Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos or Roon poll (Apr 2016)

I have. Others may differ.

I still have Sooloos running here ... However I've not added any new albums into Sooloos for almost two years now ... choosing to only maintain the audio library on my NAS (standard folder/file naming structure, tagged etc.) that Roon watches.

If a future version of Sooloos ever challenges Roon then I could revert ... but frankly it's unlikely. Even the ID40/ID41 network bridge cards being limited to 96k are dated now ...

IMHO Meridian would do better to drop Sooloos and support Roon's RAAT network protocol in their products ... I truly believe this would be better for all parties.

I've been running Sooloos for many years, but recently tried Roon and liked the interface. Has anyone who made the switch noticed any sound quality differences? Some people in other online discussion groups claim they've heard differences between Roon and other apps, but I'm not sure why that would be.

I used to run Sooloos and now run Roon and I noticed no difference in Sound quality.

Russ

I would expect (and hear) zero difference in sound quality between Sooloos and Roon, especially as they both hail from the same core team.

Those online discussions are comparing Roon with other PC based software and usually in a topology where other factors can play a (bigger) part (direct out from PCs and such)

As Sir Ron says, beware of what you read.
Some of the posters on the Roon forum seem to forget that they're running / not running / forget to run some 'add-on' e.g. HQPlayer which specifically alters the sound....

If the software / player passes the data straight through without alteration, then there's no logical reason (or evidence provided to date) that another player would sound different.
But, often, apples aren't being compared to apples !

Thank you everyone for your quick replies.

I know this is a older thread but I thought I might post my thoughts here rather than open a new thread.

With the help of several individuals here in particular Russ, I was able to natively export my Sooloos content to a USB drive and use that as the source for another go at Roon. Many of the issues I encountered with my first foray into Roon have been addressed and I get more comfortable by the day.

I do have two issues. First, I dislike how Roon handles play queues. When I play a album(s) I do not want the play queue to disappear. On occasion I want to be able to delete the tracks I no longer want to hear and either create a new queue or append what is left to one of my favorites. This currently drives me crazy.

Second, and this one might be in my head. I "believe" that my content sounds better when played via Sooloos than Roon using the same endpoint. I know, it sounds crazy.

With regards the first item the info is in history. I would wager you can make a playlist from that, though I have never had the desire too do so. I may be corrected. On your second point the computer, wires, etc. for Roon could cause effects not present in your Sooloos core/store.

Even Meridian themselves have said on multiple occasions that Audio Quality is determined ONLY by the Endpoint itself... and not by the "Core"... as Stream transmission by Ethernet obfuscates any effect that Processing within the Core might have

And in monetary terms, they said that using the £6,000 MC600 would NOT result in better or different audio quality than using the £1,500 MC200

However, using the 818 as an Endpoint would result in better audio quality than using an MS200 as an Endpoint

And Roon, being ex-Meridian, have followed that logic in using Ethernet to isolate the Endpoint [808.6 in the case above] from any impact that Processing in Core might have on the Endpoint

My 808v6 is hardwire to my router. My Roon storage is connected via USB directly to that router but then sends the data wirelessly to my 808.

Was the connection between your MC200 and 808v6 wireless also?