Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Is Roon Doomed Like Sooloos?

Roon also do this in form of their Nucleus product ... it can be purchased from a dealer and then you get dealer support (and home installation for a fee of course) for it as well.

Think of a Nucleus as a MC200 but with lots more power, flexibility and functionality... connect it to your LAN, load your music, point it at your DAC (direct USB or suitable network connected DAC/Endpoint) ... use a remote of your choice to control it (I use an iPad Air 2) ...

Roon also supports internet radio streaming, it's a bit "clunky" right now (you have to supply the URL) but work is a foot to improve this.

Subscription to Tidal and/or Qobuz music services are optional but worth trialing.

Regards,
Carl

Spinaltap,

I am a bit clueless when it comes to networks - you say that an end-point is needed for AssetUPnP - would an MS200 or MS600 do?
I looked at the AssetUPnP forum , but no real information.

Regards, Locus.

Asset UPnP requires a UPnP endpoint, such as a Meridian 210 (or other similar third-party devices, such as Linn).

Asset UPnP will definitely NOT work with MS200 nor MS600

One alternative to Asset UPnP is, Audirivana. This has integral UPnP functionality: but you still require a UPnP end-point, such as a Meridian 210 for it to work.

This stuff really isn’t rocket science, rather than using technical terminology, we could simplify the explanation. BTW endpoints can be very basic and very good. Rpi for example, £40.

If there is a NAS then it’s just a question of putting software on it. Controller, phone, iPad- just add software. Some of this is really pretty simple and pretty cheap.

Roon is relatively user friendly. The feet do need to get slightly wet but why not give it ago? Plenty of help out there/ here.

For me 500 USD of Roon lifetime membership was the most worthy investment amount all my audio investment.
However, for some of my friends It's like killing them to let them buy a "Software" for that money but they would throw 2k for power cable in a heartbeat, interesting.

And now this is a 210 topic!

Yep, it had drifted off topic somewhat ... I've moved the discussion on the 210 over to Meridian 210 Streamer - Released!.

Regards,
Carl

Spinaltap,

Thank you for the clarification. I often find that the basics of these technical things are not at all clear, too much is unthinkingly assumed - is that just me?

Regards, Locus.

I love Roon. Changed how I listen to music. Changed how my guests listen to music. I've got playlists that my house guests have created, discovering music I'd never heard of. I have the Roon UI on a $50 Amazon tablet! I give the tablet to guests and they queue up great music. We've had music battles, with a room full of people picking different music and expanding everyone's palette, grudgingly admitting that "that wasn't so bad" with a smile on their face. And I can sync the bluesounds in the garden with the DSP5ks in the living room, through the patio doors, all controlled, and perfectly synchronized, by Roon. Sure, I pay $30 month for TIDAL, but the joy of discovering more wonderful music that I actually like is easily worth that. I was playing some Vangelis, and my brother grabbed the tablet and put on "Teardrop" from Massive Attack. How had I forgotten about that??? Add to playlist.

I've done the whole UPnP thing, way back. If you have free time and no money, then sure, have fun with UPnP and iPeng, and streamripper, and, wait, what are you doing with Meridian gear???

If you have some technical chops, then get Roon and install it on a NUC, or if you have slightly less chops, a Mac Mini.

If you have no technical chops and like to just plug things into other things, get a Roon Nucleus.

And a $300 iPad for a remote (you may also use it for other things apparently). Or a $50 Amazon tablet. Works on your phone too, unless its rotary.

I've easily spent $5,000 on Meridian gear (er, last week). $500 for Roon is a no brainer. If you can't get your head around paying for software, then buy a Nucleus. If you have any Meridian processor (561, 861) or speaker, then you already enjoy paying for software - all of these systems, at their heart, are DSPs - running software!

Thank you for your very convincing input.

Since my original post I have benefited from a presentation and discussion with the founder and CEO of Roon (Enno Vandermeer). He is an excellent evangelist for what Roon can do, as you would expect, and his views and philosophy have been extremely helpful to me.

Actually, Roon does far more than I need for my own music collection, but, frankly, anything that can make Tidal's library more accessible to me in a controlled way which is not Tidal's idea of control is well worth thinking about and so I am nearing purchase of a Roon lifetime subscription.

What will clinch it is if I can adapt my Sooloos Control:10s to work with Roon (with specialised tinkering Koputai has shown us on HHGTM this can be done). It is only a physical form factor thing, but I prefer my C10s to anything else.

I looked hard at a Roon Nucleus, but I think I will just upgrade my (Sooloos) QNAP to a newer and more powerful model. If I buy one with enough drive bays (and a suitable processor/memory) I will be able to have mirrored RAID and a backup drive and a core SSD all in one box.

The Nucleus does not have the space for all that and the QNAP should cost less, thereby overcoming my hard-to-defend reluctance to spend too much on software (which I lack the skills to repair or tinker with, unlike hardware).

Never got to use Sooloos, but appreciate Roon and the knowledge base is always being monitored.

I struggled integrating the Nucleus and getting iTunes to appear as a music file, still can't, but the support was there and stayed with me until a solution was found.

I pay annually along with a Tidal sub and tbh Tidal hi rez is better than any of my own stored music, bought or burned from CD.

JamieB,

Are you using the Nucleus? Do you have the Nucleus hooked up to the 861/DSPs then use Roon to control the Bluesounds?

Is that a better solution than adding a Node to the 861/DSPs, and using the Bluesound app? (I have 14 BS, and my Meridian system is completely separate with Sooloos, but looking for Tidal solutions)