When HiFi audio became big in the 1940s and 1950s, music was stored on tape and vinyl. Media we still use today, by the way. Not directly because of the great musical qualities, but more because of nostalgic feelings as well as the experience.
Tape works on the basis of magnetic storage (the music signals are magnetically applied to a conductive layer) and vinyl works very simply by cutting a groove in a piece of plastic or copper. This “master” – a lacker or metal master – is in turn used to press other records – vinyl.
Analog and physical media have advantages and disadvantages. For example, media can be damaged or lost. Who has never lost a record? Or accidentally scratched it? Very annoying, because in the past you could just go back to the store to purchase a new one.
However, what is also possible is that a tape gradually loses its magnetic charge. As a result, music information is literally lost. And there is absolutely nothing you can do about that.
Digital physical media suffer somewhat less from wear and tear. CDs basically stay just fine, unless you have a fat scratch in them. But then you have to get pretty bad. Data loss over long periods of time is not a problem, although “burned” CDs do suffer from that.
To bridge the gap to streaming audio: with online media, there is no medium to lose, data loss is basically no problem – but more on that later – and those who subscribe to a streaming service have unprecedented choice. Are there no downsides? Certainly there are … but first let’s go over what exactly streaming is …
A river of data
The term “streaming” refers to the flow of bits. In fact, there is already a stream of bits when playing CDs as well. Both in the CD player there is a flow of bits from the CD to the dac chip, and when using an external d/a converter (digital to analog converter). With streaming audio, however, we go a bit further than just an “internal,” digital stream of bits.
With streaming audio, you play music (or movies) over a network (so not via usb!). That can be your home network, but it can also be the Internet. After all: Youtube, Netflix, Spotify, Internet radio … these are all Internet services. And chances are you use one of these services. Yes indeed: you have probably been “streaming” for years!
So is streaming audio not new at all? No… it’s not new. But it did take off only about ten / fifteen years ago. That seems like a long time ago, but it actually isn’t if we consider how long it takes for a new medium to be embraced. Especially when there are countless alternatives and an already complete ecosystem built around it. Look at the CD and before that Vinyl. The adoption of those media also took a while. And those were still relatively simple systems. Streaming audio is relatively complex.
Meanwhile, the choice is vast and we can say that installation – thanks in part to Sonos and Bluesound – is incredibly simple. In short: streaming audio – and video – is being embraced more and more.
The first big steps
Streaming audio, then, is not new. If we put it very simply, streaming audio is playing music files (mp3, wav or flac, for example) over a network. Whoever very early on – 1990s – had a network at home with a shared drive and a program like Winamp, was in fact already streaming. But that’s very rudimentary. Internet radio is already a slightly more realistic example of streaming audio in the early years of the Internet. Winamp, for example, had Shoutcast radio built in. A world opened up for many a music lover. Hundreds of channels to choose from! And worldwide, too! The first really big step was the launch of the Logitech Squeezebox, which at first fell under Slim Devices. Logitech later bought the company. The first version dates back to 2000 and was without a doubt a revolution. Sonos came out with the first ZonePlayer only a few years later – 2005. It is fair to say that installation was easier AND that Sonos had its network technology (SonosNET mesh network) in particularly good shape. Especially for that time.
The years after?
We can actually say that Sonos really opened up the world of streaming audio. The American brand was a huge trendsetter. That resulted in many others following suit. Think of Yamaha (which had previously made an attempt, but was too early at the time), Denon with HEOS, Bluesound (part of AudioNord), not to mention niche brands like Linn (which was very early), Naim, dCS, Aurender, Lumin, Auralic, etc. Surely it is fascinating to see how the audio world has followed the computer world in this trend. Because the fact is: in these digital times, the computer world leads and other sectors follow. Just look at today’s audio landscape. Almost all mainstream audio products have advanced audio controllers, DSPs and streaming built in. And we are simultaneously seeing a trend toward all kinds of surround formats (including vague projects like 8D, which is a kind of binaural audio on steroids ). Something that has again come out of the gaming industry. Annu now – 2023 – we see a pretty stabilized market. The bulk of brands have embraced streaming audio and either have their own product or platform, or have partnered with one of the bigger players. That could be another brand – BluOS is also available as an OEM – or a platform like StreamUnlimited. So it is safe for consumers to choose a streaming system now: the teething problems are definitely gone. Let’s look at what is needed for a streaming setup and what such an ecosystem consists of.