Time To Dump Tidal? Bluesound / BlueOS Now Has Deezer HiFi

[JohnSwenson]

8 hours ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

Many don't remember, but gapless didn't come to iPods until iTunes 7 / iPod Gen 5.

 

I don't understand the technical reasons why it's so hard.  I know Fiio DAPs achieve what I call "almost gapless" (there is still a perceptible, but low millisecond pause between tracks).

 

Perhaps there are some patents in the mix which requires "creative" (i.e., expensive) developers to achieve true gapless.  For me, gapless playback is the demarcation between the real players and the poseurs.

 

 

The problem is that with gapless you have to start downloading the next track into a buffer while the previous track is still playing from a previous buffer.  The problem is primarily managing track information, sample rate, bit depth,  flack/MP3, PCM/DSD etc. You are playing a track with one set of information while you are downloading something that may be very different.

 

The architecture of the player has to be designed from the ground up to handle this. It is very difficult to "tack this on'" to an existing player that was designed with a global set of parameters for the current track. You may wind up with two different file type decoders running at the same time etc., this can get complicated and needs to be carefully thought out so it all works right.

 

Then of course there are GUI aspects, towards the end of a track the track data (name, album, artist etc.) that is playing is different than what is coming off the wire, again the player has to be designed to deal with these issues.

 

None of this stuff is incredibly difficult to do IF you start with these requirements, it's very difficult to do if you decide to change the specs just as it is getting ready to go to market.

 

John S.