Precisely!
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I think what people using online streaming services have to consider anyway is, that either their service might shut down some time or a manufacturer finishes support some time due to whatever changing.
One has to get aware that nothing except the time having played the files so far has been paid with no guarantee of service into the future.
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What is with the negative waves man?
Take a nap.
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Maybe too early for realism 
But finally I think the main risk isn’t unavailability of a service, just quality (high end demand assumed), loss of one’s own library with the possible need to build it up somewhere else again as well as support of equipment due to licensing fees.
If I wouldn’t have a collection and online streaming sound quality be good enough, I’d take the risk, too (but by being aware of the above).
As higher DSD rates seem to get the future for demanding high end folks (at least for the extremely limited supply), the streaming solution for this will take some time anyway.
Good lord man. Stop.and.smell.the.roses.
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I took the roses comment as my cue to go listen to some music! I pulled out a Reel-to-Reel to DSD conversion of Bowie’s Station to Station from 1970’s tapes and compared with what Tidal wanted to push at me, the 2016 Remaster. End result for me is that I am very happy to have my own library. A lot more subtleties with the original. My kids liked the remaster though. Said they could hear the vocals better and they were not too fussed at the loss of choo-choo sound details. So that is rosy future for streaming! Though when our region was flooded out in 2021 and there was no internet for two weeks, the kids did appreciate having the library handy!
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I like that different versions are available. Choose your poison.
A while ago someone I will not name started accepting records from the public. He had a very good turntable setup and he would carefully record whatever album anyone sent him to digital. He preferred 24.96. Soon people were sending him different pressings of lots of 70’s stuff. He had funny named versions that people clamored for. I have tons of his stuff. It’s fun to listen to a new version of something and then listen to multiple LP rips from back in the day.
Last year after Axpona closed for the day I went to my audio dealers shop where Gryphon was doing a demo. I brought them my Ethos to use for the event and hooked it up to a Grimm MU1. Mikey Fremer asked me how hard would it be to get his thumbdrive working on the Grimm. Three minutes later he was playing DJ with rips he’d done on his $200k turntable. All 24.96. It was amazing. When he played a song from a rare version of Led Zep 2 it was like a time machine. Quite fun.
I really enjoy different versions of the same thing. These days with Qobuz and Tidal I can sit in my chair, and make my iPad do my bidding.
These are extraordinary times we live in!
(But as @jazznut reminds us, it could all end any second now so be prepared!)
(It’s just an illusion, we are all really in pods creating power for the machines)
(But not Peggy, she’s too nice for that)
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Indeed; THIS is the Golden Age for Hi-Fi enthusiasts.
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I love the variety offered by Qobuz, which for classical music is especially nice to be able to scroll through multiple orchestras offering any particular symphony. In my CD collection I have no more then a single copy or two. MCConnectHD has a terrible interface with Qobuz for classical. Don’t get me started. If the Airlens improves on the sound quality of my Bridge2 into DSD and allows me to play music from the Qobuz app on my Ipad without MCConnect, then I’m a buyer. No more questions from me.
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Other than it being a different version of MConnect what is available for the Bridge II will be your same options for the AirLens, nothing more.
There is still confusion about MQA. @Interested @Vmax @Carousel
I a tagged a few people who have interest in MQA.
Opinion before fact… I hate MQA.
Now fact… MQA calls it folding or an origami.
The first fold takes the info from 176.4 or 192kHz to 352.8 or 384kHz and folds it into some of the bits used in the range of 88.2kHz to 192kHz. It does this using compression plus being careful to take bits that MQA considers “inaudible”.
We now have a PCM file that is 176.4 or 192kHz with some of the bits replaced with MQA encoded data holding the higher resolution portion.
Another fold takes the range from 44.1 or 48 to 192kHz and compresses that into an encoding using a couple bits in the range under 44.1 or 48kHz.
Now we have a standard “cd resolution” file of 44.1 or 48kHz. If you do nothing with this file it looks like PCM. When compared with a non-MQA version a couple bits will be manipulated as they hold the folded information. This manipulation of these bits MQA considers “inaudible”.
OK, now, what happens on playback:
No MQA support at all you playback the 44.1 or 48kHz resolution bitstream.
MQA first unfold, you playback the 88.2 or 96kHz bitstream.
Full unfold, you playback the 352.8 or 384 full resolution.
First unfold can be done in software. Roon and Tidal can do this. I don’t know what else can.
The other unfolds require hardware and are done in the DAC.
any unfold requires licensing from MQA.
Now back to opinion… I say opinion because I don’t implement this stuff but I have a decent understanding of whats happening where in the playback chain.
First, you don’t want a streamer doing any computationally heavy work. It should simply be bits in bits out. The simpler, the quieter, the better. For this reason a streamer should not know anything about MQA. Remember the unfolds are computationally heavy. Think of them roughly as both a decompression and upsampling operation.
Beyond the first unfold what you’ll find is most DACs require use of the USB input to unfold MQA. This is because these additional unfolds are being done in the XMOS firmware of the USB receiver. Not using XMOS on the USB input makes this harder to implement as XMOS supplies the firmware to do these unfolds. The other thing you’ll commonly notice about MQA compatible DACs is the use ESS chips. This is because ESS has off the shelf filters compatible with MQA.
PSAudio does not support MQA and I enthusiastically support them in this decision. If you have any interest in MQA you really should look at another manufacturer. I’m told “full unfold” sounds completely different than just the first. Great, go get it, I’m not interested 
That leaves the rest of us making a decision to find software to do the first unfold, giving us the 88.2 / 96, or just leaving it in its manipulated cd quality. I use Roon so I let Roon do the first unfold. The rest of my playback chain has no idea that MQA exists.
That last sentence will be true of a PSAudio playback chain. You can software first unfold and the rest of the gear knows nothing about the MQA because to that gear it just looks like PCM. This does not mean PS “supports” MQA since, at this point, its just PCM with some stolen bits sitting in waiting. Only MQA licensed gear will identify and know what to do with those stolen bits.
Will the AirLens support MQA? No. It just passes it as PCM. Should it? Absolutely not. Streamers need to do as little as possible in the playback chain. Does the DS DAC support MQA? No. PS has said they have no plans to support it. Can you send “MQA encoded” files / streams to this gear? Absolutely because it just looks like PCM to non-MQA gear*
*and, if I can give any praise to Bob and the MQA team, this backwards compatibility of leaving an MQA encoded bitstream being “inaudible” to PCM is truly brilliant.
*EDIT - Unless you use a Bridge II card which does support “full” MQA. However, it unfolds to the full resolution but I’m not sure how the DS is handling the specific filter requirements for the DAC portion to be fully MQA compliant. Do you all get blue authenticated lights? Without the proper filters you don’t get the “time smearing” benefits of MQA at playback.
*EDIT 2 - I just verified a thing about the Bridge II. The Bridge II is I2S out. So, the best the Bridge II can do is unfold to full resolution MQA but not force a filter change at the DAC. That kind of breaks a “full” MQA decode. The DS isn’t a MQA compatible DAC, in my opinion, it just has the ability, in the Bridge II, to do a full unfold. A neat trick, but again, if you really want full decode and playback you need a MQA compatible DAC. (hmm… unless they are using the USB for this, ok the the mind boggles here)
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Indeed - it was a very clever idea to deal with limited bandwidth etc., until someone wants to make profit from it (which is fair enough - they invented it and unless independently wealthy, need to eat).
Problem is, once profit is involved, it has to be controlled, locked, and then licensed, whatever, adding cost to the hardware, and leading to yet more competing standards which just adds inconvenience to everyone’s lives.
When bandwidth is less and less of an issue anyway.
Add to that the unilateral decision that “those low level bits don’t matter no one can hear them anyway” which just gets my goat!
They could have just used FLAC, and waited a year or so for available bandwidth to go up…
Edit -
if it smells like DRM…
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I use Roon to play Qobuz and all works fine. Paul likes Roon.
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Thank you very much for the explanation of how MQA works and what the various considerations are. Probably should have researched it myself before. But instinct told me it was not for me and I did not get around to it. Now I know enough actually to advise friends. Most would be more than fine to have their streaming sources top out at 24-96. Every now and then they call me up with a problem playing something. It is usually because they came across something in 24-192. Generally they would only be streaming 16-44 actually. For me, DSD64 is usually enough. Though it is fun to stretch to DSD256. I guess that fits with PS Audio. No wonder I am here.
We like Qobuz - Roon - HQPlayer (output 352.8K) - streamer into DirectStream DAC.
Can’t wait to add the AirLens
As long as they create enough energy to run my espresso machine, I am good.
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Im not a Roon user so I’m out of luck on that approach.
I’m not so sure. The version that supported the BridgeII had more Internet radio capabilities, including vTuner and Spotify. The version that likely will support the AirLens does not have these.
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There are many here that don’t like MQA, does that mean if you are a Tidal subscriber, you just stick with HiFi lossless subscription vs. Master Hi-Res quality?
Just a thought. I currently use HiFi during summer months and go to Master during winter months.
Doesn’t Tidal Hi-Fi just bring you 16-44 CD quality? So you miss all 24-bit? I do not think Hi-Fi has ATMOS either. I really appreciate Dolby doing a lot to put an end to the loudness wars of all the remasters that came out these past 20 years. Plus ATMOS is fun especially when the engineers really let it rip, zing zing round your head. OK, items like that are cheap tricks. But Steven Wilson’s Personal Shopper from The Future Bites, really takes off in ATMOS from about 5 minutes in.