Meridian Sooloos 2.1 Control 10 & 808.3 Signature Reference CD Player/DAC (TAS 204)

Revolution!

There is always a danger in talking about a “revolution” in high-end audio. I’m sitting near my turntable as I write this, and listening to an LP dating back to the 1960s. I’m also listening through a classic tube amp and preamp I have in for review, and through a Quad 2905 electrostatic speaker. This is roughly the same basic mix of recording and playback technology I had in my first real high-end system back in the 1960s. At the same time, various “revolutionary” speaker, amplifier, and tape technologies are long dead, my collection of DVD-As gathers dust, and I find it hard to believe that SACD will survive when some of the best recording companies now make their material available as high-resolution downloads on HDTracks.com.

And yet, I still believe we already are in a true audio revolution. I’ve been using my computer and a DAC to store some of my music, and downloading from the Internet instead of buying individual CDs, for more than a year. The only things that stopped me from storing my CDs were my uncertainty over which digital-music-storage systems would emerge as lasting standards and the constant ergonomic and sound quality problems that emerged in using computer-management systems like iTunes, and in relying on the digital output from the sound cards I tried in an older computers.

Times changed the moment I got the new Control 10 version of the Sooloos 2.1! It took me all of four days with the Sooloos to convince me to buy it! For the first time, I found an audio server that had equal or better sound quality than a reference-quality CD transport, as well as an audio server that did virtually everything I wanted in terms of storing and handling several thousand CDs and downloads. The Sooloos software was substantially more convenient to use than the computer systems I’d explored to date. It had truly advanced search features to handle a collection of virtually any size. It allowed me to make quick changes in music labeling and indexing that suited my taste. It could search out even the most esoteric classical and jazz recordings and tracks, and it allowed me to set up comparisons of given performances and composers in seconds.

I now store all my CDs on the Sooloos. I can no longer see any reason to stick with an aged digital storage format like CD that requires a demanding and vulnerable storage medium for each recording.

Enter the Sooloos Control 10: The Case for a Gold Standard

Yes, there are cheaper ways to do some of this than the Sooloos. The new Control 10 version of Sooloos is a luxury product designed for serious audiophiles, music lovers, and music students. It does have a perfectly good analog output, and can be used to drive a perfectly credible high-end system at the quality of say a $1000–$1500 DAC or CD player. The Control 10, however, is designed to take full advantage of home-computer networks as well as the superior sound quality of state-of-the-art DACs or CD players with advanced DAC features. It also is designed to interface directly with Meridian’s new 808.3 Signature Reference CD Player.

I found the investment in the Sooloos to be well worth its cost. The upgrades to the Sooloos have made it today’s state of the art in user-friendly features, and a tool that quickly transformed my musical listening experience. The touchscreen and software of the Sooloos make operating it a source of pleasure rather than frustration, and I do not say this casually. I have no patience with any piece of electronics that is not reliable and easy to operate. I want something that looks good, that I can live with in a normal room, and that my family and guests can use and enjoy just much as I do.

At the same time, the Sooloos does have separate control, configuration, and set-up software for use with PCs and Apple computers. This makes downloading off the Internet a snap, and it allows you to use your computer for more complex operation of the Sooloos and management of your collection. This interface is still evolving and is far from as easy and intuitive to use as the touchscreen interface on the Control 10, but it also adds a substantial layer of sophistication. It will be particularly useful to serious music collectors, students, audiophiles who are managing large collections of recordings and switching from discs to downloads.

The Sooloos 2.2 system can also be integrated with a Crestron control system, and you can link it to the Rhapsody Internet music service. Rhapsody gives you access to an immense range of popular music with at least mid-fi quality, although not the kind of sound quality that will suit truly demanding music lovers.

The Components That Make Up the Sooloos Control 10

The full physical description and operating details of the Sooloos are available on the Meridian Web site at meridian-audio.com/sooloos. The key points for the high-end audiophile are that Sooloos is physically convenient as well as user-friendly. The Sooloos can be used in a range of different configurations, but for most high-end users, it is a relatively compact control unit—called the Control 10—with a large touchscreen display that conceals its core electronics and connections in its base. Aside from the touchscreen of the Control 10—which allows you to perform just about every sort, selection, and control option imaginable—the only other operating feature in the control unit is a slot for loading CDs. This does place some limits on the unit. It will load the CD track from SACDs. It will not accept DVDs, although this is not much of a loss given the death of DVD-As and other DVD-based music formats, which cannot be downloaded for storage in digital format in any case. (You can load home or professional digital DVDs that are not tied to “secure” storage systems like DVD-A and SACD using your computer, as well as load down-loaded CDs and high-resolution material up to 96kHz/24 bits).