Streaming audio

In the late 1990s, one of the original portable music file formats -- the MP3 -- was causing quite a bit of bother. It had earned itself a reputation as a pirate format, and this was mainly due to the sharing site Napster, which was at the height of its notoriety. While MP3 inevitably prevailed, there is a much better choice for high-quality music, and it's gaining in popularity.

FLAC is a musical file format that offers bit-perfect copies of CDs at half the size, and is compatible with many phones (including the iPhone -- with an app), MP3 … Read more

Music-streaming service Rhapsody has announced it will be available on Smart TVs from LG, Panasonic, and Samsung starting today, with Sharp and Xbox available in coming months.

Although the announcement came today, the service has been available on Panasonic and LG for a few months. Samsung is new with today's announcement. A Rhapsody app has also been available on Vizio TVs for the last two years. We're not surprised that Sony's Smart TVs, which support the competing Sony Entertainment Network's music service, aren't on the list of supporting TVs.

The new app appears to be … Read more

Every time there's a significant update to either product, the e-mails start filling up my inbox: so now which is better, the Apple TV or Roku?

It's an understandable question, and one that only gets harder to answer now that Apple TV has recently added two, significant features: AirPlay Mirroring via Mountain Lion and a dedicated Hulu Plus app. While it used to be easy to give the Roku LT the edge for costing half as much and offering more streaming services, it's a much closer call with the Apple TV's standout features.

Let's take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of both boxes.… Read more

Sonos has announced that its streaming-music players now support Amazon Cloud Player, which joins other supported services including Spotify, Mog, and Songza.

In July, after an agreement with the four major record companies, Amazon announced iTunes and Windows Media Player library "matching," meaning users of the Amazon Cloud Player service can upload their libraries to the cloud.

Amazon is offering two versions of the service: Cloud Player Free, with which customers can store all MP3 music purchased at Amazon, plus import up to 250 songs from their PC or Mac to Cloud Player, and Cloud Player Premium, for an annual fee of $24.99, which permits customers to import and store up to 250,000 songs.

The Amazon Cloud Player replays MP3s in 256Kbps, while in contrast the competing Spotify service streams in a higher-quality 320Kbps Ogg Vorbis format.

Earlier this week, Sonos also announced support for playlist service Songza and that it would be providing exclusive mixes from artists such as Slash, Counting Crows, Tori Amos, and Montgomery Gentry.… Read more

As you've likely heard by now, Google has decided to postpone the release of its Android-based media streamer, the Nexus Q.

Citing a desire to "make it even better," Google promised to redesign the device in one capacity or another. As to whether it will be a hardware change or a simple software update remains unclear at this point, but the Nexus Q we know today will become a thing of the past. But what lies ahead? I've come up with a few ideas as to what Google must do if it ever wants the Nexus … Read more

There is a battle going on for control of your living room, and while there are many combatants, there's yet to be a clear victor. Thanks to a handful of so-called set-top boxes, Internet-delivered video and audio are becoming a big source -- if not the main source -- of TV entertainment for a growing number of people.

Nearly all Blu-ray players and game consoles (not to mention TVs themselves) now double as Web-centric entertainment devices. In the market for "pure" streaming boxes, two products have dominated to date: the Apple TV ($100) and the Roku box ($50 to $100, depending on features). Now a new player has thrown its hat into the ring, as Google has finally released its first living-room "AV system," the Nexus Q.

But at $300, the Google Nexus Q is expensive, far more expensive than its Apple and Roku competitors. Does the Nexus Q deliver something more for that hefty price? And which of these should you be spending your money on? Let's take a look at each.… Read more

First teased at CES 2012, Vizio's Google TV plans are now moving forward with the launch of the Co-Star Stream Player.

While we're still waiting for Google TV to fulfill its promise, the Co-Star makes the most of the platform's current capabilities by combining live TV and streaming services. Along with wired and wireless Internet connections for Web surfing using Google Chrome with Adobe Flash Player and HTML 5 support, apps, and streaming video and music services, the player can be connected to a cable or satellite TV box.… Read more

If you're buying an AV receiver these days, one of the main decisions you'll need to make is whether or not you care about built-in AirPlay. It's an easier call if you don't have any iOS devices, but if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, you'll definitely want to think about how you'll be using Apple's wireless music-streaming platform with your AV receiver.

It comes down to this: is built-in AirPlay a must-have feature on an AV receiver or should you just add AirPlay functionality through a $100 Apple TV? It's a tougher question than it seems on the surface, as each method has its advantages.… Read more

British audiophile brand Arcam appears to be making a greater effort to go mainstream these days with products such as the Arcam rCube iPhone dock and now, an entry-level USB DAC/headphone amplifier (amp) combo.

Meant as a smaller (and cheaper) alternative to the rDac digital-to-analog converter, this model only has a single USB input, with an asynchronous DAC. Audiophiles tend to prefer asynchronous USB inputs on DACs for the more consistent audio quality they're supposed to provide as the device creates the clock signals and not the (sometimes ancient) USB controller.… Read more