I don't get this "gapless playback" thing. Are we talking classical-like continuous pieces getting chopped up by momentary pauses as tracks transistion or are we talking about lockups while a D/A converter switches from one sample rate/MQA/DSD etc?
What's so wrong with a pause in between tracks or does it involve intervention to resume? As long as it doesn't involve clicks and pops.
Continuous music, that has track points merely to direct playback to a specific point in the music. This is most common with classical, particularly operas. In an opera, the only moments of silence or proper "gaps" would be between acts and sometimes scenes. Typically, there will be continuous singing that has multiple track points. There shouldn't be a pause or gap or silence in the middle of the music in an opera. Some symphonies have one movement that continues unbroken into the next (Saint-Saëns' "organ" symphony, for example), as do some concerti (e.g. Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto, the transition from the second to the third movement). CDs typically define track points for these sections so that the listener can skip directly to a particular movement or aria if he/she chooses, but if one wants to listen to the entire work, there should be no audible break between such tracks, whether it's a pause or a click.
In popular music, there are some albums where there is no silence or gap between songs. The artists created some kind of transition or bridge between the songs so that one goes smoothly into the next. I can't think of an example off the top of my head. I think there is some Beatles album or perhaps Pink Floyd that requires gapless playback. Anyone who likes those would be driven mad by a gap in the playback lmao. If it's not intended by the artist, it shouldn't have a pause. Remember "indexing" on CDs and how early players could handle that? This is the same kind of thing. Index points shouldn't have gaps or pauses in the playback, unless it's in the TOC for the disc. Same with tracks.
Imagine some scoundrel (or a naughty child for those with children haha!) with a remote control pausing your music randomly for a half-second or so every few minutes while you try to listen and enjoy your music.
Just the arrival of the goods.
