Cobblestone in the wild These days I stream most of the music I listen to, which leaves me with a bit of a quandary. I can listen to music on my computer or TV soundbar with reasonable quality, or my phone or Echo speakers with so-so quality. But I have a perfectly good old hi-fi system with really rather nice Monitor Audio speakers that sits there doing very little. I used to use an Apple Airport Express, and then a Neet Airstream , which joined my network and allowed me to play music from iTunes on my computer to the device - but the Airstream has given up the ghost, and it was always a restrictive way of operating. Now, though, I've picked up a Cobblestone and couldn't be happier. It's a rather elegant device, shaped and textured like a flat pebble. In principle it's very similar to the Airstream - it connects to the Aux In of my hi-fi and music gets to it via wi-fi. (There's a lot of -fi around.) However it's much clever in its support of the techn...

To Primephonic or not to Primephonic... that is the question. Like many others, while generally impressed with Spotify, I have struggled with some aspects of it when it comes to playing 'classical'* music. Spotify is totally oriented to songs, where much classical music is in the form of a piece consisting of several parts or movements, which are usually provided as separate tracks. Similarly, in classical music, the composer is a key part of the information - more so than the performer - where in Spotify's songs it's very much performer to the fore. In fact, some of these issues aren't even limited to traditional classical music - I am very much a child of prog rock, and prog rock albums are made to be played as albums, not individual tracks. I was, therefore, really please when a Facebook query by Emma Darwin brought to my attention Primephonic - a streaming service specifically oriented to classical music. I've had a two month free trial and I'm v...