There is no ‘some kind of’ about it. Sooloos was purchased by Meridian in 2008. It was the perfect system for me, just what I was looking for at the time, I had the brochure for it from Meridian. Unfortunately, the price list was included and put a stop to the idea. It was horrifically expensive, being a custom system and a Meridian product. Roon is just the mass market bring your own hardware version.
Indeed…. well noticed RT.
An Intel NUC 13 or a NUC 11, 12 
Cheers John
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In a way it is, but this ´bring your own hardware´ (and ´deal with your digital music and network´) approach is supposedly what is too complicated/too techy for the ´silver surfer´ / ´nothing more complicated than a CD player´ generation.
The Nucleus/+ as a product was the right thing hardware-wise, and the experience for those having it is great even if they are not ´tech-friendly´. In my understanding the limitation for a bigger success was the product simply relying too much on users dealing with network stuff themselves and hi-fi dealers being willing to install it in the customer´s home. That’s what they do not like to do for the little money they earn and Nucleus Titan might encourage many.
Or put it other way round: roon, please make a ´Nucleus Titan customer satisfaction guaranteed´ bundle, include an iPad, 3 years of roon+Qobuz subscription, everything preinstalled, plus the service of having a technician installing the stuff at the customer´s home. For 5,000 bucks I am sure it will be an attractive offer for people who would have bought a Sooloos 10 years ago.
That kind of bundle and associated service is nothing to do with Roon. Dealers are free to put together whatever bundles and services they think their customers will purchase. This has always been the case, Titan has no bearing on it.
Correct, but that is what dealers are not very encouraged to do when selling just a 2k device once or twice a month.
Manufacturers could help that situation by packing such a bundle themselves and being a bit more picky with dealers who are really willing to do this work (and having well-trained staff to execute it). A 5k deal including additional service fees might be an encouragement for dealers and that is one reason why I think a product priced like Nucleus Titan is a great opportunity for roon.
Nice to know.
Thanks.
If dealers package Titan instead of NUC in turn-key systems, how is that going to benefit their earnings? They’re not manufacturing the Titan themselves, so wouldn’t that limit their own markup? If users don’t know or care what’s inside the server, would they care if you called it Titan or NUC?
Titan price with titan margins to feed their new titan owner and their titan channels with a pretty box that looks like a titan transformer and that will perform no better than a ROCK running on a NUC.
…meanwhile, Roon Ready certifications…still waiting.
Similar to how Lexicon rebadged the Oppo Blu-ray Player a few years ago. Shameless!!
Edit:
Note: Lexicon has been under Harman since 1993. I really wish that this is not a common practice. A bit strange or a coincidence how close the pricing ended for both cases ~3,000 plus dollars.
Well, I guess we should embrace “choice” and celebrate this practice. And hope for trickle-down.
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My hope for the future of things like the Titan, is that with Harman’s resources and prowess, that they can take the engineering and quality cues from the likes of Aurender, Auralic, Lumin and HiFi Rose etc and design an all in one Roon Core/ Streamer box that is no longer dependent upon a separate computer. We have a sea of nice Roon endpoints, but very very few similarly designed products that are also a Roon Core.
Hiding a NUC in a fancy chassis would not meet my expectations for the Titan. I’d want something more for $3700. I’d want a HiFi Rose or Aurender like quality that is also a Roon Core. I totally understand that prior to Harman, Roon’s hardware wing was very limited. But now with one of the largest manufacturers of higher end audio in the world as the owner, the expectations, at least for me, have risen.
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Of course, that would be a separate computer. Like the Titan.
The marketing release on the Titan seems to indicate that they have already learned the relevant engineering and quality cues from Auralic etc.: hype things to the max. But use opinion adjectives: “premium metal”, “stunning aesthetics”, “elegant self-cooling design”, “upgraded connectivity”, "“premium server/streamer”.
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Totally agree with your statement. The Grimm mu1 and couple other devices do this. I guess Harman will it anyway with one of their brands and this will in no way affect Roon.
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Or, and I can say this from the basis of common sense, if you accept that they’re all computers (expensive or otherwise), it’s relatively easy to say that they all sound exactly the same.
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Think of speakerlike margins. That’s lots of incentive.
Hey gang, apparently, there are some hard feelings over off-topic posts being moved over here. We’ve gotten a few complaints. With that, I want to clarify that moving posts is an effort to keep conversations on-track and relevant to the original topic. It’s not a slight or negative commentary on an individual member’s value to the community. The mod team tried to nudge this conversation back on course yesterday, and that effort failed.
Do you gents really want to get into another extended argument on sound quality? Has it ever accomplished anything other than engender hard feelings, name-calling, and endless, exhausting, entrenched debate? I can’t think of a single time it’s had a positive outcome.
Please, let’s all do our part to help Community live up to its name and remain a place we want to hang out. Thanks.
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My apologies for poking fun at the marketing department, Jamie!
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I appreciate that @Bill_Janssen. 
The marketing department’s hat has dozens of arrow holes through it. Yours wasn’t the first. It’s impossible to write in a way that will resonate with all readers or be completely immune from eye-rolling.
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It’s a tough job.
And I’ve been thinking that the press release is admirably restrained, compared to various other audio companies that have been mentioned in this thread. No asymmetrical isolation feet, no radar-grade power supply, no audio-optimized USB ports! 
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