Actually I see that a lot of companies have also glimpsed this future and are calling such devices "Network DAC" or "Media DAC".
They've got it wrong though, they're obsessing about the hardware when in fact once you have a decent DAC chip (which could just be on a pluggable sound card) all you need is commodity hardware.
They should be obsessing about the software instead. People buy convenience, and the software needs to just work and not require horrible third party software to function (I'm looking at you Twonky).
Actually I see that a lot of companies have also glimpsed this future and are calling such devices "Network DAC" or "Media DAC".
They've got it wrong though, they're obsessing about the hardware when in fact once you have a decent DAC chip (which could just be on a pluggable sound card) all you need is commodity hardware.
They should be obsessing about the software instead. People buy convenience, and the software needs to just work and not require horrible third party software to function (I'm looking at you Twonky).