Gapless

What is gapless playback?

Is it like the zipless f***?

@clearthinker Normal CDs and CD players like we have been accustomed to. Some albums don’t have any gap/silence between tracks, like live recordings and some studio albums, but nevertheless the track is still known and displayed.

Someone else can share what is the alternative and its merits in full, but as I understand it tiny splices of silence are deliberately introduced between tracks.

I have recently learnt that some CD players these days do not offer gapless, and indeed being gapless is marketed as a feature. As if its a new technology? Blah.

Thanks @noske.  So gapless seems to be a useless technology that requires another technology to enable its normal use.  If that is a feature, it certainly isn't a useful one.

@clearthinker What is gapless playback?

Normal CDs and CD players like we have been accustomed to.

So gapless seems to be a useless technology

No, it the only technology that everyone has ever used for CD playback.

Until recently - some (most?? - only going on what I’ve been told) new CD players don’t have it and if you don’t realize it when buying you may be in for an unpleasant surprise should you wish to listen to some Pink Floyd seamlessly - there may be artificial gaps in between tracks.  

But this is something of a deflection from the thread which is about streamers.

As I read it, gapless is not supported by streamers and they want it. I am happy to be corrected - I do not use streaming. May or may not also be an issue in other contexts as well.

I have a ton of live music and when the renderer does not support gapless it really stinks as it inserts silence between every “track”. If one never listens to live recordings then it likely does not matter. Far from useless and critical for me at least.