound quality. A QNAP, an iPad and a Meridian Sooloos end-point will get you started!
Moreover, we are enabling the Sooloos music library to be ‘watched’ allowing you to try alternative music control apps, such as the forthcoming Roon software, but to keep all of your superior, bespoke metadata.
Control You may have noticed rapid developments in the iPhone and iPad clients. The iPad app is undergoing further optimisation and, as usual, when that is released it’s a free upgrade.
From our next release there is also a brand-new Control option. Touch:PC provides an enhanced version of the interface hitherto only available in Control:15. For the user who appreciates the benefit of a large-scale touch screen, this free software can be installed in any touch PC running Windows 7 or 8 that has a 1920x1080 display.
As you can see there is a lot coming, particularly focussing on sound quality and convenience.
Thank you for your continued support of Meridian. This is just the start, we will have a lot more to tell you over the coming months…
Being cheeky, can you confirm whether or not the audio endpoints, other than IDxx will be able to take full advantage of MQA. It would seem that perhaps MHR output is the key here, something that MSxxx/MCxxx/Cxx currently appear not to provide.
Meridian owner since 1992 Prime & PSU, Focal Elear headphones, Roon (ROCK 8Gi5 NUC), Explorer 1 & 2, F80. 200/203, various Sonos (via Roon).
Curious about DSD (DoP) on the 818v3. Will that be USB only, or will it accept DoP over SPDIF? (I understand that's possible, although I haven't yet researched to see if there is an SACD player which will output it.)
Excellent and exciting news! It does help clarify a number of questions that have arisen for myself and others. Now, if we could only get some idea of when these various new products/software may be expected. I have heard that the 808 and 818 upgrades are being delayed because of chip availability. We have all been anxiously awaiting MQA since the December announcement. I am looking forward to experiencing MQA in my own system. Here's hoping "soon" means this quarter.
Thanks again for the news.
Wayne
System 1: 861v6+ID40, UHD722, DSP640x2, DSP520C, DSP320x2, DSWx2, Sony XBR-100Z9D, Oppo UDP-203, Kaleidescape, AppleTV 4K System 2: 808.3 upgraded to 808v6, MC200, HD621, DSP8000.2 with SE Upgrade System 3: F80 Currently unused: DSP3200x4, DSP33x2, DSP33C, D1500, DSP420x2, G68ADV, G98DH, HD421
So, regarding Roon, we should be able to run Sooloos or Roon (with a Roon core on the network) based on the same library without comparability issues?
If yes, what would be the best way to run a Roon headless core, pre supposing the iPad can be used as GUI for Roon eventually?
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
Great to see that by also adding DSD (how despicable it may be for some of the crowd) it looks that Meridian has managed to add the majority of recordlabels on their palmarès. 24 bit Alac does that point to the new ITunes future? Curious to know who are the MQA converts, nevertheless: well done for thIs achievement.
Cheers!
Living room: Ansuz Mainz8 C2, Uptone Ethernet Regen, Grimm MU1, Audionote (UK) DAC 5 Special, TT2, M2RIAA, Audionote (UK) OTO Line SE Signature, Fleetwood Deville SQ sold (Q1-2024): 818v3, DSP7200SE Office: MS200, audio engine A2+ Spare: STAX SRM-323II, SR303, MC200 (Roon ROCK’ed), Roon: life time subscription
A very welcome announcement for all Sooloos users. From a purely selfish perspective, I'm hoping that those of us with an MD600 (and MC200 for that matter) will still end up with some added value for our substantial outlay, given that a QNAP will be able to run core/store.
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