Good to read - some of - this post, esp. that by the OP.
I’d been using my daughter’s old iPhone 5 for a BT streamer for various internet radio programs like NPR’s Hot Jazz Saturday Night, Radio Bob and Bayern 3 in Germany and several others.
Lately, as I transition to an Android phone ( because I got tired of having Apple’s coders scramble my playlists, contacts and bookmarks. I have Steven Wilson album covers showing up for 1940’s Jazz LPs, for example, folders which normally hold hundreds of songs reduced to four, multiple copies of folders with only partial content in each and worse. The Apple “genius” bar and online help is no help), I’m using my most recent iPhone 13 because I changed the battery and the home button died and replacements don’t work and Apple won’t service old phones) and the sound quality is improved a bit.
While not the same resolution as my TT/vinyl setup, it’s good enough for background sound and allows me to tune into other radio stations like college radio - WTMD - I can’t get through FM.
FWIW (YMMV) I find it pathetically laughable and sad that with every post like this here on Audiogon and on a handful of other websites the moment someone says “hey, I use this xyz gadget and” some low-T egocentric snob type (no names mentioned or implied directly) jumps in the convo with “well, MINE IS BIGGER, BETTER, the best of the best of the best and you’re a doo-doo head” - not in those exact words, but, while older, the preadolescent/preschool mentality still shines through.
Thanks for sharing, @bruce19