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Hi Ludwig,
This is extremely unlikely in the medium term, (but never say never).
I think the ID41 would need a hardware re-work to accommodate RAAT.
Rick

Sooloos is a great system but it’s been a legacy product since Roon (which was called Sooloos 3 until it was sold off) was released. Sooloos is not coming to an end. It’s been replaced by Roon. And yet Meridian is also still selling Sooloos endpoints. Good plan, I say, bearing in mind the small but loyal Sooloos fan base.

On the other hand:

Yes I heard that from multiple people who know.

And Meridian have had no time to look into that, seeing as RAAT was released, what, only 3 years ago.

Another fugly box which looks like it's a circa 1994 modem; what really upsets me is that this is from a company who once won design awards.

If Meridian are really that strapped for design budget, couldn't they at least use an existing design for the casework? Something like the AC200 case minus the buttons? Or even go retro and reboot a cool 200 series case design?

Surely anything would be better than this, it looks like they just don't care any more.

It seems that M are concentrating on releasing kit which is not particularly meant to be looked at and intended to appeal more to the CI market. No point adding cost for fancy casework for equipment that’s going to be in a rack / cupboard. I wonder if/when we might see stuff more obviously aimed at consumers. Having said that, I have no problem with the compact footprint of the new 200 series and the commensurate price savings. It’s a long way visually from AC200 and G Series though, and I do like the old 200 designs.

I really hope you're right and that's the only reason behind the awful lack of attention to design. When the "new 200 series" products were first announced and Meridian were questioned on the design, though, wasn't there some kind of response along the lines that Meridian thought they looked cool (which I found both depressing and worrying)?

I guess we'll find out when/if Meridian announce new consumer gear...

Yeah, the 'old' 200 series are my favourite Meridian designs, still look stunning now, to my eyes. The Lecson AC1 was really stunning, though, although not technically Meridian, of course, (and apparently rather impractical to manufacture).

+1 on the old 200 series still looks fab even now.

Price indication?

US MSRP at CEDIA was stated as $1500.00

... and here I was hoping it would be less than a 218.

What's the value proposition over something like an Audioengine B1?

They are almost completely different feature sets.

Like what? Roon support, whatever that means?