Andrew, the volume control and LEDs sound like cost, lead-time and MTBF hits to me with little added value. My UI is my phone or tablet so why do I need this extra hardware?
The maximum volume level setting may be useful for some but I will never use it. For me, it's more code that needs to be tested and maintained.
The front 3.5 mm jack is a must for sure. This is where the competition suffers actually. You have to get at the back of the unit to plug a source in. That's no good for some use cases.
I see the back 3.5 mm jack as more gold plating because I don't mind a small cable coming out the front and I don't mind having to unplug it to plug another source in.
Spotify would be terrific! I don't know what TIDAL is. I don't know what I don't know when it comes to these services actually. Since you seem to be up on them, it would be a terrific educational experience for me (and my buddies) if you could teach us.
With regard to these services, my hope would be a platform where I can install whatever music services I like. Just like I can do that now on my PCs, tablets, phones, etc. And I can get on whatever internet radio stations I want by typing in their address and saving them to my favorites. That's a good epic you and the software team can work on :-).
