it would be nice of the hifi companies who are developing IP connected devices had some semblence of a clue. The level of naivety, shoddy coding and generally nasty functionality and operational issues found in many products simply takes my breath away.
Yes, you are 100% right in what you are doing. Its time the hifi industry woke up and stopped acting like “one man in a shed”.
“And God bless us everyone”. C Dickens
In their (audio manufacturers) defense, the landscape (and required skills) has very quickly changed from ‘not changed in 50 years’ analog to ‘changes every 6 months’ digital + software - but thats no excuse. They need to get with the times here.
The manufacturer of my pre amp and other integrated amps has been criticized for not making them network accessible. Guess they made the right decision.
Well, many of them are not doing the coding themselves, it is outsourced. The skills they need to get to understand include:
now the problem with outsourcing is that many companies appear to be just assuming this comes along with the ride. The subcontractor will end up wanting to do as little as possible. The customer is the one who suffers.
The real issue is that these companies are simply not prepared to reach out and learn. The arrogance on display by some is quite breathtaking
Dont ask how i know that. But I do.
Oh, and some suggestions on how to spot a company worth spending money with:
thats a good start to weed out the serious companies from the rank amateurs
Great points…thanks. Not many contenders left then 
not in a world where the vendor prefers to tell you how their “magical” ethernet cable makes things so much better…