Web audio / radio streaming client: use Howler.js, native Audio, other library?

Question

I have been building a web radio player for live streams & static files (MP3 over http). I picked Howler.js as the back-end to normalize the quirks of HTML5 Audio (think: Autoplay, fading in/out, progress events).
Unfortunately, I ran into several bugs (e.g. incompatibility with iOS Control Center, event handling) and found some "creative" workarounds -- but, right now, I'm at the point where I have serious doubts that the cost to use Howler overweighs the benefits. Furthermore:

streaming MP3s with HTML5 Audio sometimes seems like an afterthought - the API does not really reliably tell you what's going on (buffer underruns, network errors). Or it glitches.
Howler seems more focused on the Web Audio API (think: games, sound fx) than on its HTML5 part, even if the first two demos on the home page ("Music Player", "Live Radio") suggest otherwise.

So now, before I ditch Howler and just go with the browser's native Audio API, and hopefully don't run into unforeseen problems: has someone been at this point and can advise?
Are there other libraries I have overlooked?

I realize this is a rather soft question, unfortunately -- any suggestions on where to ask or what other information to provide are greatly appreciated.

Web audio / radio streaming client: use Howler.js, native Audio, other library?

Answers (1)

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