Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming QNAP software

Anyone know where I can download software to instal Sooloos on a QNAP?

When Meridian made Sooloos obsolete they advised anyone using it on iOS, PC, Mac or QNAP that if it was working ‘do not update the device’ which was not practical for most people.

I guess you want to run Sooloos on the QNAP because it is ‘free’ I would not advise it as chances are your QNAP firmware level is beyond the last supported version for Sooloos, this could lead to all sorts of issues for which Meridian will not offer any support.

If you really want Sooloos I suggest you purchase a used MC200 or MD600 to use as the core, there are a few for sale in the restaurant or alternatively for roughly the same price purchase an Intel NUC and a one year Roon licence.

I don't mind paying for a good solution; one that lets me listen to music as easily as possible (while maintaining quality so airplay and bluetooth are out).

I've tried Roon, but want to try a few other solution as well. Sooloos was the obvious choice but not sure it's worth buying more hardware as support has long ended.

Sooloos has great merits if you want a simple system for presenting your music to you and don't want to be force fed what somebody else thinks you might like. If you always want the latest this and that then it is not for you.

I run a Sooloos system on various bits of old kit with a QNAP TS253A as the core device. I do not update it and it is completely stable. But, when I bought the QNAP it already had a newer firmware than was recommended for Sooloos. After a bit of badgering, QNAP sent me the old firmware, I downgraded to it and all was and is well. Which QNAP do you have?

Curious... is this the main reason to dislike Roon? It's quite an effort to force hardware to stay put on ever more outdating software/OS, especially when security fixes are needed.

I think that apples for apples you can run Roon in exactly the same way Sooloos runs if you just want to play your own local content. You don't have to look at any of the 1000 extra features and functions it has.

I have both Roon and Sooloos.

I like Roon because it interfaces with various bits of kit that I have that Sooloos certainly can't do, but Roon is always trying to offer me capability I don't want, or trying to take me to music it mistakenly thinks I might like. These things seem to default to on and I wish they didn't - I would rather choose them first from some form of menu. It took me far longer than I would wish, for example, to find out how to stop Roon Radio playing all manner of stuff when my chosen tracks had finished. I would kill it on one endpoint only to find I had to do it again on other endpoints.

I also don't want to spend my valuable time poring through the very impressive but tiresome knowledge base which is a product of Roon's clever and extensive capabilities. I am a simple soul and I am not suggesting at all that Roon should reduce its capability which many others may enjoy - far from it. But I would like it to be a little easier to narrow its scope for simple souls like me.

I keep Sooloos because it works well and is easy to use for people who aren't and don't want to be aficionados. Roon is great because it works with a wide range of endpoints. But I hate that Roon will not work with my various older iPads (which most of my family have) as controllers. Sooloos does still and I am not going to buy new iPads just for Roon.

Of course, all this has little to do with QNAP software!

To that point, wouldn't Roon be smart to consider rolling out a simplified version for handling a local library with the ability to use Tidal and in my case integrates well with the 818? For those of us who would not be using the '1000 extra features' included, $700 USD is a bitter pill to swallow. Maybe the pricing can be commensurate with the features that are used? We are looking for something simple that the whole family can use, with limited features, and ideally supports Tidal.

Currently, Sooloos fits the bill, but I know the day is coming when we will be unable to use Tidal and will need to take Sooloos completely offline, or consider alternatives.

It’s a fact of life that Roon requires a certain level of performance to operate and computers move on so quickly. Roon had to make decisions about that but they publish it well in the knowledge base.
Have you put your opinions to the guys at Roon via the forum as I know they listen for ideas as you will not be alone. You may get just what you are looking for as an option.

I don’t think it would be smart at all, I assume you are suggesting the reduced feature version should be cheaper than the fully featured version, inevitably some people would want all the features and some the minimum feature set, the majority I guess would want their own bespoke version with only their custom set of features but how would that be costed?

Creating numerous Roon versions would cause a support and administrative nightmare, Roon is a small team of very talented engineers, I would far rather they continued to be innovative engineers rather than administrators.

Thanks for the explanation. I can’t help thinking that it took longer to write posts in this thread than switch radio off from 2, 3 or 4 queues. Sooloos Swim was the same in this regard too IIRC.

Once the user’s preferences are set ... they are set.

It still seems a bit much to describe Roon as “forcing music on you” but I appreciate that we all find things differently.

Perhaps Roon could offer a toggle switch between simple (Sooloos like) and full featured interfaces to satisfy the needs of both camps, if it's not a huge development/support task.

Surely you go to the library menu and not the discover menu? Or just not select overview and discover?