Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - Is Roon Doomed Like Sooloos?

Thanks to SpinalTap for drawing my attention to AssetUpnp.

I have been keen on dbPoweramp for years but was unaware of Illustrate’s latest offerings. I do not have Roon because its cost is high for marginal gain if you have Sooloos (which I do). Besides, Sooloos for me was always as much about neat hardware as well as the software. However, with the rapid changes in the streaming marketplace for hardware I can completely understand Meridian’s withdrawal from proprietary hardware to well priced, high quality more generic hardware even if it doesn’t have the design brilliance that in my view made M’s name as much as the great sound quality.

But, Roon is just software and expensive at that (their hardware seems rather late to market and not that distinctive). AssetUpnp seems to offer Roon like capability (and a Sooloos substitute) at much lower cost and with Illustrate’s long track record of continual development to add comfort when viewed as a buyer, together with wide hardware flexibility.

I haven’t used AssetUpnp yet, but against this kind of competition how long has Roon got?

I love Roon. Changed how I listen to music. Changed how my guests listen to music. I've got playlists that my house guests have created, discovering music I'd never heard of. I have the Roon UI on a $50 Amazon tablet! I give the tablet to guests and they queue up great music. We've had music battles, with a room full of people picking different music and expanding everyone's palette, grudgingly admitting that "that wasn't so bad" with a smile on their face. And I can sync the bluesounds in the garden with the DSP5ks in the living room, through the patio doors, all controlled, and perfectly synchronized, by Roon. Sure, I pay $30 month for TIDAL, but the joy of discovering more wonderful music that I actually like is easily worth that. I was playing some Vangelis, and my brother grabbed the tablet and put on "Teardrop" from Massive Attack. How had I forgotten about that??? Add to playlist.

I've done the whole UPnP thing, way back. If you have free time and no money, then sure, have fun with UPnP and iPeng, and streamripper, and, wait, what are you doing with Meridian gear???

If you have some technical chops, then get Roon and install it on a NUC, or if you have slightly less chops, a Mac Mini.

If you have no technical chops and like to just plug things into other things, get a Roon Nucleus.

And a $300 iPad for a remote (you may also use it for other things apparently). Or a $50 Amazon tablet. Works on your phone too, unless its rotary.

I've easily spent $5,000 on Meridian gear (er, last week). $500 for Roon is a no brainer. If you can't get your head around paying for software, then buy a Nucleus. If you have any Meridian processor (561, 861) or speaker, then you already enjoy paying for software - all of these systems, at their heart, are DSPs - running software!