thank you for the good folks here with the fine suggestion of looking at Qobuz prior to looking for more complicated solutions! thoughtful advice and helpful. one user here also siggested Idagio.
so i was able to find a friend who showed me his search results on Qobuz for one classical piece, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3. My Tidal search results were the fewest number of recordings (shockingly few considering how important, popular, and well loved Rach 3rd is!), Qobuz had more, maybe 20-30 recordings, and shockingly, Apple Music Classical has 201! of course, not all 201 are recordings that would necessarily interest me or most people, but still, there were many many that were simply absent from Qobuz and Tidal. Quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality, i get that.
additionally, there were no write ups about the composer or the piece, nor is there an "editor's choice" recording of the piece that show up at the top of the list. again, these aren't critical, but when one is browsing and finds a piece of interest, it is fun to learn a little more about the piece via a blurb, and then decide to either listen to it and/or do further research while listening to it.
i was all set to try Qobuz first, until i saw the screenshots my kind friend sent me for Rach's 3rd.
re: @moonwatcher's suggestion of the Fiio R7, it's a good streamer as well! a little presumptuous to think that most buyers would want this portrait orientation, but ok, some might, particularly for desktop use, but that is one use scenario that is rather specific, and disregards all the audio components market folks.
i googled how to remote control the R7. i found a rudimentary remote control that they came out with after the R7 was introduced. i also found an app that they came out with. strangely, i didn't hear in the reviews whether the reviewers themselves have tested remote controlling the R7 via a tablet or phone using both the android FiiO app or the Apple FiiO app. i wonder how seamless controlling it remotely is? is it via wifi or bluetooth (connectivity between the phone/tablet and the FiiO R7?
thanks all.