For anyone following this thread, Aurender recently (not sure how recently) updated it’s app for android and I have to say it’s light-years better than it was before. Still not quite as silky-smooth as via the iPad, but now it seems that almost all functions/features I commonly use are available via the android app and it works well (crashes are much more rare, and usually seems to happen when trying to search for songs/artists typing too quickly). In any case this means that now for 99% of my listening I just use my phone... never thought we’d get to that point but it seems to have finally arrived. :)
Oh, and also for those interested the Aurender now also has the ability to play via Spotify. I haven't been able to get it to properly show up as a device via Spotify-Connect, but from the iPad I can connect from Spotify to the Aurender via blue-tooth (so that still keeps the iPad in the game and is now the "distinguishing feature" causing me to still use the iPad at times over my phone).