For background, I've been running a Meridian Sooloos digital source for a little while.
That consisted of a Meridian MC200 server, which was basically a small form factor PC with server grade HDD inside. That connected via ethernet into a card within my 861v4 processor, which acted as a DAC/pre-amp and as it had the ID40 internally, avoided jitter induced by SPDIF.
Sounded pretty good.
Either way, turns out that the guys who ioriginally created Sooloos (which was bought by Meridian) have just branched out with their own company called Roonlabs.
As part of that, they've created a new Windows/Mac software solution called Roon.
So what you may say, especially when you find out that it has a subscription fee of $110/year, although you can spend more and get a permanent license.
Being fair, if all you do is casual play, I'd agree.
However, if you genuinely like music, read on.
As a starting point, Roon will act as a server (music only to my knowledge). Show it where your existing music folder(s) are and it'll go off and catalogue them. It will also communicate with Tidal (and potentially other services) in the future, allowing seamless browsing across them.
The cataloguing really seems to be where the value is added, as it integrates a level of meta data that is simply beyond anything I've seen. For example, catalogued my 1100+ CDs as hosted on my PC in about 15 mins. Post that, I go to an album and it tells me about the artist and allows browing of your music collection based upon things like similar works, and ther other meta data that it attaches. So for example, you might see that Anastasia acted as a backing dancer for "salt and pepper" (no, I didn't know that either) and if you happen to have one of their albums (which I don't), you could go directly to that. In short, it encourages you to browse and explore not only your own music collection, but also say anything on Tidal
The interface is still a bit of a work in progress. There are Win and Mac "remotes", which are basically application installs that then connect to the server. Seems OK, but personally I'd awaiting the iOS App for use on my Ipad. I believe there's an Andriod version already out, but we don't have anything Android in the house.
From a technical perspective, it sees the final output as an "end-point". That could be the PC that's also the server, or in my case my Meridian ID40 card, which it already knows about. That's seriously useful as it will integrate with apparently a lot of hardware in the future. Great way to ditch that clunky interface if you have an end point with software written by baboons. My understanding is that they plan to support a lot of the big name specialists including Linn, Devialet and DCS.
In summary, no, it's not free, but it's lovely to use and has a lot of promise (expansion of their end points supported and iOS app).
That consisted of a Meridian MC200 server, which was basically a small form factor PC with server grade HDD inside. That connected via ethernet into a card within my 861v4 processor, which acted as a DAC/pre-amp and as it had the ID40 internally, avoided jitter induced by SPDIF.
Sounded pretty good.
Either way, turns out that the guys who ioriginally created Sooloos (which was bought by Meridian) have just branched out with their own company called Roonlabs.
As part of that, they've created a new Windows/Mac software solution called Roon.
So what you may say, especially when you find out that it has a subscription fee of $110/year, although you can spend more and get a permanent license.
Being fair, if all you do is casual play, I'd agree.
However, if you genuinely like music, read on.
As a starting point, Roon will act as a server (music only to my knowledge). Show it where your existing music folder(s) are and it'll go off and catalogue them. It will also communicate with Tidal (and potentially other services) in the future, allowing seamless browsing across them.
The cataloguing really seems to be where the value is added, as it integrates a level of meta data that is simply beyond anything I've seen. For example, catalogued my 1100+ CDs as hosted on my PC in about 15 mins. Post that, I go to an album and it tells me about the artist and allows browing of your music collection based upon things like similar works, and ther other meta data that it attaches. So for example, you might see that Anastasia acted as a backing dancer for "salt and pepper" (no, I didn't know that either) and if you happen to have one of their albums (which I don't), you could go directly to that. In short, it encourages you to browse and explore not only your own music collection, but also say anything on Tidal
The interface is still a bit of a work in progress. There are Win and Mac "remotes", which are basically application installs that then connect to the server. Seems OK, but personally I'd awaiting the iOS App for use on my Ipad. I believe there's an Andriod version already out, but we don't have anything Android in the house.
From a technical perspective, it sees the final output as an "end-point". That could be the PC that's also the server, or in my case my Meridian ID40 card, which it already knows about. That's seriously useful as it will integrate with apparently a lot of hardware in the future. Great way to ditch that clunky interface if you have an end point with software written by baboons. My understanding is that they plan to support a lot of the big name specialists including Linn, Devialet and DCS.
In summary, no, it's not free, but it's lovely to use and has a lot of promise (expansion of their end points supported and iOS app).
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