Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Hardware with Roon Application Switching to Roon from Sooloos - Pros & Cons

From the Album Details page ... not at present ... I don’t mind having the recommendations but I do feel they are misplaced on that screen.

I know that Roon will be re-designing this screen in a more wholesale way in a future release (no idea which one or when though).

Regards,
Carl

I now have Roon and it’s controlling all 6 audio zones on my MC600 and I have all the Tidal albums but none of the stored CDs. How can I get access to the stores albums CD on the MC600?

Did you "tell" Roon where to look ? i.e add storage ?

Have you read any of the many posts about transition to Roon which outline the recommendation to EXPORT your Sooloos library to a folder somewhere (HDD OR NAS etc)?

This would be a good start.

I switched from Sooloos to Roon with Bruce’s help.

It’s FANTASTIC, and I never looked back. Only reason I kept the C15 is to have a back up should something go wrong with my Roon.

LOVE IT!

Zero justification for Sooloos price difference.

Hi DJones1915,

Could you expand on that and may be add some context where your line of thought is?

This is my take on it...

The development and maintenance of Sooloos application both pre Meridian acquisition and for the most part whilst at Meridian was funding though the sale of hardware that the software ran on.
Ensemble, TwinStore, Control:xx, MD600, MC600, MC200 etc. with the RRP of these units incorporating the Sooloos R&D effort (commercial software is never free).
However, I do acknowledge that towards "end of life" the Sooloos core was made available to run on a QNAP ... but the primary financing model was still though Meridian hardware sales.
The problem for Meridian is that the world moved on and falling hardware sales of their "audiophile" aka expensive streaming hardware slumped leaving no margin for further Sooloos R&D and that stalled too.

In contrast Roon's model is Software as a Service (SaaS) with annual licensing fee (lifetime option is also presently available), I think it's a refreshingly transparent way to do business and one that will support Roon (and us collectivly as users) for many years.
However, I can see that this transparency is what some have a problem with ... in that it's harder to see the value of software (as opposed to physical equipment).

Just my take on it ... at the end of the day it's down to us as individuals to make the judgement on perceived values and spend.

Regards,
Carl

Put another way, a lifetime license for Roon is less expensive than Sooloos, once you take into account the hardware cost. Sooloos only became free, once it was on its death bed.

Granted, some of us choose to buy more expensive hardware to run Roon on, but that is by choice and many of us feel that choice gives us the option of better hardware. To my mind, the only real hurdles are the pain in investing in new hardware, the (slight) learning curve moving from one to the other and moving your music over.

I (generally) haven't looked back... but I admit there is a small amount of pain involved.

After using them both for a while, moved fully over to Roon (with a NUC) last year. Pros are look and feel, regular innovation/support and ability to incorporate Qobuz/Tidal in clear way which makes finding new music fun. Cons are wasted time on Sooloos credits (Roon credits are very much a work in progress also) and what on earth to do with my MD600...

So after taking the advice here, I just signed up for the free trial of Roon. A very impressive start. It found my 861/ID41, the music on my MC200, all my Bluesounds as well as a whole bunch of other endpoints that I hadn't considered (I had no idea I had a speaker in my keyboard!)!! So I now have it running 12 Bluesound zones, my Meridian system, my main PC, my amp in the cinema room and a couple of Google Homes. Although it didn't seem to find my single sonos soundbar.

But one thing I don't understand. Why do I need a Nucleus? From the Roon website, the Nucleus doesn't support more than 6 zones (although my PC seems to?), so I would need a Nucleus+.
I've tried searching through the forums, but the only advantages I can see mentioned are simplicity and stability. But through the PC its incredibly simple. My PC is on 24/7 anyway, and even if it updates I can still use the BS app to control all my non-Soolos zones.

What am I missing ?

thank you !!

It sounds like you probably don't need the Nucleus if you are happy with PC solution. One difference is that only the Nucleus and Nucleus+ support Control4 (and maybe other?) smart home software so if you've hooked up the rest of the house to that it could be useful. As we use C4 and didn't want the old mac pro running 24hrs it was an easy (if expensive) choice.

Chris

I'd agree, if you're happy with using your PC, then there's no reason for a Nucleus. The reasons for looking at a stand-alone server might be that you don't want to leave your PC on, or don't want to be prevented from rebooting it when someone is listening to music.

There is also the argument about potentially better sound quality from a purpose-built machine, but I won't head down that path today!