NAD C 700 V2

When Canada’s Lenbrook Industries purchased select assets of MQA Limited in September 2023, audiophiles had lots of questions. One question was, Why? What interest could the owner of three major audio brands—Bluesound, NAD, and PSB—have in an audio format that had been embroiled in controversy for the whole of its existence? Critics of MQA (of which there were many) had even more pointed questions, such as, How is this thing not dead yet?

Read more: MQA’s Second Chapter

I consider it fortuitous that my semi-retirement coincided with the emergence of streaming as the dominant mode of music distribution. As I wrote in my kick-off feature for Simplifi, my missus and I downsized in early 2018 in preparation for our retirements. Our previous home had a dedicated listening room in a third-floor loft. In our new home, the hi-fi has to live in the living room. That multipurpose space can’t accommodate a conventional component system—hence my use of active speakers, where the amplifiers and other electronics are built into the speaker enclosures.

Read more: Mixed Media

Spotify began service in 2009, which means we’re 15 years into the streaming era. I’m generally a late adopter of new technology, so it took me a while to join the party. I got into file-based playback in a big way starting around 2011, but only began streaming in 2015. Now I’m all in. I’d guess that streaming (mainly from Qobuz) accounts for 90% of my listening.

Read more: Getting Physical

There are many things I like about my gig on the SoundStage! Network, but what I enjoy most are my colleagues. They all share my passion for music and audio, and they’re all very knowledgeable. And they have strong opinions that often diverge in interesting ways.

Read more: Getting Spaced: What’s the Future for Atmos-Encoded Music?

“Push that button,” Doug Schneider suggested after Jason fired up Roon and began streaming some music. Jason Thorpe, senior editor of SoundStage! Ultra, had recently built a Roon server using spare computer parts. He connected the server to an ancient Squeezebox Touch streamer, and that, in turn, to the USB port on the Hegel Music Systems H120 integrated amplifier–DAC of his main-floor music system.

Read more: Little Colored Lights: Drilling Down in Roon

As readers of my articles on Simplifi will likely know, my primary music-management application is Roon and has been for almost as long as I’ve been writing for SoundStage! But before that I used Audirvana as my main music-player app, and I liked it a lot. Audirvana has been through many changes since I switched to Roon. I thought it would be interesting to revisit it.

Read more: The French Connection—Is Audirvana a Worthy Alternative to Roon?

Somewhere in the middle of 2015, the whole Apple ecosystem—at least with regard to ripping music and plonking it onto my iPhone—stopped working for me. In fact, I can pin it down to sometime between May 1 and August 1 of that year. I know this because, until very recently, the newest Grateful Dead CD rip to make its way onto my iPhone was Dave’s Picks, Volume 14 (Academy of Music, New York, NY 3/26/72). Thereafter, every time I tried to sync my ripped music to my iPhone (be it my 6s Plus, 8 Plus, or 12 Pro Max), I was met with a dreaded “Waiting for sync to start” error that never resolved itself, even when I left my phone plugged into my PC overnight.

Read more: Apple’s War on Windows

During the first few months of 2024, I’ve seen some killer deals on the kind of hi-fi gear I most like. Seeing these deals has led me to ask some questions about the nature of Simplifi’d hi-fi, and to wonder how widely my preferences are shared.

Read more: Fire Sales

Lately, I’ve noticed that a growing number of products reviewed on Simplifi and other sites on the SoundStage! Network are only available for purchase online. Here are some examples: Denmark’s Buchardt Audio, whose Anniversary 10 active loudspeaker I reviewed on February 1, sells exclusively over the internet. So does Norway’s Arendal Sound, whose 1723 Tower S loudspeaker Philip Beaudette recently reviewed on SoundStage! Hi-Fi. Fluance and Axiom Audio, both based in Canada, sell exclusively online. Thom Moon has enthusiastically reviewed several Fluance products on SoundStage! Access, most recently the RT81+ turntable and Reference XL8F loudspeaker.

Read more: Direct versus Retail

Harman International Industries, as many readers know, owns several highly regarded home-audio brands: AKG, Arcam, Harman Kardon, JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, and Revel, among others. Fewer know that Harman is also involved in pro audio and automotive electronics. On November 27, Harman announced a further expansion to its ambit with the acquisition of Roon Labs, a move that caught almost everyone in the hi-fi world by surprise, including me. Harman itself was acquired by Samsung Electronics in 2017 and operates as an autonomous subsidiary of the South Korean giant.

Read more: Harman International Has Bought Roon Labs—What Comes Next?

There’s a short answer to the question posed by the title of this article: “Of course they do.” I could leave it at that, in which case this would be the shortest article ever published on the SoundStage! Network. A slightly longer answer is that the place of physical media in Simplifi’d hi-fi is declining, just as it is in hi-fi in general. But make no mistake—vinyl and CD are still relevant.

Read more: Getting Physical—Do LPs and CDs Have a Place in Simplifi’d Hi-Fi?

  1. Active Voices: Livio Cucuzza of Sonus Faber
  2. Is Roon Worth It?
  3. Out and About—Using Roon Away from Home
  4. Lakeside Streaming—Network Entertainment at a Vacation Home
  5. Streaming Update—Spring 2023
  6. Active Voices: An Interview with Paul Barton and Rob Nicholls of PSB Speakers
  7. The State of Streaming—2023
  8. Gordon's System, Re-Simplifi'd
  9. Mix Master: PMC's Heff Moraes on Making Music in Atmos
  10. Toronto Audiofest 2022, Simplifi’d
  11. The Great Debate: Is Component Hi-Fi Dead?
  12. Evolving Hi-Fi: My Journey with a Fleet of Devialet Silver Phantoms
  13. Simplifi'd Hi-Fi at Munich High End–and Elsewhere
  14. How We Listen
  15. Wayback Playback
  16. Listen While You Work
  17. The State of Streaming—2022
  18. Why "Simplifi"—Five Years Later
  19. The Evolution of BluOS: An Interview with Lenbrook's Andrew Haines
  20. Dolby Atmos Music in Your Home
  21. The Big Switch
  22. I'm Only in It for the Money
  23. Encore! Encore! An Interview with Patricia Barber, Jim Anderson, and Ulrike Schwarz
  24. The New Apple Music
  25. Moving Forward with Formation: An Interview with Andy Kerr of Bowers & Wilkins
  26. Glory Days
  27. Spotify Goes Lossless
  28. In Defense of Streaming
  29. Tinkering Simplifi'd
  30. Simplifi Defined
  31. Going Deep with Artison
  32. A Simplifi Yearbook
  33. A Perfect Pair
  34. The Critical Component
  35. Has the Time Come for Surround Music?
  36. My Top Ten Products of the Last Two Years
  37. Turning Pro
  38. All About That Bass
  39. Gently Down the Stream
  40. Big Events
  41. Rules of the Game
  42. The Name Game
  43. January 1, 2020: The State of Streaming
  44. Warsaw’s Audio Video Show 2019, Simplifi’d
  45. Toronto Audiofest 2019, Simplifi'd
  46. Hi-Rez à-Go-Go
  47. Streaming the Classics
  48. Play Nice Together -- An Interview with Rob Darling of Roon Labs
  49. Active Voices, Part Three: KEF's Jack Oclee-Brown
  50. High End 2019, Simplifi'd
  51. Active Voices, Part Two: Axiom Audio's Andrew Welker
  52. Montréal Audio Fest Simplifi'd
  53. Active Voices, Part One: Elac's Andrew Jones
  54. Let's Keep it Simple
  55. A Roon of One's Own
  56. How I Simplifi'd My Wi-Fi
  57. Are Downloads Dead?
  58. Hi-Rez Streaming: Tidal vs. Qobuz
  59. Toronto Audiofest 2018 Simplifi'd
  60. How I Simplifi'd My Hi-Fi
  61. Time to Celebrate: Five Years of Google Chromecast
  62. How Good Can Voice Recognition Get?
  63. Are Smart Speakers Any Good for Audiophiles?
  64. High End 2018, Simplifi'd
  65. Is the Smart Speaker a Dumb Idea?
  66. What's Up with Apple AirPlay 2?
  67. The Spotify Dilemma
  68. CES 2018, Simplifi’d
  69. Farewell, CES
  70. Room Tunes
  71. Social Streaming
  72. CEDIA 2017, Simplifi’d
  73. Classical Prime Time
  74. The Röst Reconsidered
  75. High End 2017, Simplifi'd
  76. Vinyl: There's an App for That
  77. Metadata: Life with Roon
  78. The Internet and Audio: The Good, the Bad, and the Impossible
  79. The State of Streaming
  80. CES 2017, Simplifi'd
  81. Why "Simplifi"

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