It seems there is no one perfect solution. The ideal system should allow you to navigate your library quickly and in many ways. It should be wireless (operate from any room) and should be two way communication. It should allow control of the audio system as well and not just the music server. It should allow for the maximum audio quality offered today. How does the Duet/Transporter stack up with the rest?

Sonos has a great interface. But is limited to 16bit and has no means of controlling the Meridian system. Not nearly as customizable (e.g. HDCD plugin) as SqueezeCenter (for some folks that a good thing).

Sooloos which I really know very little of and probably way out of budget sounds like it can control everything but you are locked down to a single location with all the cables. It needs a wireless solution. Doubt it will be very customizable. But I`m sure it will sound good in the long run. As far as audio quality, supported formats, word size, not sure we know yet.

iTouch with Transporter/SqueezeBox, This has just as nice an interface as the Sonos without the 16bit limitation and customizability but is still missing IR control. I seriously considered this option but I just sat on the fence. Hmmm I wonder if WOL would have worked with this setup.

Duet with Transporter. Supports up to 24/96 (24/48 with other receivers) not the best screen interface given its size but it had this huge plus of an IR transmitter allowing control over everything else. However initially there was no software to drive the IR. Recently someone did the work to drive a B.O. system and thanks to Cliffs (local Hitch Hiker) he ported it to Meridian. And a few minor tweaks by me.

Now that it was available I waited for the itch to add something to the system. Also it really helped this was not an expensive addition to the system as I`m on a very limited budget this year. I was still concerned that having the album covers in your hand along with navigation was more a gimmick over just using the regular remote.

Well I`m happy to say it`s not a gimmick. I absolutely love it. And integrating the IR was a must. I often tend to turn on the system when I first get up. It generally fills the whole house which is not that big. Now I can have it sit next to me while I eat breakfast and I have way more control over selection. I can have sit on the night stand and in the morning turn it on the second I get up. This is my best opportunity to listen loud and to what I want while the wife is not around.

It`s hard to put a number on this. But I`m sure you know the feeling you had of switching from spinning CD`s to a Music server and how much it opened up your music world. Let`s give that a number of 100% improvement. I`d say adding the Duet added another 20-30%. It gives you that great sense of feeling in control of your music. I`m not locked into standing or sitting in front of the system to select the music. I do still have to be in IR range to adjust the volume though.

The unit works flawless (except for one bug where the Duet sometimes reboots when you first wake it). I think this has been fixed but I`m not ready to upgrade squeezecenter at the moment due to other issues I ran into on newer versions (WOL issues). It literally took 5 minutes to get it up and working.

When the box first arrived in the mail it occurred to me, oh crap, will Wake-On-Lan (WOL) work with this thing, or does the server need to always be up. It`s a pet peeve of mine to have things off that are not in use. Anyway The WOL has worked flawless. You hit turn on Transporter and it says connecting to squeezecenter and it wakes the server.

I was concerned without a touch screen navigation wasn`t gonna be anything that great. Well I think they did a really nice job. It always seems to do just the right thing with timing and default certain buttons to do the right thing. The wheel is also very nicely implemented but not quite a slick as iPod wheels. The small screen size does allow for one handed operation.

The IR control works perfectly although it's a little tedious to navagate to the Meridian each time you want to turn it off or on. But I think that can be customzied further. As far as volume control it works better than the logitech Harmony or even the Merdian remote which both tend ramdomly step by two even with the quickest touch.

I think the more perfect solution would be a larger touch screen (i.e. iTouch) and a WIFI to serial interface to control the Meridian. Or have SqueezeCenter control Meridian. Problem is my Music Server is not at the same location as the Meridian system. And I refuse to add get noisy computer to the Meridian stack. But I probably could find Ethernet or Wifi to serial gadget to expose Meridian RS-232 control to SqueezeCenter or direct to some sort of web-applet.

The cool thing about the Duet though is it`s infinitely flexibility and open design. In fact it would probably easier to implement RS-232 control of the Meridian over WIFI through the Duet than any other scheme (on a budget).

- Fiddler (IMHO)

If you think listening to music is fun, try learning an instrument.
HT: G61RSL, 4x5K, 5.5KHC, 2xSC6000, Transporter, HD621, Philips BDP7501 4K, Tivo, 65" LG OLED 4K C6
Computer: Foobar2000, 5K, Mojo, HiFiMan HE1000 V2