Tagged: streaming

Same track, same app, different loudness in every room. Here's the actual engineering reason multiroom volume matching fails, and how to fix it properly.

MQA's collapse left a lot of confused shelves of "Masters" tier subscriptions. Here's what actually changed, and what to do about it.

ESS, AKM or a "flagship" chip name tells you almost nothing about how a DAC sounds. Here's what genuinely separates a good one from a dud, on any budget.

Most multiroom systems are designed around speakers in rooms. Here's how to build a headphone zone into that same ecosystem without gutting the sound.

DAC before or after the preamp, streamer or separate box: where the conversion happens in your chain affects noise, volume control and cable runs more than the chip inside it.

Multiroom systems are built around speakers in rooms. Here's how to get a proper headphone zone out of the same network, without losing resolution.

What actually changes when you stream to headphones: service quality settings, exclusive mode, and the DAC steps that matter more than the app you use.

Most multiroom systems treat every zone as an afterthought. Here's how to build secondary zones that respect the investment you've made in your primary system.

AirPlay 2, Google Cast and Bluetooth all promise to get music from your phone to your speakers — but they work very differently. Here's what actually matters for audio quality.

Roon, Linn Kazoo and Lumin each promise to be the centre of a serious streaming system. Sofia Laurent breaks down what each actually delivers — and what they cost you.

Dave Okafor asks whether budget network streamers can genuinely hold their own against pricier rivals — and what you actually lose if you don't spend up.

Every major streaming service has quality settings that most people never touch. Here's what those settings actually change in the signal chain — and where it genuinely matters.

Multiroom audio and high-end source quality rarely coexist well. Here's how to architect a system where every zone gets the signal it deserves.

Hi-res, MQA, lossless, lossy — the format wars are loud and mostly confusing. Here's what actually changes what you hear through headphones.

Zones drifting out of time is the most common multiroom complaint. Marcus Vale explains what causes latency, how each ecosystem handles it, and what you can actually do.

More digits and higher numbers don't automatically mean better sound. Here's what bit depth and sample rate actually do — and where the real gains stop.

Marcus Vale runs the measurements and the logic on whether a physical Ethernet connection genuinely improves streaming audio quality over Wi-Fi — or if it's mostly folklore.

Four streaming services, very different price points and audio quality claims. Dave Okafor cuts through the marketing to find out which one actually deserves your money.

Multiroom audio doesn't have to cost a fortune. Dave Okafor breaks down the real options, the traps, and the ecosystems worth your money in Australia.

Dave Okafor cuts through the DAC upgrade hype: when a dedicated converter genuinely improves your sound, and when it's just expensive placebo.

Jitter in network streamers is real, measurable, and audible at the margins. Marcus Vale explains what it is, how to measure it, and what actually fixes it.

Theo Mensah cuts through the forum noise to explain what Roon, UPnP/DLNA and proprietary apps actually do differently — and whether any of it affects the sound.

NAD's C 589 CD player pairs MQA Labs' QRONO d2a reconstruction technology with an ESS Sabre DAC — here's what that means for serious listeners.

Antipodes Audio has established Oladra as its own super-premium digital brand, debuting the Sentia and Presence servers at AXPONA 2026.

Spotify's new three-tier Premium structure in India, Indonesia, UAE, Saudi Arabia and South Africa gates lossless 24-bit FLAC behind the top Platinum tier. Here's what it means for AU listeners.

Qobuz's June 2026 annual results show 45.7% revenue growth in 2025, dwarfing the market's 8.8% rise, with profitability now targeted by March 2027.

Apple Music VP Oliver Schusser says most fans can't tell lossless from standard quality. Theo Mensah unpacks what that means for serious Australian listeners.

Qobuz has published an AI Charter and a proprietary detection system to tag fully AI-generated music, pledging to keep human curation at the heart of its catalog.

At CES 2026, Dolby confirmed Atmos Music is now built into 150+ vehicles across 35+ automakers. Here's what it means for spatial audio's mainstream moment.

Qobuz MD Dan Mackta says Spotify's lossless rollout caused only modest cancellations before the hi-res streamer's user base grew — here's why that matters.

Pioneer's SPHERA DMH-WT8000NEX is the world's first aftermarket in-dash receiver with Dolby Atmos via Apple CarPlay — and at $1,299.99 USD, it's a genuine game-changer.

Samsung's HARMAN completed its $350M acquisition of Sound United in late 2025, reshaping premium audio and raising hard questions for serious listeners.

After a catastrophic app rebrand and leadership turmoil, Sonos has swung to its first positive Q2 EBITDA in four years. Marcus Vale analyses what it means.

Orchard Audio's Starkrimson 25 monoblock launch confirms that gallium nitride amplification's real advances still come from dedicated specialists, not the mainstream brands.

The Hegel H150 'Prodigy' arrives with Class-AB SoundEngine 2, a new USB-A input and MM phono — a deliberate statement against the Class-D tide.

AKM's recovery from its 2020 fab fire reaches a milestone as the AK4499EX lands in Astell&Kern's $450 HC5 — the first portable DAC to carry the chip.

The Gustard R30's Darko.Audio review reignited the R2R debate. Theo Mensah unpacks why discrete ladder DACs are serious contenders at AU-friendly prices.

MQA's successor technologies are finally shipping in real products. Here's a clear-eyed account of what survived the collapse — and what's still missing.

After an eight-year wait, Spotify began rolling out 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC to Premium subscribers in September 2025. Here's what it means for your system.

tvOS 27 unlocks Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless at up to 24-bit/192 kHz on Apple TV 4K — closing a gap that has frustrated serious listeners since 2021.