I am struggling to understand how Meridian will make any money without charging for Sooloos capability.
I am "guessing" Meridian may end up charging a fee (monthly, annually?) to access all of Sooloos functions, similar to the direction other software companies are heading.
Jim Wilson Alexandrea X2 Series 2 D'Agostino Momentum M-400 Amps & Pre Amp dCS Vivaldi DAC, Upsampler & Clock SME 20/3 & Esoteric E-03 Transparent OPUS SC & Interconnects
Maybe so but trying to make money selling MS200's isn't going to provide the type of returns they made selling C10's, C15's, MC200's, 808's, 818's etc.
Jim Wilson Alexandrea X2 Series 2 D'Agostino Momentum M-400 Amps & Pre Amp dCS Vivaldi DAC, Upsampler & Clock SME 20/3 & Esoteric E-03 Transparent OPUS SC & Interconnects
The 808 and 818 should not be affected as they are endpoints albeit good ones, whilst the C10, C15, MD600 are affected the MC200 remains as a current product offering Core,Store and endpoint in one box, whilst the income per device maybe reduced the opportunity to sell increased numbers of endpoints such as the MS200 into the reduced cost of entry Sooloos system as well as Roon based systems should not be underestimated.
Here is where I am coming from. Forgetting Roon for the moment I thought Meridian split Sooloos off from the hardware group as a stand alone unit. If I read that correctly how are they going to justify their existence without selling something?
Jim Wilson Alexandrea X2 Series 2 D'Agostino Momentum M-400 Amps & Pre Amp dCS Vivaldi DAC, Upsampler & Clock SME 20/3 & Esoteric E-03 Transparent OPUS SC & Interconnects
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.
The market for MS200's becomes rather larger if the entry fee into the Meridian Digital Audio System isn't an £2000 MC200 (or worse). Maybe shifting volume as in the Explorer and Director has been successful. There's a wider market perhaps than for £6000+ DSP5.2ks £17000+ DSP7.2ks or £?????? DSP8ks.
RAID management - instead of trying to improve the RAID/disk management on the MD600, the job has now been outsourced to QNAP with a greater range of storage choices and capabilites.
Switching to a PC based control app (Touch:PC) moves some of the hardware product support and development costs onto other companies.
Meridian will still be selling the endpoints to existing and new Sooloos customers and now also Roon customers as well giving a wider base of people that can upgrade to better endpoints and add/upgrade DSP speakers.