Roon parallel with Sooloos v2.477 Build 406

Yesterday Meridian released Sooloos v2.477 Build 406. Included in its features are the following:

  • Zone Pairing to allow sharing of zones between Sooloos and Roon.
  • MS200/MS600/ID40/ID41 Audio Endpoints build 164 – minor fixes to TCP/IP stack.

Running Roon and Sooloos on the same network streaming to the same Meridian endpoints is now possible.

There is currently a gotcha. @brian can you comment on this?

  • In Sooloos, all the zones on the network are listed as selectable in the zone pull-down, and the re-pairing happens automatically when you select a zone that previously was used by Roon. One action from the user.
  • In Roon, the un-pairing of a zone results in it being removed from the zone pull-done zones entirely. It then needs to be re-enabled in audio settings before it can be selected from the zone pull-down. Two actions from the user, the first of which involves fiddling with audio settings, which family members shouldn’t have to do.

In order for the sharing to be seamless, Roon needs to allow Sooloos to use the endpoint without losing the enablement (the tick) in audio settings. Any chance you can let go of the zone when Sooloos pairs with it without it becoming unselected in Audio Settings?..

I actually don’t agree with the Meridian behavior. The Roon behavior also isn’t ideal, but it’s better.

The correct moment to steal the zone is when playback starts, not when the zone is viewed. Merely looking at the queue shouldn’t cause another system’s music to be interrupted–viewing the queue should be a lightweight operation.

Activating the zone in Roon is also a comprehensible moment in time to do a heavyweight operation, like taking control of a zone–you’re in a setup screen explicitly taking over the zone, so that sort of distant effect is valid.

RoonSpeakers, like AirPlay and most modern protocols, is going to support zone sharing and convenience switching when playback starts. Roon could probably implement something similar for talking to Meridian devices. I’ll keep it in mind next time we’re mucking around in that code, but it’s not a simple modification. If/when we start working on cross-technology zone linking, that’s probably the time to look at this.

I’m all meridian c10 ms 600 qnap do I still need to run a roon core through my Mac Pro or can I now run it through the qnap? This is the only thing that’s holding me back and pulling the trigger. I want to be able to control through my iPad

Roon doesn’t run on a Qnap at this time, so, you still need a Roon core elsewhere on a PC/Mac.

This is what Sooloos now does.

The difference is that when Roon takes a zone from Sooloos, Sooloos is able to take it back by choosing to play a track, without another step (reenabling the zone in Setup in Roon).

Before, you said “the re-pairing happens automatically when you select a zone that previously was used by Roon”.

I don’t have Sooloos in front of me, so I want to make sure I’m understanding he behavior precisely–does it happen on selection, or on playback?

I agree that “on playback” is a good time.

I’m now at home again.

Sooloos re-pairs on hitting “play” not on selecting the queue in the pull-down top right. You can select the zone and delete stuff from its Sooloos queue without Roon’s playback to that zone being affected.

As said previously, the directions have different behaviour. That Roon requires re-selection in the Audio Setup, and then selection of the queue in the pull-down before playback can be restarted is an extra step which my family members will not be able (or want) to manage each time.

I now have meridian system core along with store on my qnap and ditched the control 10. In my setup will roon peacefully coexist alongside core in the qnap?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.