I don't know from streaming.
It is only recently that we here in the Thai countryside can even get good enough internet that a song MIGHT actually play all the way through, IF we did have streaming. BUT we keep moving forward, and I have NFL Gamepass playing the Texans beating the Titans game right now (Do we FINALLY have a QB???). This is awesome and it is playing through my prized Triton Ones now (actually matrixed to surround sound).
No, this does not sound great, better than the little speakers on the TV, but nothing to write home about. But it is football!!!!!
Loving my home theater and not bothering the rest of my family at 2 in the morning!!!!
God Bless,
Wayne

Hi Charlie,

I, too, listen to mostly classical music. I have ripped all of my 1700 plus CDs (95% classical) to lossless FLAC files to hard drives. I use either MusicBee or MusiCHI to play these files from my computer through a Cambridge DAC, then through a Cambridge Integrated 2-channel amp to my Triton Ones.

I share your concerns about gapless playback with classical music. I don't have experience with streaming services, but I can tell you that, in my setup, gapless playback or lack thereof, is a function of the capability of my digital player. MusicBee supports gapless, while MusiCHI does not. I have a number of CD players lying around and, so far as I know, all of them support gapless playback.

If a streaming service is using a digital player which does not support gapless playback, you might contact them to see if they are even aware of the issue of not offering gapless playback causes with classical music.

Best,

Art

ArthurDaniels wrote: I don't have experience with streaming services, but I can tell you that, in my setup, gapless playback or lack thereof, is a function of the capability of my digital player.

If a streaming service is using a digital player which does not support gapless playback, you might contact them to see if they are even aware of the issue of not offering gapless playback causes with classical music.

Art, I just did a quick search online, and, for Tidal streaming, it does appear to be a player-dependent problem. Others have reported Tidal gapless problems with the Oppo 105, while others have no trouble streaming Tidal gapless on other platforms. In general, the gapless playback capability of the Oppo is kind of a cludge. You have to manually force it to play local digital files gapless. So, a firmware issue it seems.

I don't have a PC for audio playback -- yet. I use my Oppo to pull files from an external hard drive that's plugged in to a USB port. I'm thinking about getting a PC for this. That will allow me to get a Dirac box for room correction. That box requires a PC to run the room correction testing software. Right now, I'm too lazy to spec out a PC...

Charlie

For what it’s worth, Tidal through Roon to Yggy is gapless.

Charlie,

For my dedicated "Music System" PC, I am using an older Toshiba laptop which originally came with Windows 7 Professional. I updated to Windows 10 and stripped all programs I considered to be not needed to support the music storage and playback function. MusicBee and MusiCHI are loaded onto this PC. I use both programs because there are features of each which I like.

All of my FLAC files are stored on a 3 TB Seagate external HD, connected to this PC. I have had no issues with this approach. I believe that you can probably buy a basic PC to serve your music system. You might pick up an older PC for a good price and upgrade the Windows operating system if needed.

I use the Windows Remote Desktop app to remotely control my Music System PC with my laptop "Business" PC. Remote Desktop works very well, but, a word of caution. If you follow a similar approach and have a dedicated Music System PC which you want to control from another PC via Remote Desktop, the dedicated Music System PC must have at least a Pro version of whatever Windows version you are using. You can talk to a Pro or higher version from another PC with any version, but you cannot talk to any version of Windows below Pro from another machine. In other words, it's a one-way street from lower versions to Pro. Microsoft defends this silliness on the basis that Remote Desktop was designed for professional office applications with multiple computers.

Check out Remote Desktop info on Microsoft's website for additional details and limitations.

Bro Rick,
I know you have paid for a LOT recently, so this is a FUTURE consideration:
emotiva.com/product/xmc-1/

The Emo XMC-1 with DIRAC room correction will be upgraded to ATMOS and DTS-X in the 4th Quarter of this year, meaning sometime next year probably.
Save up, but this one will not be that expensive and will sound better than the Marantz, IMHO.
Always here to help you spend your money.
God Bless,
Wayne