Streamers with best apps?

@classdstreamer I really only stream Tidal, so I use it with a single source.  It works better than the Tidal app in every way except for the "related artists" that Tidal lists when you look up someone.  Bubble doesn't port that information in.  When I want to do more free exploring, I use the Tidal app and then select the "share" option, which allow me to select BubbleUPNP and it will then automatically enque to the bottom of my playlist.  

Well, it's pretty clear that if Tidal is your sole source, they do not implement classical very well or logically--i also had a Cambridge DAC (my first DAC) but after a friend showed me the benefits of Roon with Tidal i purchased a new DAC that played well with Roon, and focused on implementing Roon--so far it has been a godsend for searching for classical and organizing classical playlists.  Not perfect but way better than Tidal.  I don't have experience using any of the other apps mentioned here but so far it appears they are all inferior to Roon...so my answer to you is "yes"--you may have to spend that 30 cents a day to get what you want. I would suggest you find a dealer who can show you how Roon Essentials works (i assume it's the same as Roon) and who will let you play around with it--my dealer did and it did require some tutorial from him--and see if it does what you want.

My Roon experience was limited.  I tried the free trial but on day 2 my vintage MacAiir froze and was dangerously overheating.  I have several thousand CDs in my collection and I think the computer was overtaxed.  At any rate the one day that I did fiddle with it for Classical it was similar to Audirvana Plus.  Definitely an improvement over Tidal, but that is a low bar.  It’s another program designed with non Classical in mind that tries to retro fit Classical in and imo doesn’t succeed, and not worth the money.  Ymmv

To the OP’s original post:

"So first question. Does anyone know how the Essentials app lists classical albums in Tidal My Collection and does it have a search function for the albums saved?"

I don’t.

"Second question: what streamers can you recommend that at least are equal and preferably better than the Tidal app..."

If you mean "what streamers have equal or better apps than Tidal’s app?"...

... good luck. I have the Micromega M-100 integrated amp/DAC that streams through its RJ45 interface (ethernet). Their control app is barely 2-star material.

So +1 to BubbbleUPnP-as-control-point app as recommended up in the thread ^^^.

For this 90%-classical listener all the music service apps suck in various ways as catalog & metadata browsers - and I mean all of them. If you want an effective ux you have to invest: building your own catalog with metadata (eg ripping your cd’s and tagging the music files), paying $$$ for an addt’l 3rd-party app/service (Roon etc), and/or learning about and applying alternatives to the beaten path. Personally I’ve invested in 1 and 3.

Tidal Connect is convenient but it might be long time until they get to your streamer.

@usery you may know about this service already but for a classical listener this is the best:

https://app.idagio.com/discover

check it out. You may be surprised by the absence of confusion.

Roon really is the best, and it’s the best by leaps and bounds. I’m a LUMIN owner and my opinion is that it’s awful. It doesn’t offer the functionality native to Qobuz or Tidal. Bluos is waaaay better than LUMIN. But in the end, Roon truly is vastly superior, especially if you want any info on what you are playing and/or want to discover new music. The downside to roon is that it requires a server/core. The app debate comes down to: you get what you pay for and the free options are simply bad. Using Tidal and Qobuz are decent experiences for their own content... but if you want access and metadata to your own media Roon is the way to go.

End of May there will be a new app from Innuos. The blog on their site about it is mightily impressive. Likely to be the first of many putting pressure on Roon by doing what they do at jest as well if but better.

“Streamers with best apps?”

For me, Aurender with their Conductor App. Been using it for 5 plus years. Nothing else out there I care or feel the need to explore :-)

Most streamers will work well with generic UPnP/DLNA apps or apps that support OpenHome. The Cambridge is an unfortunate exception -- it seems to work only with its own app.

Two of the better control point apps I’ve found on Android (in 9 years of streaming) are BubbleUPnP and HiFiCast. I have licenses for both.

B. is more flexible and supports OpenHome and Tidal, Qobuz. H. is more streamlined but does not support those things. I would recommend either, depending on what you and your device need. For example, Lumin and Auralic use OpenHome, so BubbleUPnP would be the recommendation.

@mazian -- BubbleUPnP when used with MinimServer does a great job of serving and controlling classical music (assuming you have got the tags right) and is far less costly than Roon. But if you are using Tidal (and to a lesser degree, Qobuz), the tags often will NOT be right.

P.S. Does ANYONE understand how to get paragraph spacing working right on Audiogon?

I can't believe this thread is over a year old. I feel a lot has changed since then. In the spirit of OP's desire to balance sound quality with software convenience, I'll post about my new streaming plans. The change on the horizon I am most excited for is Spotify's upcoming CD tier. I am hoping that the CD tier from Spotify is on par with the sound quality from Qobuz and Tidal because I plan to build my streaming system around Spotify. 

I used Spotify for 5 years before trialing the high res tiers of Qobuz, Amazon HD, and Tidal. I ended up going with Qobuz, but not having the software superiority of Spotify has been a constant pain point. I believe Spotify has superior marks in the following areas: curated and rotating playlists, music indexing, music discovery, content layout, user interface, various AI implementations, and the ability to share music. The only thing Spotify has been lacking was sound quality. 

In my mind, streamer manufacturer apps are unlikely to ever rival the streaming services' apps. And Spotify provides the best app from all of the streaming services. (In my mind, Roon is neither a streamer manufacturer nor a streaming service. Rather, Roon is just a software company that tries to help the boutique HiFi manufacturers level up their software experience to match Spotify.) 

So, to build my rig around Spotify, I plan to use a Raspberry Pi 4 as my reference streamer. The aftermarket support of Pi HATs allow for many configurations to find the best digital output to match up with most DACs.  Darko released a super relevant video on using a Pi as a Spotify endpoint. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CfnXOlYiz8

See also his blog post for more info: https://darko.audio/2021/03/12-more-thoughts-on-the-raspberry-pi-as-spotify-connect-endpoint/

Lastly, I also want to give Roon a fair shake before leaving the world of boutique HiFi services for Spotify: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/what-features-of-roon-are-worth-the-price-compensate-for-roon...

I have had 4 Lumin players.  The app is so easy to use that even me being blind has an easy time with it.