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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
 
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!
choihifi
4 posts
 
Hi Lloydelee21

Yes Control 15 sound quility is far excellent.

I tested many times control 15 vs Itune(macbook pro+ amara+Weise Vesta(digital out onty moder of Minerva)or Jriver(on WINDOW).

Sound quality of Control 15 is not same leage with PC-FI.
rbstehno
1,415 posts
 
sooloos is an overpriced device. i have heard it, played with it, and unless you hook it up to a very good dac (no different than a pc or mac in this regard), it sounds like .....
also, the upgrade charges for an additional disk, etc... are out of this world. Price a normal disk drive and then price the sooloos upgrade for the same amount of disk.
i much prefer the flexibility of my mac mini setup and the sound from it with pure music and a nice external dac (pure music and an external dac are key). IMO!!!
talk2me's avatar
talk2me
325 posts
 
I think Choihifi is speaking in salesman talk. There is no way, no how the Sooloos can be used for critical listening. No way. It is a excellent background music for when one is gardening.
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