Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems A Meeting for Hikers in Huntingdon: Interest Check

Or lost sales for not being "roon ready"?

@ Ratbert,

There are definitely Roon users on the Roon forum that use the 218 WITHOUT having a Sooloos core.

IIRC the Meridian marketing info references Roon also.

If the dust has settled since the 'divorce' then I would like to see M move forward with not just RAAT but also the more fuller capabilities that RAAT brings above and beyond the original Sooloos protocol.

It would be in M's interest to do so.

Indeed, maybe they just don’t have the physical or capital resources to move forward, this is all a little moot as I have drifted away from Meridian.

+1

I'm unlikely to invest further in any Meriden streaming hardware unless it supports RAAT and > 96K sample rate.

Regards,
Carl

What if...

Between the lines, Meridian have engaged Roon to develop Sooloos v.4: a proprietary Meridian streaming system (only available on Meridian MDMS).

Are the 218, etc., still only 96K max (unless using MQA)?

From this point onwards, my feeling is that it would be an advantage for Meridian to be full Roon partners and have all their future endpoints fully Roon compatible, including RAAT, but in their defence, is one reason it's difficult for them to do so because legacy components (including all current networked components) would then be incompatible?

Via the Sooloos LAN interface, unfortunately yes.

Agreed.

Compatibility and migrations issue are real but they can be mitigated:

Current Products

218
This is a new device so no excuses ... its hardware should have been specified to be able to support both protocols.
(I'm not say it has or has not, just that it should have.)

ID41 (ID40)
From what I understand the hardware on these cards is not up to running the RAAT protocol stack.
However, M could produce an ID42 card that supports RAAT (or possibly duel protocol RAAT and Sooloos).

MS200
I suspect a replacement for this is in order one that support MQA decoding and RAAT. That might be the 218 but many will feel the 218 is overkill as a MS200 straight replacement.

MC200
I don't see M replacing this with a new version, but it should be possible to support RAAT on its hardware.

Sooloos Core on QNAP
Roon can run on QNAP so no reason why Sooloos could not be enhanced support RAAT on this platform.


Legacy Products

MS600
Trade in against 218? Maybe but the 218 is missing the balanced analogue outputs.

C15
It's Windows XP based, I think Sooloos running on it could be updated to support RAAT. However, I don't see M investing as it out of production now and quite dated.

I'm sure to have missed out devices, but similar options/arguments would apply. If there is a will there is way.

Regards,
Carl

Carl,

Thanks, that's a great roundup of different network components and the various ways they could be made compatible, or not!

When you put it that way, it at least seems like it wouldn't be too hard in the next generation of components/card upgrades to implement a dual protocol RAAT/Sooloos. Here's hoping.

Just quoting myself here, but, here is an example of Meridian kit being used WITHOUT Sooloos.

The risk M face here is that there are many examples where M kit falls short of other brands on capabilities so if they want to continue to sell into the wider market they should consider updating their offer to include a more capable and robust RAAT interface.

And I think that is a fair technical statement as it is based on the knowledge of the people that designed both protocols.

I thought it was common place - my ID41 never saw a Sooloos core. Then it lost out to the Altitude (RAAT, native 192Hz, MC support).

The ID41 was around BEFORE Roon so I would expect most ID41 were originally driven by Sooloos. If you got an ID41 later then I can imagine it driven by Roon only.

I think you support the point though that M risk losing out and should wise up and consider this sooner rather than later. There is a far bigger market out there using Roon than ever used Sooloos.

It works without Sooloos and the ID40.