UPDATE IS FINALLY HERE!

[seb]

True, you can use Spark as a "bridge" to transfer music from the server to the client.  But who has the nerves to figure out how the hell Spark works with your music library and what music formats does it play?  

Let's compare the user interface of Spark to JRiver. I added the album to the list but some reason the playlist items are grayed out, it says "No data is available" and nothing happens if you click on them, it is playing the music but it doesn't know the title it is playing! Only thing reliably works is the volume control and mute buttons. Compared to Jriver user interface, it is like trading BMW for Tata Motors.

I absolutely agree. That is the reason I prefer Roon which helps me organize my library and TIDAL at the same time. I also appreciate how Roon enhances the music with metadata. However, I wonder, why the titles are not shown in Spark. Is it the new software/firmware (the reported "bug") or the file structure/database itself? It took me a while to organize and cleanup my music files. It was a kind of painstaking undertaking which I did well before I got the Phantoms. Doing this may have not exposed the weaknesses of Spark as much, but it seems Devialet has made the first steps in the right direction. Spotify Connect is an encouraging sign, lets hope the other services and API's will follow. In fact I would think it would make things a lot more easier for them if they could provide appropriate API's for integration in existing apps and services. Spark then would only be needed for a proper system setup using their proprietary technology ...

I assume it is quite complicated to integrate these services in their firmware, but what about a "server" (Mac/PC) solution that would probably help quite some people for the time being. I am no software specialist, but what if Spark would present itself on a server as a "device" which then JRiver, Roon etc. could use as an output device? If this can be implemented with less resources and more timely, it would be really helpful. The full integration would then be "perfection".