Streamers and bit rot.

Kalali 

As for updates, even a $500 Bluesound Node2/2i pushes updates to their devices regularly with no issues.

Yes, I have the 2i and when their is a new update I am notified when I go to the Bluesound OS on my cellphone, a quick download and I have the new software update. For those of us living in the sticks, not near any brick and mortar shops, is this generally how all the streamers work?

@erik_squires,  
Insightful observation.  It seems to me that all forms of digital playback are subject to early obsolescence.  CD players, DACs, and yes, streamers, become outdated much faster than amps, preamps, speakers, etc.   For those of us who are not in the "money is no object" class, it becomes a bit of a dance trying to figure out how and when to buy and sell digital equipment so as not to loose the value of our equipment by holding it too long.  In other words perhaps we should embrace the buy but don't marry mindset advocated by Kalali. 

I bought a Sony HAPZ1-ES in 2014 and promptly sent it to ModWright for modification. The Sony probably was at or near the beginning of streamer/server technology.  I bought it for and used it as a server, rarely using the streaming capability.  At this point, my perception is that it is most certainly obsolete as a streamer.  I have an extensive music library, which is not going away, so I just don't really care about that functionality being obsolete.  However, if I wanted to sell it, I'm not sure I would recover but a fraction of my investment, so I'm left holding one more Dinosaur that is way too good to just give away.  

I am considering purchase of a more up to date streamer/server and external DAC.  If and when I do buy, I will probably buy used, hold for a couple of years, and hopefully resell while there is still a reasonable market.   I expect that digital playback is going to continue to rapidly evolve and mature at a rapid pace for the foreseeable future.  It is just the nature of the beast 

It seems to me that all forms of digital playback are subject to early obsolescence.  CD players, DACs, and yes, streamers, become outdated much faster than amps, preamps, speakers, etc

Thank you, but I think of those, DAC's are now the most stable. We can buy a Theta Casanova and it will play 96kHz/24 bit still. :) How old is that? 1990's or so? Admittedly, DACs over the last 15 years or so are much better with much lower jitter figures.  I just looked at your streamer, it looks great! Shame it doesn't have digital inputs. :(

I think the suggestion above to go with some thing that uses a shared as opposed to proprietary software stack is a very good one. I use Roon, but BluOS seems to be good too.

@djones51

I use bluOS which is part of Lenbrook Group, which might not be the size of Harmon I don't know but they do a good job of keeping the app and OS updated.

That to me seems like a great idea, especially if they do Android at the same time as iOS. I didn't mention it in my original post but Android and iOS developers are two different people, or at least two different projects.

The idea of multiple companies licensing from outside vendors is a great idea to me. This means they can continuously develop.

Reminds me of seeing a Maserati at a convention, and the salesperson told me the dash display electronics were built by Chrysler. At the relative volumes, I'm much more comfortable with the reliability of Chrysler and their phone interfaces than Maserati. :)

Electronic devices that are still relevant five or ten years after purchase are the exception, not the norm.  Look at mobile phones, TV's, surround sound processors, tablets, PCs, GPS units in cars, etc., etc. 

It's great that I have some audio components (turntables and speakers primarily) that are still working great over 40 years later, but anything that has some kind of software interface, I pretty much expect it to have a limited shelf life. 

I'd like to get as much life as I can out of my electronics and appreciate that the brands I use for streaming (TEAC and BlueSound) seem to do frequent updates to their products and seem to both be viable companies.