Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Huge Meridian News today - Acquisition of Sooloos!

It has a sleep setting with variable time control until it goes into that mode. I think it may also dim or have a screensaver that kicks in prior to sleep, I can't remember which.

Jeff

Everyone who wants functionality but who does not want to touch a computer nor deal with doing their own troubleshooting and support the inevitably comes with multiple product integration. When you buy a solution like this, you have one source for support - your dealer. When you build a composite solution from various components, there are many sources for support and usually no one to turn to when things won't play nicely together and you can't figure out which piece is at fault. That avoidance of that hassle is very valuable to quite a few customers.

Then there's the well designed interface. For many customers, this is a deal breaker. Not every music server does a great job with this, but Sooloos definitely does. Features, functionality, specs and flexibilty are great, but for many customers UI trumps them all. They don't care what it can do if it's not dead easy to use. When you throw spouses into the mix, often even tech saavy customers want a solution that anyone can figure out how to use very quickly. That too has value for those customers.

In the end, the DIY or tech savvy folks will have a hard time spending more money on a solution that isn't as customizable as their creation. From the other side though, the savings and flexibility may often be of no use to the customer who doesn't have the time, knowledge or desire to deal with tech issues. The well designed prebuilt solution hides the fact that it is really a computer with a slick UI and that's what many technophobes are willing to pay for.

Jeff

Asa,

We are not their target audience.

I could make the same argument for iTunes. A lot of us feel if you really want to dig and get the most out of your music would never use iTune. It is way to restrictive for many of us. It does require your learning sometimes more complicated programs.

There are folks that have 0 time and infinite $$$ and just want it done for them. Like the bulk of Meridians installer customers.

I can't read all of this so Ill just say congratulations to the crew at Meridian. I think the server type concept is a good one and its one that they needed to add to the lineup. I am concerned about two things, the first one is very critical.

1. Ive harped on the retail locations before, but now this becomes even more critical. Im not aware of any places a retail customer can just walk in and see the digital theater. Soup to nuts. Meridian needs to deal with this.

2. How does this system handle video? It doesnt seem to address it very well from what I can see- its just you tube and net streams? Is that for real?

Ease of use is extremely important.

Agreed. I think this is a good move for M but many more moves are required.

I saw your post before and started answering it, but got caught up in household errands. Here's what I was going to say:

LOL. I'm not laughing at you, but really more at myself. If you knew the kind of tech and Apple geek that I am, you'd be chuckling too. Truth be told I'm a bleeding edge tech guy who has been using computers for 25 years. I do my own computer support and have setup my own network. I don't code, do serious hardware repair (like soldering), or pull wire in-wall, but I can do pretty much everything else. I'm the guy that calls the manufacturer tech support to get answers to the questions that dealers, and even sometimes manufacturer reps, never have. The rest of my family though, is very non tech savvy.

I actually do have both Macs and PCs, although my shift has been way more towards the Mac side in the last 5 years (started down that path after I bought the first gen iPod). I use iTunes daily and have iPods as well as a 3G iPhone. The remote app for the iPhone is great and really does make AirTunes way more useful. I use AirTunes with the multiple Airport Express units I have around the house (I installed them primarily to extend WiFi coverage throughout and remote printing support). While I have used other music apps before, iTunes is really all I use now.

Of course, I know Apple's laptop selections all too well. The 12" form factor is something that one that Apple hasn't offered since the 12" PowerBook that some users wish would return. There have been rumors (or perhaps just wishful desires) of an Apple tablet since the Newton was discontinued. Some people feel that Apple will enter the netbook market at some point, especially given that segment's huge surge in sales this year that would be hard for Apple to ignore. There's a company called Axiotron who takes Macbooks and mods them into tablets (http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook). They actually just announced an updated version of it that uses the new 13" Macbook as a base.

All that being said, I still like Sooloos. Why? Because I'm a weirdo who likes using new audio distribution solutions. I have used an Escient FireBall, Squeezebox, Roku Soundbridge, Airport Express, Sonos, Xbox 360, PS3, etc. I've kept up with a variety of products like Sooloos, Qsonix, ReQuest, Olive's OPUS, B&O's upcoming BeoSound 5, etc. That being said, there is one thing that would make Sooloos different from other solutions I have had - my wife would actually use it. All the others she has tried and found a little too complicated. I know, that sounds ridiculous given the design of the Apple solution. But hey, she finally caved and got on the iPhone bandwagon a few weeks back, so there is hope (though she isn't an app user just yet). When she was with me a couple of months ago at my dealer's showroom, she was playing with the Sooloos and was impressed by how easy it was.

Now, I won't buy it based on her alone. If I buy it, it will likely be because I want it. One thing I've seen with my usage is that I don't really explore my collection with any of these and I think that the Focus tools on the Sooloos will encourage that. Also, I like dedicated solutions since every time I touch the computer, I inevitably wind up getting sidetracked web surfing.

I also like what Qsonix offers with their "Tapestry" feature. They use AMG's for metadata too and license Tapestry from AMG. It's a feature that lets you build playlists by selecting one song and a playlist gets built with similar songs (like Apple's Genius but with better results, IMO). Sooloos doesn't use Tapestry, but I've suggested to them that they should look into it. No one does a good of job at this as Pandora does and I use that quite a bit with the Sonos.

Jeff

iTunes is a terrible desktop player on windows anyway. It may be ok on Macs.

It does not support any means of getting the music off the computer correctly through a sound card (itunes has no support for ASIO). You can get it out correctly via an airport express though. Google "ASIO itunes".

And if you do decide to use an external ripper it has no means of rescanning the hard drive without outside help. Google "itlu".

With WinAmp I can do ASIO (bitperfect), back ground rescans, 24/96 (which the airport express can't do), DTS/AC3 mix down to 2 channels (itunes might have a way of doing this). And a much more functional user interface than iTunes IMHO.

There are 3600 plugins for WinAmp.

If you like the one stop shopping at the apple store (like the Sooloos customer) then that's fine.

Check out this review of players. I think I'm gonna check out Media Monkey after reading it. I'm open minded that there might be something better.

http://www.skytopia.com/project/articles/music/5players.html#winner

Well I'll chip with my 2 cents. I think the acquisition is great for Meridian if it will enable M to integrate a music server into its line up. This is leaving a serious gap in its line up. Just for the record I use itunes on my imac and send it via an airport express and toslink to my 808i.2. My music is saved onto a Lacie Raid NAS (260GB so far).

My iPhone acts as the remote and i can see all artwork and choose any song or playlist. It works great but if Meridian came out with an elegant solution I would also consider it.

I don't particularly like to use my computer to play music. I like my music stuff separated so a music server would be nice. Having said that I do realise I am kidding myself as the server is exactly that, a computer.

Anyhow with my DSP 8000s now here, I might just connect my Wadia idock for the most elegant and simple system there is!

This is a very good point and I totally agree.

I have always felt Meridian was missing a key piece which is the high end remote control system. Like Lexicon used to sell (not sure if they still do).

A great integration point for Meridian is to control the entire system through the Sooloos screen. If my wife has to use more than one device to play a song she would never use it (even if she knew how).

They are launching a movie player piece called the Cinema. At CEDIA, they showed support for both picture display and movie playback. I've seen mention of YouTube and Flickr integration in addition to Rhapsody. The suggestion for movies is DVD rips and some form of Blu-Ray support (not sure if that is rips - which seems unlikely - or just direct playback via disc). Here's what I have seen:

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Sooloos_Shows_New_Hardware_New_Content_Support.shtml

Check out the slideshow in this article where pictures are shown in slide 4 and the movie cover interface in slide 5:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/2966/sooloos-nips-at-kaleidescapes-heels.html

This is a blog entry from a dealer's recap of what they saw at CEDIA I just came across:
http://blog.8250theaterworks.com/2008/10/05/Sooloos/

The blog entry also answers the question I had about the store:one and store:two pieces being discontinued in favor of the new storage units, which include a to be released quadstore unit with 4 drive slots.

Jeff