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

861v6+ID40, HD621, 8000.2, 7200HC, 7200.2, SKYQ Silver, PS3, PDP-LX6090, QNAP TS870-Pro (8*6TB), Roon, iPadAir2.
[In Reserve] C15, MD600 (2*3TB), TwinStore RM (2*2TB)