Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos Tidal

The issue is 5 years. If I buy a new car which has features that were not incorporated when the model was first released then the 5 years is from when I bought it (new), not earlier. If Meridian had never incorporated Tidal then there would be no issue, but they did.

It must be a delight to be Meridian. Let past or even current customers down in all sorts of ways and they still leap to your defence. That requires great skill!

In today's environment, if you offer a software product that interoperates with other services or Internet infrastructure, you must accept that things change from time to time and respond accordingly. Look at the hoops that developers go through every time Apple releases a major version of iOS or macOS. It's not ideal, but it is the norm.

TIDAL is not updating its login API on a whim: it has operational and/or business reasons for doing so. TIDAL is a Roon business partner and we were asked to make changes; which we did. Meridian has decided not to. I really don't think that this is TIDAL's problem.

Bearing in mind that my company stands to make a small gain from this situation, I would have liked Meridian to have fixed this.

Well that does put a different light on it. Benefit of the doubt withdrawn!

Cheers
George

I don't remember people saying stupid things when support for Rhapsody in Sooloos ended.

It’s never easy to accept that your once prized Meridian possession has been overtaken by advancing tech developments.

I’m sure that many early generation iPad owners are not too pleased that their device doesn’t work with latest version of Roon. Those owners are not taking a class action lawsuit against Apple.

As much as it would irritate me; if I owned an MC200, I’d be looking to mitigate my losses and sell it on eBay while I still can. That would then offset the cost of buying either an i3 or i5 NUC - both of which would be technically superior to an MC200.

One option would be to buy into Roon. You wouldn’t regret it.

Alternatively, install Windows on a NUC - and then install either Amarra Luxe or Audrivana for Windows. Both offer Tidal or Qobuz playback, if required, plus MQA first unfold. Then connect the NUC to your chosen DAC.

I own an MC200.

When I purchased it, I don’t think Tidal even existed, so I see it as a bonus that I was able to use Tidal integration for this long.....shame that it has now been taken away though.


I am currently trying out Roon on my laptop.

I am still using the MC200 as one of my endpoints in Roon.....so it’s not totally redundant😁

I still have to decide what to do next.

Convert MC200 (as read on here) and buy another endpoint or keep MC200 and use as just an endpoint and buy a NUC.

Just need to find out what’s best cost/sound wise.

Hi, a small clarification on this point ...
Roon never ran on the older 32bit / Non-OpenGL iPad hardware platforms ... but I get the spirit of the statement.

Regards,
Carl

I think the lines between hardware being safe and software becoming outdated are becoming (unfortunately) somewhat blurred nowadays as most of the former is increasingly reliant on cloud-based software.

I bought a sleep monitor a few years back that relied on the cloud to work (although this was never clear from their sales patter). The hardware stopped working the minute they vanished. This is going to become an increasing problem - no longer will hardware or software continue working without the modern infrastructure it was designed to depend upon.

When your heating stops because it can no longer contact the supplier of your thermostat in the middle of the winter is when this will hit home as a bad idea.

Rhapsody/Napster is still active on Sooloos. It doesn't seem to have the same licensing churn that Tidal does, which has allowed me to replace Tidal albums in my Sooloos library after Tidal pulled them from their library.

Charlie

I understand the disappointment of the loss of Tidal functionality with Sooloos. However the statement from Meridian that announced the end of Sooloos development should have been a warning for many that it was time to start considering migrating to a different platform.

I am sure the number of customers that bought Sooloos at retail because of Tidal integration is quite small and those few are the ones who should really be disappointed. The rest, myself included lost what was a free (on the Sooloos side) feature. I still prefer the simplicity of Sooloos for playing my ripped CD library.

Those who relied on Tidal for music enjoyment without a ripped library will suffer the most. There are still lots of alternatives to getting Tidal into your systems.

Would you mind elaborating on the alternatives to get TIDAL streaming to Meridian gear?
Thank you

Install the TIDAL app on a PC then (i) out via USB (to a Meridian device with a USB input), (ii) via a USB-to-SPDIF converter, or (iii) via an Explorer 2 connected by stereo analogue