When streaming services emerged and changed the way we consume music, hi-fi electronics brands had to adapt; they had to adapt. And they did it spectacularly. It’s been quite a long road, as I wrote not long ago in a retrospective of music streamersbut in recent years we’ve reached a supreme moment where hi-fi and streaming go together like cops and donuts. Today we have hi-fi music bannersstreaming amplifiers and streaming connoisseurs all-in-one systemsfrom the most affordable to the most ambitious, that sound good, look good, and provide user experiences that are pleasantly intuitive and consistent with other aspects of our technological lives.

Hi-Fi component manufacturers of these components have created software teams to a) develop their own control applications – applications that meet the high standards we are accustomed to in today’s application-driven world; b) struggle with audio transmission standards and protocols that may differ from one country in which they sell their products to another; and c) facilitate the “Big Tech” licensing deals needed to implement their products, e.g. AirPlay – which is not easy, as I have been told (repeatedly) and as you can probably imagine it. Their challenges probably go beyond that, too.