Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos Ongoing Development

I think a very large part of the market for Meridian are owners who want a turnkey system with an M badge on it and are prepared to pay a premium for the privilege. I believe someone once told me that the C15 was one of their best sellers.

This is obviously quite different to the market prepared to do the research and go out an buy their own kit, install different pieces of software on it, and keep it running over the years.

In the 3-4 years that I have owned Sooloos, I think the number of times that I have had to maintain the kit I could count on one hand. And all of those were my choice.

Compare that to the number of software and anti malware updates needed to keep a regular computer system on the go, you can see why many people just want to turn the thing on and play the music. And for that, they have already paid their premium for.

I don't think the throw away society have the same expectations as those that value what they have worked hard to aspire to own.

Thank you Ian and Ronnie
+1
Expertly and intuitively put.

Now where did I leave my boots?

Hector

Minor Sooloos updates that don't require hardware change were FOC. That has been great.

Updating to Sooloos 3 / Roon was always very likely to need a new OS, more RAM, maybe more HDD. So, there was always a hardware element.

IMHO, Sooloos is quite far from meeting the criteria necessary to be called a "Turnkey System"... Why??

1) All Sooloos Backups and Restores [which are essential even with the Raid 1 array in some of the Stores] to an External USB or NAS Drive are all carried out via Control:PC or Mac... and obviously these Devices are not supplied by Meridian, as part of their "Turnkey System"... and these PC's need the same level of "software and anti-malware updates" as you describe above

2) For a variety of reasons, most people use dBpa or XLD or similar to perform the CD RIpping... and then use the same computer and CPC / CMac to perform the subsequent Album Import into Sooloos... again, this computer is not part of the "turnkey" system from Meridian... and needs the same TLC as you describe above

3) That a Mac user needs a Windows PC in order to run the Sooloos Configure program... which many times is essential for Sooloos setup and maintenance and trouble-shooting... as well as turning the Core functionality on or off as required

4) Many here are demanding an iPad app before they even consider looking at Roon... which obviously means that many people use it as their Sooloos UI... and again this device is not part of any turnkey system from Meridian... and as such needs to be maintained by the same software and anti-malware updates as you describe above... again Maintained by the User, without any assistance from Meridian

5) even a casual perusal of the HH Forum will show that most of the User's Sooloos problems are posted and solved here by HH Members... and NOT by Meridian or their PP's... again, how can that meet the criteria for a Turnkey system??

So, we've established that a Sooloos User needs a non-Meridian device for

* Backup & Restore [essential process, regularly required]
* Ripping and File Import [again an essential and frequently required process]
* iPad for UI and Music selection etc
* PC to get support to sort out problems

Let's not kid ourselves that the Sooloos User doesn't need the same level of PC hardware & software expertise that a Roon user might require... with the added advantage that the Roon user has DIRECT access to Roon personnel and their Answers thru the Roon forum... something not available from Meridian

Let's not conveniently forget all the pieces of kit, that we all use to keep our Sooloos systems up-to-date and running smoothly... as well as adding new music on a weekly or more frequent basis

I agree. I would add that the backup/ restore procedure on Sooloos is not really reliable on large collections and needs the additional program written by ncpl to be anything near effective. It is just so much easier to manage a conventional FLAC database outside of Sooloos - editing and backup are simple and almost all streamers can read it. Given the open nature of Roon (software and support) and the fact that Roon is an order of magnitude better than Sooloos in many areas (for example, just look at the TIDAL integration aspect, which is streets ahead) making the switch should be an easy choice.

I am not aware of any substantive updates to the software in the past (except for the iPad app and allowing use of QNAP) which greatly improved its interactivity features. I felt that allowing QNAP to be a store foreshadowed offloading components which did not fundamentally affect sound quality. I feel sure that whatever they release will not hurt sound quality.

Stepping back from being a Meridian partisan, I can't see how they could ever keep pace with hardware advances on the software front captive inside Meridian. The cold hard reality is, to keep such a product current, it has to have broad distribution. That M will support it's use on their end points is reasonable.

If I were they, I would view supporting legacy equipment with enhanced capabilities at any special effort to be a "Tar Baby" to be avoided at all costs.

I agree with Ian in the sense that I thought I was paying for a turnkey, premium system, and, while I do find Sooloos works well in terms of the networking aspect and responsiveness, I also agree with Ronnie and Altus that it doesn't quite deliver a true turnkey solution on several other counts.

Many of the things I find most irritating in Sooloos appear, on the face of it, to be much better handled in Roon, and Ronnie is completely correct when he mentions it's a much more modern approach to software- users having access to the developers for support, etc.

I'm almost being convinced this is the way to go, despite extra cost, but am still hesitant to move before definitively knowing in what way Meridian might have done some kind of Roon/Sooloos 3 deal for existing customers which might offer me the best of both worlds (particularly if it does maximise the use of existing Sooloos hardware).

Hopefully we might hear something definitive soon...!

Assume you have the free trial of Roon?

Agree it would be better if the Roon software could run on M cores (or some of them at least) and think this would be better than trying to develop existing Sooloos software, at least on the Ui side. SQ is different - getting the DSD and hi res formats working on the M endpoints is very welcome.

Sooloos is about as close to turnkey as one could want.
- I don't back up anything. Never have in 30 + years and never will.
- I use Control:Mac to import CD's and files. Since just about anyone who is going to purchase something from Meridian will own some kind of computer that is not an issue.
-iPads are about as ubiquitous as mobile phones. It isn't like I had to go purchase one to run control Sooloos
- I haven't had a PC in the house in years. The only time I could have used one is when I need to turn off the MC200's Core to allow output from Roon to my 808 endpoint. Since I don't have one, I gave up on Roon.

I think I said early on in this thread or a similar thread that it is an unusual but terrific thing that we, HH & Sooloos users, have choices here. That is pretty much unheard of on Planet M.

There is no rush to jump into Roon or make any decisions. Roon only came out last week after all.

Let the folks figure out what can be offered and hopefully John and Bob will be back on HH in due course to share what the plans are.

I'd say: patience. Enjoy your current setup. Let others take the plunge and help Roon tweak and tune for an even nicer experience.
Roon has already indicated that on their roadmap they want to partner up to provide a turn key Roon offering. Could be with Meridian, could be something else. Either way, it will generate choice!

Really you don't backup I fail to see how you think that is a good idea? I assume you have not been streaming for 30 years, the only question regarding hard drive failure is 'when' not 'if', you really should back up.

Cheers

Russ