When streaming services came along and changed how we consumed music, hi-fi electronics brands had to adapt; they had to accommodate. And they have done spectacularly. It’s been a rather long road, as I penned not long ago in a music streamer retrospective, but in recent years we have reached a supreme moment where hi-fi and streaming go together like cops and doughnuts. Today, we have hi-fi music streamers, streaming amplifiers and streaming-savvy all-in-one systems, from the affordable to the aspirational, that sound good, look good and offer pleasingly intuitive user experiences consistent with other parts of our technological lives.
Hi-fi manufacturers of such components have created software teams to a) develop their own control apps – apps that meet the high standards we have become accustomed to in today’s app-driven world; b) grapple with audio transmission standards and protocols that can differ from one country they sell in to another; and c) facilitate the ‘Big Tech’ licensing agreements necessary for their products to implement, say, AirPlay – not easy, as I’ve been told (several times) and as you would likely imagine. Their challenges probably extend beyond that, too.
