Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Hardware with Roon Application Roon - just what are we getting?

Haha, yes, I feel like I missed a lot somehow, I'd popped into the forum occasionally, but must have missed the initial Roon discussions before it was made a sub-forum, which I then didn't know to look at! Thanks for the info on MQA, sounds good.

Russ, haven't tried it as I don't have a PC/Mac to put in the listening room, or a place to put it! Even if I did, what would I do with my MC200

Separately, it seemed that Bob S's recent response to the Sooloos update thread implied he still believes a closed architecture system, such as Sooloos, has greater SQ potential, or have I misinterpreted that?

Meridian have long been on the record that their Core / Store devices (MC200, MD600, MC600, Control 1x) have ZERO impact on Sound Quality when being used in conjunction with their network audio Endpoints (MS200, MS600 and ID4x).......i.e. you can use any of the Cores and there will be no SQ difference at the Endpoint.......the benefit of Network based Audio

And there is no implication in Bob's message that a closed architecture will have greater SQ potential.....indeed it's the opposite.....that Meridian Endpoints can be successfully used with Roon software and perhaps other app similar apps in the future

Sounds good, thanks for clarifying.

You could still use the MC200 as an endpoint in a Roon system.

Cheers
Tom

And store?


Russ

I have an 818 as my endpoint, although I take your point I could use it in another space, which might be useful at some point, although I've always found the dedicated end points to sound better in terms of SQ/DAC (e.g. MS200).

Wow, there was a lot of 'point' in that last sentence

Sorry, Russ, I've misunderstood I could use It as a store - I thought that wasn't possible - so Roon can still interface with the MC200 as a Sooloos store, or would it just become the most expensive 500GB NAS in history ?

Meridian has announced that the Sooloos store will be auto-exportable (with hopefully sensible meta-data embedded) someday. This will take some programming and QA period on the Sooloos side.

Until then you will have to do a native export or use the native dBpa or other files that you used to import (which I have done). If your CD's were ripped by Control:10/15 and you don't want to export your collection natively, you will have to wait.

I'm wondering if my expensive 2-disk linux raid box can have FreeBSD or something loaded onto it to become an "Isle of Wight" vacation home music server. Though I have already purchased a 16-bay Supermicro chassis with 32Gb of ram to be my vacation home video and FLAC / backup server ...

I am also waiting to decide where to commit as regards Roon/Sooloos.

I love Sooloos as it is rock solid and just works.

I love Roon as it is just so much fun.

The lack of metadata on Roon for a lot of what I listen to is a problem, I will have to add it all again manually, somthing I am not looking forward to and I have this in Sooloos.

If the MC 200 could run a headless Roon core, that would be perfect.
If the two apps, Sooloos and Roon could run side by side using the same library it would work for me.
The trouble is, we just don't know.

Time to wait I think. Chris

Chris
Have your tried pointing Roon at your Sooloos Core MC200 and seeing what the results are like

For the CD's in question, did you add the Metadata to dBpa at the Ripping Stage.......or did you add it to the Sooloos screen on Control-PC??

Assume you currently have Roon pointed to a Sooloos Export.......which would have the Tracks ID3 Tags populated by Sooloos

And that you're aware that there is an approx 3-click process to get Roon to revert to User Tags for each Album??.......thereby saving you from having to rekey data like Artist, Album and Track names etc

Ronnie, I have a Native exported folder with my complete library on. I have my MC200 and TwinStore off just now. I am running on a very nice laptop which I keep telling SWMBO is tempory.
I have added metadata at the dBpa ripping stage and Roon has Somtimes found album art when dBpa found non.
The Data lacking is the composers, Musicians, technicians etc.so you can't get the fun links.
Yes I have found how to get to the original data, but that is limited but essential.

You are right saying that mainstream support is excellent.

I know all of this can only improve over time.

Chris

Agreed, dBpa doesn't pick up on Credits for musicians and technicians etc.,.......so if you have already entered these into Sooloos, then I don't believe that Sooloos will export this data within the ID3 Tags of the Track files

So, you'll have the basic Artist, Album and Track Names.......and be able to play them in Roon.......but not be able to click on a musician's name to take you to other albums that he might appear on.......in the same way as you can when Roon has correctly ID'd an album and populated all of these fields

So I can see the dilemma

Oddly, I always had to spend ages on some albums unchecking a crazy amount of credits for things I don't care about like liner sleeve notes, and production assistant, etc. what dBpa did do, however, which I always found very desirable but which Sooloos strips out is per-track composers on albums, etc. does Roon use these?