@AndersVinberg: We are working with Bel Canto to get RAAT into their devices.
Our contempt for UPnP basically comes down to a few things:
- UPnP requires codec support on the endpoint, therefore making different endpoints support a different subset of whats out there. This also puts a burden of patent licensing on the manufacturer.
- UPnP has no good solution for streaming proprietary/unsupported/new formats
- UPnP creates an ecosystem of lowest common denominator support
- UPnP lacks “a brain”, like the Roon or Sooloos Core, so it cant do intelligent things like Swim/Radio, normalization, crossfading intelligence, those pretty waveforms in the seek position, etc…
- UPnP leads to a pretty foul experience. Spreadsheets and file management is not how music should be experienced. We haven’t seen a good user experience with UPnP, ever. The HiFi dealers agree, and only put up with UPnP because they must. It was clear that UPnP was made by/for endpoint manufacturers, and not user experience creators. Our party line is that “UPnP leads to Twonky”. You can put lipstick on that pig, but fundamentally, without a brain, you have Twonky like experience.
OpenHome has the exact same issues, and although they are fixing a lot of the low hanging fruit, we believe the architecture is fundamentally wrong.
Airplay got the above right. By streaming PCM, and with Apple certifying their implementations, Airplay devices are quite robust and always provide a great experience. It doesnt matter what new format or stream the endpoint supports, as long as the source can turn it into PCM. The experience is in the hands of the brain, not the renderer.
Songcast is similar to Airplay in this regard.
Unfortunately, both Airplay and Songcast have two fundamental problems related to sound quality. One is limited format support (no DSD) and the other is that the clock is driven by the source, instead of the receiver (the endpoint surely will have the best crystal in the room).
We solve these problems with the Roon Advanced Audio Transport (RAAT) protocol. The 100+ manufacturers we’ve spoken to, including Bel Canto that you mention, are loving our solution. It puts the audio in their hands, and the experience control in ours. It compromises nothing for quality, and puts very little burden on the manufacturer. It also allows for expansion, while never creating a lowest common denominator experience.
We are confident UPnP support will start being second tier in the world of HiFi manufacturers. This is why you are having to deal with “computers” right now. We all hate computers too. If you want no-compromise high quality audio, you need top-end electrically isolated devices. General purpose computers are solving a totally different problem. RAAT aims to solve that by working with every hardware manufacturer, as well as providing multiple DIY solutions ranging from turnkey Android/iOS app to a bit more involved RaspberryPi builds.