Technology

Edit: worth saying: thanks for posting this though, I am interested in seeing gadgets and it is an interesting design and has unique features.

Thank you! Don't worry, zero offense taken! These things are pretty niche these days, so you're well and truly in the majority with that POV!

I can take my phone and stream music from my server. If I really want to I can download to the phone (simple drag and drop KDE connect style or syncthing if I want to go that route). I use only FLAC by the way.

This is the important part here, the quality of those files is dependent on the DAC your phone has. Phones don't place much emphasis on high-quality DAC implementation because they’re built more for things like for convenience, battery life, and mass-market audio (think Bluetooth earbuds and streaming compression). They’ll play your FLACs for sure, but the internal DAC and amp stage are usually an afterthought rather than a focus.

This one's built around the Cirrus Logic CS43198 chip, which has one purpose in life: make sound good!

In the end these won't be super convenient for most. But there's plenty of people who want to drop using their phone for everything now, or who want to try out a new way of listening to music.