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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
choihifi
4 posts
 
I uase sooloos and linn klimax ds and 808.3..

Sooloos is connected to 808.3 DAC.

808.3 DAC is one of the best DAC .. IMO.

I use

Wilson audio ALEXANDRIA X-2 Series 2
Chord 14,000 monoral power amp
AREGENTO FMR speaker cable and interconnect cable
BOULDER 2010 PRE and 861 v6 pre processor.
.

I compared the sound qualities of these three digital audio source many times..

Sooloos + 808.3 DAC is best sound quility to me.
Better then KLIMAX DS in every aspects.
On sooloos system, hi-end DAC is very important.

And sooloos worth for the money.
Sooloos also available 97/24 hirez file.

In may opinion,the one who wrote threads above have never expriened the sooloos with higi-end DAC.
choihifi
4 posts
 
Add some more experiences about soloos and Pc-fi.
To use music files as hifi audio source the most important factors are "speed" and "stability" . The sooloos system using "UNIX" OS , so it is very quick and stable . I was expend almost the same money to make the hi quality level with the sooloos system but sound quility is not the same league.
My computer source system..
-Weiss Minerva
-Apple Mac Mini
-HI quality monitor
-Qnab and Bufallo Nas
All these system are naver not expensive IMHO.
But soloos system beats the computer- fi in every aspects.
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.
choihifi
4 posts
 
Shazam

The only most importent reason to use sooloos is it's sound qualty .. It's great user interface is just secondary for me.

Sooloos beats the most expensive pcfi system in case with the same DAC.

Go back to the original poster's question is it worth the money?

My anser is "YES" because the sound quality of the Sooloos as CD transport is the best compare to upper $20,000 CDT (I've tested many timees) with same DAC.

With the pc-fi?
They are not same league. IMHO
lloydelee21
1,202 posts
 
Hi Choihifi,

Very interesting observations. Thanks for sharing your experience in comparison to your own computer system which already seems quite good.

I also use Wilson speakers (the older X-1/Grand Slamms) and have the Zanden Signature DAC.

i am not too familiar with the Meridian system, and have been trying to read about the different options. I am thinking about the Control 15 (User interface with 1,000 CD losses capacity in one single unit...and RCA digital out).

My question to you is: Are you saying the Sooloos Control 15 digital output into a DAC would be better quality sound than pc-fi into the same DAC?

thank you for your advice!
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