Streamers with best apps?


I tried this question on an Australian forum with no luck, so I'm hoping a more audio savvy community might do better. I currently have a Cambridge Audio CXN which as I discovered has 2 hopeless apps when you want to find classical albums saved on Tidal My Collection. So thinking of ditching the CXN and getting another streamer/server , preferably without a DAC as I will be running it through a Pure Audio Lotus DAC 5. Most reviews of streamers seem to focus entirely on sound quality but as I have discovered the apps used are of almost equal importance. I have considered an Elac Discovery DS-S101-G which is controlled by a Roon Essentials app. 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? Second question what streamers can you recommend that at least are equal and preferably better than the Tidal app which does have a search function but very little logic as to how it lists classical albums. I have thought about the Bryston BDP Pi, Innous Zen mini or an Auralic streamer but know nothing about the usability of their respective apps. So anyone out there who can help.
128x128mazian
At least mahler123 seems to understand the problem even if there is no solution as yet. I have never heard of Idagio but will investigate. Does anyone know at what bps rate it streams at or the size of its library? As for using Chromecast I would have thought it was a bit downmarket. I have a Chromecast attached to my TV and the sound is very average. Also re Lumin I have read elsewhere on Audiogon that it only lists albums saved by date added just like streammagic. How useful is that!??

@Mazian

The Cocktail Audio streamer I suggested, the X45 only a small part of that available models, also can come with a CD player with a Ripper function and Database to keep your sorted and CD’s backed up on a local hard dick (typically 2Tb) on board and can use Roon, Tidal, Qobus, Deezer, Napster, Spotify Connect, Amazon music and others. Plus internet radio (which opens up to a world full of classical stations (BBC). It can play from a NAS or other storage device. It has a 7" TFT colour screen to display the album cover and track playing and so on.

I was looking for a streamer with good sound, could play HD music up to 32bit/384khz, DSD, DXD, MQA, is a DAC, could play my CD’s and stored music. It also comes with a downloadable app for remote control.

I looked all over the web and this was the only player under $5k that could do everything and was a reference level player and DAC.

I had not heard of them before but after 6 months of use, I will vouch for its performance. Worth looking at. (I am also retired and am not affiliated with any product. (I was a civil engineer...)

From the above post by amg56

“...CD’s backed up on a local hard dick (typically 2TB)...”

His streamer offers more features than mine.

My experience with Idagio was that it had a very limited catalog.  For example, it may offer 5 versions of a Brahms Symphony, out of perhaps 200 currently available.  One can logically argue the necessity of having 200 versions of a piece, but if they are available on other services, it would be nice to have.  Tidal Classical offerings were described by another poster as “having been organized by a Chimp on Crystal Meth” and my trial suggested that might be an understatement.  The first movement of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata would be followed by Dukas Sorcerer Apprentice—you get the idea.  I use Qobuz currently, which has a large catalogue and a reasonable search engine, although it can take multiple attempts to find something.
  My bigger frustration is having an App that can find CDs once burned.  The problem with Classical is that the algorithms designed for pop work terribly.
The Artist might be classified as the Composer, the Conductor, the Soloist, or the intern who fetched the recording engineer a cup of coffee.  I have better luck locating a CD on my shelves than finding it in a streaming App, so I stopped disposing of them after I burned them, which defeats the initial purpose of getting into streaming.  I get particularly frustrated with Bluesound and Bryston Manic Moose Apps because even editing the data in their app doesn’t do diddle—the program basically ignores the edits and stores it according to its own whims.  At least with iTunes, once I edited something it stayed edited.
  The best technique is to make a playlist.  This is relatively easy with Bluesound, and I had created 20 or so, but then I had to do a Factory Reset to fix a hardware issue, and it wiped out the playlists.
  I keep hoping that someone who enjoys Classical Music will invent a useful Universal App that can be used with any streamer.  Until then, I have basically gone back to CDs
@ Mazian

I agree that Chromecast, in its basic implementation, is downmarket. But I would point out that the the Chromecast hardware and the Chromecast software are different things that share the same name.

Cambridge says they now support the Chromecast software as a free download if your unit didn’t come with CC pre-installed. Because you didn’t want to purchase Roon, I figured you’d be interested in free. Chromecast works with Tidal too. You can try CC easily with your current setup. I would be interested to know whether you detect an audible difference between the CXN app and casting to the CXN directly from the Tidal app.

In a world were hardware manufacturers build their own software apps to capture market share (who wants to leave a manufacturer if it means loosing their favorited artists, songs, and playlists?), I find Chromecast refreshing. Implementing CC is relatively costless compared to programming, updating, and maintaining a separate app. Plus CC is super convenient for the end user.

I’m not married to CC. If I learn that CC is audibly inferior to other streaming softwares, I’ll start planning my next upgrade. Forum members here seem to indicate that BluOS, Lumin, and Roon have the most robust software. But right now, my priorities are inexpensive, convenient, and good sounding. A tricked out CC Audio seems to check those boxes for me.