Rebadging of Streaming Platforms

Maybe a little off topic, but last time I saw a Maserati their display/entertainment was mostly by Chrysler. A small, boutique audio company trying to do custom computers and software could easily drown as their resources get consumed in the digital streaming part of the work.

I mean, just how custom do we want the hardware to be? Are you going to insist they write their own coding language, real time OS and streaming services interfaces when, on the right platform, all this code is available on download?

Do they have to make their own CPU's and motherboards?  That is a hell of an organization that can get down to that level in the weeds.

I think we shouldn't focus too much on uniqueness so much as value.

Yeah, this is probably true. One big exception, and extremely overkill, is the Mytek Empire which had 2 Intel i7 mini computers inside. They were still off the shelf minis but much more customized design than typical.  Does it sound better? No idea.

Honestly in some ways reusing a platform among many brands is better, because of the amount of R&D involved in the streaming part of the hardware. Having one company that only does the streamers means hopefully better updates and software compatibility down the road.

This is one big reason I went with Roon on Linux, though their major releases usually disappoint me.