[turbojet1321]

> The home-audio market is consolidated into a tiny number of manufacturers masquerading under once-proud brands they bought. The crippling incompetence of the products themselves is depressing.

There's quite a rise in Chinese HiFi companies that are making some great equipment. I've found audiosciencereview.com an excellent resource for getting back into hifi and avoiding much of the nonsense. I recently picked up a Fosi amp which, to me, functions at least as well as my NAD from the 80s. It cost me half of what I just spent on getting the NAD serviced.

> All I want to do is play the same shit on ALL MY SPEAKERS. My living-room ones, my patio ones, and my backyard ones. All I need is A, B, and C speaker switches. But NOPE. As far as I can tell, nobody makes this. Nobody addresses the 99% use case for multiple "zones." There are at least NINE AMPS in my receiver, but I can't play the same source on three pairs of speakers.

Look into WiiM streamers. Cheap and quite impressive IME. Multi-room streaming from digital or analog sources, PEQ, room correction etc.