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My thoughts exactly when I heard this news from Auntie Beeb

Hector

Why would any iTunes change make a difference? From an Apple technology perspective, the 210 only implements AirPlay(2), right? Or have I missed something?

I don’t believe you have.

Who knows? From what I read today, Apple intend to replace iTunes with a subscription service and potentially multiple apps. Isn't it at least possible that while going through the AirPlay approval process, Meridian were given forewarning, or the opportunity, to harness/get approval for one of the upcoming apps/protocols, etc.?

I was a customer for this but given that there seems little love for this within Meridian it is hard to conclude anything other than this is an aborted project. Even it if eventually gets released my feeling is that we will see a firmware update after a few months to fix any problems before being allowed to slowly fade away and then being quietly discontinued after a year or so in the hopes that nobody notices.

We haven't seen any attempt to move existing and legacy hardware from the Sooloos protocol to RAAT and, correct me if I am wrong, it isn't possible to render MQA on Meridian speakers when the first unfold is performed by anything other than a Meridian endpoint such as Roon. I gave up on Sooloos software years ago when everyone told me to keep te faith and I see no reason not to give up on Sooloos hardware now.

It is frustrating that I have never been able to play MQA on my Meridian equipment despite first owning 5200SEs and now 7200SEs. I can very easily get MQA on other manufacturers equipment that I own. I will investigate if I can get MQA into the SEs via another manufacturer but to be honest given the quirks in obtaining MQA material I will probably just give up on MQA altogether.

To me at least Meridian has become purely a manufacturer of speakers which is sad on so many levels.

Anthony.

I don't believe!

Hector

I’m not sure there’s no love for the 210 at Meridian, I assume they’ve spent a lot on R&D and manufacture. Isn’t it generally understood/suspected they are being held up waiting for approval from one of the services they intend to support? If so, it would be beyond their control and just as frustrating to them, I’m sure.

I think the biggest issue here is just a lack of communication - say the above were true, it would cut through a lot of bad feeling if they were to merely confirm that’s the case.

I too do not wish Meridian to become a manufacturer of speakers only. However, can you not get MQA into your SEs with any of the other solutions available from Meridian (818/808/200 series? Was there something specific to the 210 which made it indispensable for this in your setup?

To be honest it doesn't really matter to me what is understood/suspected to be held up or waiting approval. Whatever it is it doesn't seem to be affecting anyone else at least not to introduce years of delay. It has already been well over a year and probably closer to two so regardless of how frustrating it is for Meridian how much time are we supposed to give them? I doubt that even half that time is due to external sources so if there was any real love they would spend the time and resources. Lets be honest it is a limited market and they probably have spent a lot already so why wouldn't they just want to cut their loses? Releasing it has probably just become a chore to look after the brand rather than make any money or because they passionately care for the product anymore.

Given that I am shortly going to be acquiring a Trinnov the 818/808 seem horrifically expensive just to get MQA. I can't possibly imagine that aside from MQA they would offer me anything. They don't even have MRC. As for the 200 series well that was for me the 210 but where is it? What the 210 offered was RAAT which nothing else in the Meridian line up currently does. Lack of confidence in Meridian Sooloos products combined with my apathy for MQA is sufficiently low for me not to really care anymore. As such I will continue to buy Meridian speakers and forget about MQA on anything else but other manufacturers products.

Anthony.

From my reading, I’m not certain the 210 was RAAT although would work with Roon. The 218 is brilliant for Roon and MQA and a proper RAAT upgrade would be great even if it was a paid upgrade.

Chris

Bruce’s post made at Rick’s request seems confirm it is a RAAT only endpoint, therefore not Sooloos compatible, assuming it ever gets released? Post #278896 in this thread.

Russ

I wonder if the fact they have dropped Sooloos from the 210 is the reason of the delayed launch. I am fairly new to Meridian, but seems like this would be the first product that is Roon RAAT only. This could impact sales for all their high end gear, even the Ultra DAC. It would imply all their high end gear is already dated.