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Amazon launch HiRes streaming.

Looks like anyone buying any physical is subsiding the new service. They're not offering any free P&P even on spends over £20 from what I can see.
 
Listening to lossless Zappa in work tonight. It's noticably better than Spotify through my SMSL M3 and AKG 550s. Seems there are ways to transfer my playlists as well... I may well be making the change.
 
How are people get HD?

I have a USB Dac that displays output and I am getting 48hz running the windows desktop app.

I dont see the point in manually changing the output in windows audio because that to me would indicate the amazon app is outputting 48 and its being upsampled by windows?
 
Looks like anyone buying any physical is subsiding the new service. They're not offering any free P&P even on spends over £20 from what I can see.
If you buy a cd from them you will most likely find it available to stream in at least cd quality immediately - long before the physical and possibly inferior cd arrives in the post. I’ve taken a free sub and many of the cds I’ve bought from amazon over the years show in my library.
 
How are people get HD?

I have a USB Dac that displays output and I am getting 48hz running the windows desktop app.

I dont see the point in manually changing the output in windows audio because that to me would indicate the amazon app is outputting 48 and its being upsampled by windows?

I'm not sure I follow you. If the DAC is reporting 48kHz then your PC is outputting 48kHz. That might mean that the Amazon app is outputting 48kHz and the PC is passing that though unmolested, or it might mean that your PC is upsampling (or downsampling) the app's output to 48kHz. I just had a quick look at Amazon's macOS app and that does not seem to surface the sample rate, at least not with regular old Prime Music.
 
I'm not sure I follow you. If the DAC is reporting 48kHz then your PC is outputting 48kHz. That might mean that the Amazon app is outputting 48kHz and the PC is passing that though unmolested, or it might mean that your PC is upsampling (or downsampling) the app's output to 48kHz. I just had a quick look at Amazon's macOS app and that does not seem to surface the sample rate, at least not with regular old Prime Music.

Well, my assumption was if amazon are giving it all that about HD, then really their app should output HD, and do what it has to to get that HD sound to me. Roon and other apps can certainly do so.

If its outputting 48 then I am not seeing the point of the HD moniker. My USB dac can handle up to like 380 or what ever it is, so its not a limitation of hardware it appears the software is not working.
 
If you buy a cd from them you will most likely find it available to stream in at least cd quality immediately - long before the physical and possibly inferior cd arrives in the post. I’ve taken a free sub and many of the cds I’ve bought from amazon over the years show in my library.
Yeah, I know about that and that's why I like buying my vinyl from them too as you're guaranteed to get a digital version whether the vinyl comes with a download code or not.

Just annoyed at them removing free posting now unless there's a new minimum spend which was £20 the last time I checked but I had nearly £30 worth in the basket and they still wanted £3.95 for postage.
 
Well, my assumption was if amazon are giving it all that about HD, then really their app should output HD, and do what it has to to get that HD sound to me. Roon and other apps can certainly do so.

If its outputting 48 then I am not seeing the point of the HD moniker. My USB dac can handle up to like 380 or what ever it is, so its not a limitation of hardware it appears the software is not working.

My understanding is that Amazon defines HD audio as lossless CD quality. Anything beyond that is now Ultra HD. Personally, I tend to think of anything beyond lossless CD quality 16 bit/44.1kHz audio as HD, including audio sampled at 48kHz.

In your case, I would suggest that what matters is the bit depth and sample rate of the content, rather than the app. Unless it serves some other purpose, you probably want to avoid any extra processing by the app or Windows.
 
Just annoyed at them removing free posting now unless there's a new minimum spend which was £20 the last time I checked but I had nearly £30 worth in the basket and they still wanted £3.95 for postage.
£20 minimum spend for free postage should still apply, but only for stuff sold by Amazon themselves. Fortunately my partner has a Prime Account, so I buy lots of stuff via her account. :)
 
Just annoyed at them removing free posting now unless there's a new minimum spend which was £20 the last time I checked but I had nearly £30 worth in the basket and they still wanted £3.95 for postage.

Is it possible that one or more items were being sold by someone other than Amazon?
 
Ah w
My understanding is that Amazon defines HD audio as lossless CD quality. Anything beyond that is now Ultra HD. Personally, I tend to think of anything beyond lossless CD quality 16 bit/44.1kHz audio as HD, including audio sampled at 48kHz.

In your case, I would suggest that what matters is the bit depth and sample rate of the content, rather than the app. Unless it serves some other purpose, you probably want to avoid any extra processing by the app or Windows.

A well if HD is infact standard def, then its neither here nor there really I wont bother.

I thought HD meant 192 content etc. Got to love the terminology here.

Cheers
 
A well if HD is infact standard def, then its neither here nor there really I wont bother.

I thought HD meant 192 content etc. Got to love the terminology here.

HD is 16/44.1. "ULTRA HD" is anything from 24/44.1 to 24/192, depending on source. Not that it really matters....
 
Ah w


A well if HD is infact standard def, then its neither here nor there really I wont bother.

I thought HD meant 192 content etc. Got to love the terminology here.

Cheers

So far as I can tell, Amazon Music HD gets you lossless CD quality for most or perhaps all content, and better than CD quality for some content. Setting aside differences between the available content, apps and integration options, that looks like good value next to existing lossless services like TIDAL, Qobuz and Deezer. Please don't take that as a recommendation though. I have not tried the new service (only the Prime version) and right now TIDAL and Qobuz apps and integration options seem much better than the Amazon ones. That may change in time though.
 
How are people get HD?

I have a USB Dac that displays output and I am getting 48hz running the windows desktop app.

I dont see the point in manually changing the output in windows audio because that to me would indicate the amazon app is outputting 48 and its being upsampled by windows?

Yes you must set the Properties for that USB device to 24/192 in Sound Control Panel > Properties > Advanced tab. And yes this the reason most Tidal and Qobuz subscribers are not yet impressed with Amazon Music HD. No WASAPI Exclusive Mode, no ASIO, no integration with other software players. On macOS they're stuck with the basic system configuration too, and resampling occurs on iOS and Android as well.

I'm sure it sounds better than Apple Music and Spotify, and those are the primary competitive targets after all. But Tidal and Qobuz haven't lost me yet.
 
Scientific research shows that quick switching is the best way to detect small differences. I understand you don't like that kind of testing, but there is a reason the industry has spent a lot of time and research to develop reliable listening test standards such as ITU Broadcast Standard 1116 ("Methods for the subjective assessment of small impairments in audio systems").

I would not be too surprised if you couldn't tell much difference between a vinyl track and MP3 copy in a double blind test, let alone between digital files.

The flaw with any testing always boils down to 2 things... the listener and the salesman conducting it.
 
Yes you must set the Properties for that USB device to 24/192 in Sound Control Panel > Properties > Advanced tab. And yes this the reason most Tidal and Qobuz subscribers are not yet impressed with Amazon Music HD. No WASAPI Exclusive Mode, no ASIO, no integration with other software players. On macOS they're stuck with the basic system configuration too, and resampling occurs on iOS and Android as well.

I'm sure it sounds better than Apple Music and Spotify, and those are the primary competitive targets after all. But Tidal and Qobuz haven't lost me yet.


Well hopefully roon will come to an agreement
 
I would not be too surprised if you couldn't tell much difference between a vinyl track and MP3 copy in a double blind test, let alone between digital files.

The flaw with any testing always boils down to 2 things... the listener and the salesman conducting it.

Both the digital and analogue playback path would have to be the same which is unlikely to be possible with those formats.

My analogue setup costs around 5x that of my digital and is why it sounds better.
 
Well hopefully roon will come to an agreement

We can always hope. But Amazon seems interested only in partnering on hardware products they can resell. BlueOS is the only one on the list that strongly overlaps with the audiophile market. (The BlueOS integration is having teething problems too, by the way.)

One other tip: turn off the app's loudness control. This is another possible source of "processed" or muffled sound.
 


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