New sooloos mc200

[1KW]

You also need to have a power outlet for the C15, so that means you have 3 wires .

[JFR0317]

Hi, Jim. It depends on whether you get an MC200 or MC600 versus an MS600. All three have digital outputs to connect to your DAC of choice, but the MC200 and soon to be released MC600 have internal storage. In your scenario with a Control 15 and either an MC200 or MC600, you would be able to seamlessly use all of the storage on both units in your listening room. The Control 15 and the MC200 each have 500 GB of storage.

With respect to ripping CD's to an MC200 or MC600, yes, they don't have a CD drive. With your Mac computers, you could use Meridian's ControlMac application to rip the CD's to your MC200 or MC600. That application can also be used to control the playback in lieu of using an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, if say you wanted to use your Macbook Air. There is also a web-browser control page but with less flexibility than the ControlMac application.

[howiebrou]

Originally Posted by JFR0317

OK, Howie and Jerry - you guys have talked me into it! I am going to start off with a Control 15 and an MC200. I plan to use the Control 15 in my upstairs system with the coaxial digital out running to my MDA1000 (for now). I will use the MC200 in my downstairs system with the coaxial digital out running to my MCD500 and with the analog out running to my CR12 multi-zone preamp and Zone B of my MX120.

From what I have read, I can designate the Control 15 as the system core and be able to access both the 500 GB of the Control 15 and the 500 GB of the MC200 for a total of 1 TB. I will be able to control either unit from my iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

I believe I will be able to import my existing MS750's FLAC files from my backup of it as well as all of the ALAC files from my iTunes library via the Control Mac application. Assuming this works, I should only have about three dozen or so CD's to rip.

I will no doubt wind up getting a Twin-store at some point, but I'll just make do for now with a manual backup to one of my NAS drives until then.

I may have the Control 15 as early this Friday, while the MC200 may take a week to ten days to get here. By the way, the current list prices are $7500 US for the Control 15 and $4000 for the MC200.

Huge congrats John!

I can't wait for mine to arrive.

howie

[JFR0317]

Originally Posted by howiebrou

Huge congrats John!

I can't wait for mine to arrive.

howie

Thanks, Howie! Please let us know when you get yours installed.

I'm looking forward to your review!

[Victor]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Victor & John
With Option #1 I could add a wireless bridge near the C15 to connect to my Network, but then I would have to run a very long digital cable (~25') to my audio system's DAC.

So with Option #2 I could connect via a wireless bridge to my C-15 with a short Cat5 and connect via a wireless bridge with a short Cat 5 to a M600 in the rack. I would then run a digital out to a DAC from the M600.

In Option 2 the files stored on the C15 are accessed wirelessly via the Meridian M600 and sent to the 600's digital output? Would I then have to purchase additional storage to connect at the 600?

Jim

I would not recommend using wireless between Sooloos components for music transfer. Wireless can give intermittent connection problems, this could give you false "corrupted file" problems. If you loose the wireless connection the Sooloos does not know it's a wireless problem, it just sees it as a file that won't play properly then it tags the file as corrupted. I have not tried wireless myself but this often comes up on the Meridian forum with many reliability problems.

If you want to use wireless for the Internet connection for the Sooloos components this should work fine. So with multiple Sooloos components you could setup a dedicated network for them and have it wireless connected to your Internet router.

With a single Control 15 the Ethernet connection would only be for internet access, so wireless for this would be fine. The downside is there is only 500gig on a Control 15, this will fill up fast. Actually once everything is loaded on a Control 15 you could go without an Internet connection and just have the digital out going to your DAC.

If you are worried about using a long digital cable I can give you the info needed to make a balanced digital cable out of Cat 5 cable to use the Speaker Link output. I have used a 30 foot Liberty coax digital cable and a Cat 5 balanced digital cable from my Control 10 to my MDA1000 and they both sounded the same to me. I'm still using both cables, I have the Speaker Link Cat 5 cable going to my main system and the coax digital output going to my bedroom system, this is a good way to make the Control 10/15 give you 2 zones.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by Victor

I would not recommend using wireless between Sooloos components for music transfer. Wireless can give intermittent connection problems, this could give you false "corrupted file" problems. If you loose the wireless connection the Sooloos does not know it's a wireless problem, it just sees it as a file that won't play properly then it tags the file as corrupted. I have not tried wireless myself but this often comes up on the Meridian forum with many reliability problems.

If you want to use wireless for the Internet connection for the Sooloos components this should work fine. So with multiple Sooloos components you could setup a dedicated network for them and have it wireless connected to your Internet router.

With a single Control 15 the Ethernet connection would only be for internet access, so wireless for this would be fine. The downside is there is only 500gig on a Control 15, this will fill up fast. Actually once everything is loaded on a Control 15 you could go without an Internet connection and just have the digital out going to your DAC.

If you are worried about using a long digital cable I can give you the info needed to make a balanced digital cable out of Cat 5 cable to use the Speaker Link output. I have used a 30 foot Liberty coax digital cable and a Cat 5 balanced digital cable from my Control 10 to my MDA1000 and they both sounded the same to me. I'm still using both cables, I have the Speaker Link Cat 5 cable going to my main system and the coax digital output going to my bedroom system, this is a good way to make the Control 10/15 give you 2 zones.

Victor
I really can't run CAT 5 cabling in my home. The lower level where my 2-Channel room is located is virtually inaccessible for rewiring unless I want to rip out all of the dry walled tray ceilings. I am almost forced to go Wireless in my house.

I think there are too many issues to deal with a Sooloos system for me.

Jim

[JFR0317]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Victor
I really can't run CAT 5 cabling in my home. The lower level where my 2-Channel room is located is virtually inaccessible for requiring unless I want to rip out all of the dry walled tray ceilings. I am almost forced to go Wireless in my house.

I think there are too many issues to deal with a Sooloos system for me.

Jim

OK, one last thing to consider, Jim. Based on what I have read, the recommendation for not using wireless is primarily applicable to having one Sooloos component "talk" to another. Using wireless to access the Internet for database info, access to Rhapsody, etc., should work OK. Therefore, you should be fine with only one Sooloos component. You can get an MC200 that you can place near your DAC and access it via an iPad or iPhone.

The only downside I see is that the MC200 only has 500 GB of storage, which would limit you to about 1000 CD's or even less if you had many 24 bit/96 KHz Hi-Res files.

If you decide to try it and don't like it, if your dealer won't take it back, I'll buy it.