Hello Everyone, Now that we finally have Tidal streaming MQA Goodness to our Sooloos Systems, we wonder about some of the promised updates to the Sooloos platform to take advantage of this. I think many are looking forward specifically to the MQA Decode part.
Originally Posted by John Buchanan
• MQA. The current system is MQA-aware but during the next few months MQA decoding will be added.
I think many are also thinking about Meridians roadmap plans for Sooloos in the future? I think many are debating is there a future or are we just waiting for a deal between HQ and Roon for the inevitable transition?
Originally Posted by John Buchanan (#234574 - May 06, 2015 05:35 PM)
Hi Everyone,
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…
Best wishes, John
DSP8000SE, DSP7200SEHC, DSP5200SE sides, DSP7200SE rears, 861v8, 210, Sim2 Ultranero 4, Stewart Cinecurve 2.35:1, XEIT CM-5E Anamorphic lens, Dune HD Duo Cinema 8K and Wireworld Platinum 48G HDMI -> UHD722 -> Shunyata Omega Ethernet. Shunyata/Furutech power-cables/filters. SR Master Fuse@861v8. Uptone Etherregen with 10MHz OCXO clock.
When did Buchanan make these promises? We were promised a closer relationship with Meridian, with more regular postings, but this does not seem to have materialized. Perhaps we should invite Reuben back to the restaurant?
Perhaps Buchanan could also explain the point of Sooloos in a world of Tidal streaming MQA?
There does not appear to be anything new in the offing with Meridian a no-show at CES and not booked to appear at Bristol.
I think for PR purposes towards the community M should issue a new statement of direction with regards to Sooloos and MQA and not forgetting to mention the Legacy options.
It would make sense to have the MC200 unfolding MQA since it actually recognises the MQA file instead of just upsampling it and Sooloos does deliver the correct media to every endpoint just as Roon does. I believe this was the original intention when the Sooloos roadmap was written after the Roon split.
Doing this does alleviate the "No one will be left behind" statement that was part of the Sooloos Roadmap.
Another option for the Sooloos future would be to reach an agreement with Roon Labs that would make the transition smoother and less of a PR mess while effectively pulling the plug on Sooloos.
DSP8000SE, DSP7200SEHC, DSP5200SE sides, DSP7200SE rears, 861v8, 210, Sim2 Ultranero 4, Stewart Cinecurve 2.35:1, XEIT CM-5E Anamorphic lens, Dune HD Duo Cinema 8K and Wireworld Platinum 48G HDMI -> UHD722 -> Shunyata Omega Ethernet. Shunyata/Furutech power-cables/filters. SR Master Fuse@861v8. Uptone Etherregen with 10MHz OCXO clock.
Good thoughts, the issue seems to be getting Meridian to say anything on this forum! All Mr Buchanan's words on Sooloos when Roon split away seem very empty now, the silence is deafening, as a contrast the Roon team actively communicate on the Roon forum.
Tidal, MQA, Roon, Record Companies and Meridian (and maybe others not currently on my radar) please get your acts together and give existing and previous loyal customers unequivocal simple access to MQA streamed music.
I do not proportion responsibility for this, however I am sure together you collectively can provide a mutually agreed solution. You are not competitors just suppliers with a common goal.
Just a customer viewpoint.
Hector
AV: Thorens TD160B, SME, ShureV15MK2, 500, 598, 861v4, DSP7200.1, DSP3300HC Samsung UE55, SkyHD. DINING: MS600, AC200, DSP5200SEUG. STUDY 504, Roon Nucleus + RevB, 808v6, 5200SE, Mac & PC (Touch Screen), Prime+PS Grado GS1000i HORIZONTAL: M80, MS200, Red Rose Spirit + Sonus Faber Toys, iPad Mini A capella to Zydeco
Well stated, Hector. It would be nice while they are at it to clue in those of us who still value and enjoy using Sooloos whether they will ever tackle offering track level metadata a la Roon, or is it impossible because of the H/W and S/W specs that our legacy kit cannot achieve to accomplish the goal? So far I feel it is a rhetorical question, based on things I have read here about the original architecture and hardware choices making it all but impossible to re-engineer the system.
Roon have already announced that MQA decoding will be available in Roon 1.3 which is the next release this is due later this Month although it is not yet confirmed that MQA decoding will be included initially or will come in a later update, either way I am confident that the Roon team will come onto the Roon forum and let us all know.
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