Sooloos music server: Anyone hear, anyone a dealer


Seems like the unit got some rave reviews at CES this year. According to Stereophile, they changed their pricing strategy on the storage AND they release a few more products like a micro control and micro source unit.
Would love to hear what people think, if they heard it and also what the skinny is on the new hardware.

Thanks

Chris Jones
yetis
Hey all...I actually own a Sooloos system with 2 terabyte capacity. The attraction is basically interface, ease of use, capacity (with back up as well), touch screen, et etc...its simply the best there is. Building your own PC based system is fine but for those like me its a huge headache and note book based systems do not give terabyte capacity...which is important for the likes of me who have thousands of CDs and expect them to grow continually (& want to record in lossless quality). To be sure there are solutions around this.....

As for sound quality, best to use an external dac. I have mine connected in my home theatre/music combo system in the living room....connected to my McIntosh pre-pro, though I am considering inserting a better external DAC.

Two things which are not mentioned above which I find very valuable

1. The interface is so easy, the screen big enough, and given the LAN connection to the server u can have the screen pretty much right nxt to you sit...all this convenience leads to re-discovering your music library. Music servers, PCs etc all have this but the market leading ase of use make this even more inviting for investigation etc.

2. Its so easy to use and touch screen is such a complete hook that anyone uses it. Everyone in the family enjoys and when I have guest over, everyone ends up trying to putting their own favorties in the playing que. Just a LOT iof FUN.
There were two other servers at CES and THE Show that I thought were better and cheaper than the Sooloos. They were the Exemplar and Blue Smoke. The Exemplar uses a wireless tablet touch screen but, as shown, did not use the available cover art as the designer wanted to hold down as much as possible on the use of the processor. Nevertheless, if you want it you can just down load it from the internet. The Blue Smoke was showing cover art of what was playing. I never saw any more display than that, but they were selecting from a tablet also.

There is no reason why you could not have 1 terabyte drives in the Exemplar which was using .75 terabyte drives. The Blue Smoke had a wireless 4 terabyte drive sitting across the room.

I heard several servers at the show but these two were the best. I ordered an Exemplar. It was being used both in the LSA and FIM suites.
Anyone know how much the Exemplar or the Blue Smoke servier costs? Or where to get more info?
OK, ran a search, the Blue Smoke at least seems to be semi-vaporware; not yet available, no marketing material, no hard cost; pre-sales to a few select individuals.