2. misc-audio
  3. 1262213652

Is sooloos worth the money?

I saw a sooloos system in a local dealer. It has a touch screen, Raid 1 hard drive, very nice user interface with any music search criteria you can think of. It is hooked up to Bryston DAC and meridian DSP5200 active speakers. For that set up the music sounds very very digital, in some aspect almost like the mini stereo system you get at Best Buy.

I was very surprised to hear the sooloos sell for about $10,000. To me, it is just a very nice interface/software to read the music file, help you search and organize your music collection. It can not improve your audio performance whatsoever. It sounds like Mi-Fi with Bryston DAC and Meridian 5200 speakers. You still need to buy high end DAC and speaker to make it sound good. To charge $10,000 for a music organizer/software plus $1,000 hardware(touch screen, hard drive, CPU that have nothing to do audio performance) is beyond my believe. It is like charge you $1,000,000 for Microsoft Windows 7 (people can argue Microsoft can sell cheap because they sell lots of copies, but that is not our problem). Even with people have lots of money to blow, you should have a $50K+ system before you consider a $10K music organizer. They don’t even sell $50K system in my local dealer.

I like Linn’s approach better. I have Linn DS player that reads music file from your PC or Nas server and convert it to analogue signal. I need to spend $500 for a 1.5TB Nas server, 1GB network switch and some CAT6 network cables to set up the Linn DS with amp and speakers. Linn give you a Kinsky software to organize your music files for free although it is not as nice as sooloos. This is a more opened design than sooloos because sooloos charge a premium for touch screen, hard drive and other stuff that doesn’t effect sound quality. Then we can spend money on something that can improve the sound while buy non critical stuff cheap elsewhere. Sooloos probably has the best user interface in the market, but this is not the reason we buy high end audio.

I don’t know how many sooloos systems have been sold so far. I think sooloos should just sell the user interface to read music files and organize music for $1000. They do have a pretty nice interface.

This is just my opinion, maybe people who have more experience with sooloos can share their different idea.
yxlei

Showing 2 responses by shazam

shazam
205 posts
 
If you think the interface is the greatest thing since sliced bread and will use it for years and years to come, then...maybe.

Sooloos' advantage was being first out with a great user interface, but there are half a dozen (and growing) solutions out there that trounce it sonically for half the price. It's only a matter of time before someone betters their user interface too. Soon, you won't be able to sell a Sooloos system for even a quarter of what you paid for it.
shazam
205 posts
 
Choi - my knock on the Sooloos is that you have to add the DAC, which makes it little more than a mission specific computer. Yes, it's fast, fluid, and a great user experience, but the sonics are all wrapped up in the DAC you choose and have little to do with the Sooloos itself. This just isn't a sustainable price scale given Moore's law and the competing landscape in my opinion.

I go back to the original poster's question: is it worth the money? In the here and now, for some the answer is yes. In the long run, you won't get similar value from it like you do other HiFi products.
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