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

The prices seem ok, I hope the 'exchange rate' makes a difference

I fear it will be a triumph of hope over expectation

Cheers

Russ

It could make Sooloos the cheaper long term option, however you may be assuming that you won't be wanting to replace Sooloos hardware as the product becomes more powerful. There are also considerations re: hardware faults that should be factored in. Roon will also have these, but there are more flexible workarounds with Roon.

Cheers
Tom

Hi Ludwig

For some people, the prime requirement is to be able to playback with a Meridian endpoint.

Cheers
Tom

Sooloos/M users for the first time have a choice. That's quite amazing if you reflect on where Sooloos started at Meridian.

Sooloos has certain features; Roon has those and other features. Users can decide what is important to them.

Sooloos isn't exactly free either. There is a considerable entry price currently. As stated above it isn't yet known if Sooloos Core for NAS will be free or paid for.

No reason for anyone to expect Roon to be free. We know that Rovi data, lyrics, last.fm, TuneIn etc all have costs.

You pay your money...

In looking critically at the Pricing Options, I see very few ways for the above statement to be true........and even those require some pretty generous Assumptions

Take a look at the Pricing options below and it's easy to see that in almost all cases, Sooloos ownership will cost more......and the following assumptions are made

a) That the Core / Server hardware for Sooloos / Roon will not require replacing or repair over the next 10 years......which if they did, then I think most people can see that the replacement / repair of the Meridian option will cost more than replacing / repairing a common PC

b) That the User doesn't already have a PC and NAS Storage that he can repurpose for the use by the Roon Server.......IMHO, most houses will already have such a machine they can use for this purpose

c) That a 500Gb or 1Tb Sooloos Core will be sufficient to handle a typical User's library

Just about the only way for the above to be true is if the User already has a Sooloos Core.......and would therefore need to invest in the Roon subscription model

And the Roon Trial period allows users to evaluate how Roon compares to their existing Sooloos UI.......and see if the extra annual subscription is merited by the Track Level Metadata and many other inherent advantages of the Roon software

Ronnie, how would you value Meridian's on-line support and their ability to access, debug and diagnose problems in their software and hardware? I think those costing elements are included in the capital outlay on a core device.

Will Roon have the service support model and bandwidth to offer an equivalent service over a wide and expanding range of combinations of NAS, computer o/s and hardware, etc?

Not disagreeing with your capital investment calculations but I suggest your operational costings may not be equivalent or complete.

I would be more than willing to pay for Meridian Core software for Mac/PC like any other piece of software - but not on a subscription basis.

Hi Gianni

For software faults I would expect Roon to fix bugs as part of the subscription as has been taken place during pre-release testing, as they don't currently provide hardware the warranty / repair costs of the hardware used to run Roon and or store the library would be down to the user as it is now.

Going forward I believe Roon will be able to support different OS and NAS's either directly, through the users forum or a combination of both, personally I have found this forum more able to solve user issues than MHQ.

All remains to be proved however.

Cheers

Russ

Ronnie,

You quote for a 10 year overall annual Roon subscription (£1,900) compared to buying a MC200 with a MS200 (£2,500).

I suggest that if buying the new Sooloos system that you don't need the MS200. That makes for a more equatable comparison. With a typical negotiated 10% discount on the Meridian option then I would rather pay £1,800 to own Sooloos outright.

Even so, one would need to factor in the cost of an iPad to control the MC200.

Trying not to be negative - just trying to ensure a level playing field for comparison.

Many (former and current) software engineers here will have been in that invidious position of having the software and hardware vendors pointing at each other when something breaks. When they both come from the same supplier there is only one place to go for support.

I bought into Sooloos because it was a complete, integrated, end-to-end packaged solution that was both expandable and upgradeable and I do not regret that decision. Sooloos being opened up to a wider range of platforms and user interfaces is great news. Personally, I don't have the time to invest in building and stabilising a bespoke music server from different components from multiple suppliers (for that is the new model being offered after all) but other people (rightly) enjoy those challenges.

Gianni

Never considered your comment negative, just a different viewpoint that is totally valid, if you like I will build you a Roon server

Cheers

Russ