Get the weekly hi-fi digest — new gear, best reads, and deals.

Highresaudio.com is now integrated into the JPLAY streaming app, enabling high-resolution streaming and purchases directly within an audiophile-focused playback platform.
The service offers over 950,000 streaming titles exclusively in 24-bit quality or higher, plus more than one million Download-to-Own albums.
Download-to-Own remains significant in Germany, representing roughly 30% of music sales versus 70% streaming, according to Qobuz Germany data.
The more interesting angle in the Highresaudio–JPLAY linkup is not availability, but workflow. Highresaudio has always been positioned as a catalogue where provenance and resolution are non‑negotiable, and that philosophy aligns neatly with JPLAY’s role as a lightweight control-and-playback layer rather than a metadata-heavy ecosystem. From a technical standpoint, this keeps the signal chain relatively short: JPLAY operates as a control point and renderer, pulling data directly from the service or a local UPnP source and handing it off to the DAC without the overhead of a permanent server process. For users sensitive to network chatter, buffering behavior and clock stability, this stripped-down approach is often preferred over more centralized architectures.
Another noteworthy aspect is how Download‑to‑Own fits into a modern streaming-centric setup. Highresaudio’s catalogue is clearly curated with long-term library building in mind, and when accessed via JPLAY, purchased files sit naturally alongside streamed content from other services and local storage. This blurs the line between “cloud-first” listening and file-based playback, allowing listeners to maintain consistent playback parameters—sample-rate handling, bit depth, and UPnP negotiation—regardless of the source. Compared to platforms that emphasize discovery algorithms and editorial playlists, this combination speaks more to listeners who already know what they want and care about controlling every step from file to DAC.
From a broader market perspective, the pairing also highlights a divergence in how hi-res audio is consumed. While some services push higher resolutions mainly as a marketing checkbox, Highresaudio’s insistence on a minimum quality floor, combined with JPLAY’s iOS-only, audiophile-focused control model, suggests a smaller but more technically literate audience. It’s less about convenience features and more about predictable behavior: stable network playback, consistent format support, and the reassurance that a purchased album remains playable regardless of licensing changes or offline scenarios. In that sense, the integration feels less like an expansion and more like a consolidation of values shared by both platforms.
New gear, best reads, and deals — every Friday.

* Queen will release a 5CD+2LP super deluxe Queen II box set on 27 March 2026 via EMI, expanding the original 1974 album extensively.

* Audio Research I/55 is a compact tube integrated amplifier derived from I/70, succeeding I/50, targeting high-end listeners seeking classic tube sound with m…

* ToxFreeLife tested 81 headphone models from brands including Sony, Apple, JBL, Bose, Samsung, and Temu across European retail and online marketplaces.

* Audio-Technica launches the ATH-CKD7NC USB-C wired earphones on February 27, featuring hybrid noise cancelling and priced at ¥9,680 via direct sales.