Serento: The audiophile UPnP controller app for iOS/macOS

[serento]

Well, this is a touchy subject. Not for me, but for my competition. Because I know what I wrote and what I wrote never touches the audio stream, never touches the files. It's just a server - streamer communication, as we all know.

But there is an audible difference in Serento's favor. I will not theorize as to why the other apps sound less good, because there's no way of knowing and it's not really nice to talk about the competition.

Serento's unique features are, in no particular order:

1. Instant sync across devices of playback, favorites, tags, bookmarks, listen later, history, searches, playlists and settings. I'm using my own developed mesh networking technology. Usually this requires a server that can sync these things to the client but I managed without a server. It was a pain to implement but it actually works.

2. DSD playback on the local device. If you are not using a streamer you can playback your DSD files on the phone/mac or use a usb DAC attached. Not a lot of other apps do this. It requires writing your own DSD decimator (the one that matches the bits from DSD to the bits from PCM). A decimator is really hard to make because its all math. Advanced math. And just one bit off and your audio signal is compromised. I've spent countless days trying to get this to work.

3. Turn any folder structure into a nested tag structure. Browsing folders is slow. The performance depends on how fast the server responds and that depends on the type of hard disk you have, the network speed, the cpu and so on. To fix this, Serento can read your folder organization and create a tag hierarchy just like in your folders. Navigating a tag hierarchy is instant and offers all the benefits of a modern organisation system (rename, move, delete, add to playlist and so on).

4. Every week Serento builds 6 smart playlists called My Mixes, based on your listening history. All of them are based on different genres. The mixes are built using a pretty advanced algorithm, that will probably get better and better with time.

5. Serento comes with 75 preset radio stations that are hand picked by me. All FLAC, all tested for content and stream stability. All the beautiful cover arts are made by me. This list will grow in time. There are plans to include a radio directory in the future.

6. You can download any music from the server on your local device and take it with you.

7. You can start playing on your iPhone and pickup where you left off on your iPad. Everything is synced. The play queue, the play mode (shuffle, repeat), the scrub bar position, the track itself and so on. It's instant.

8. If you are not happy with the automatic album identification you can do it individually for each album. Just tap Identify and you will be presented with versions. Choose one and it will sync across devices. You don't have to do it on every device you own.

9. Sync schedule. You can have your iPhone or iPad do a nightly sync with your server so you have everything fresh in the morning. Just schedule a sync and let the background service do its thing. This requires that the device is with the screen off, charging and not doing any work like playing audio.

10. The Classical Music section is simply the best in the industry. I spent many days designing and figuring out what classical music listeners want and I received amazing feedback on the implementation. Not only it is beautiful but it serves the needs of the avid classical music consumer.

Everything else is what you expect from an app at this level.
More on features can be read here: https://serento.app/Home/Features