This is a quick guide how to get bit perfect out of Amazon Music HD on Windows 10. HD 16 Bits @ 44100 Hz tested and confirmed.
Guide
Right click windows speaker icon > Open sound settings > Select output device > Device properties > Additional device properties > Advanced > Set default format to 16 bit @ 44100 Hz
Go back and select output device > some other device not the one you want to use with Amazon Music. Don't skip this step.
In Amazon Music desktop app:
Set Audio Quality to HD/Ultra HD
Set Loudness Normalisation to OFF
Set Allow Exlucisve Mode to ON
Play a HD(16 bit @ 44100 Hz) track
Cliick the speaker icon and select the output device and set the Exclusive mode slider to ON [<<Edit forgot this step]
Click on the [HD] icon beside the track controls. Notice how Quality, Capability and Playing are all 16 bit / 44.1 kHz
Confirming
I confirmed by comparing the bytes (samples) in a known good WAV rip from my CD collection and the WAV ripped from some tracks from Amazon music.
I used two different devices to confirm. A miniDSP miniStreamer (USB board with SPDIF output and input) with a input and output connected with a cable. The other device being free VB-Audio Virtual Cable which provides bit perfect virtual input and output devices joined together.
I also used some free tools from yamamoto2002 - WasapiBitmatchChecker 1.0.8.0, PlayPCMWin 5.0.84.0 and RecPCMWin 1.0.35.3(included with PlayPCMWin program folder)
First step is to test if your Output and Input (Virtual Cable or miniStreamer) are bitperfect. Use WasapiBitmatchChecker to send 1 million PCM frames between your input and output devices, setting the dwChannelMask if you get a "recording setup error"
If the test is sucessful then you should get bit perfect from Amazon Music HD
Configure the Input and Output devices as in the guide above.
If using the Virtual Cable then set the internal sampling rate to 44100 with the VBCABLE_ControlPanel(Not sure if this is needed)
Start RecPCM Win and select the Input device, setting dwChannelMask if it complains with an error.
Hit Record then play the track in Amazon Music.
Compare the known Wav file to the ripped one with a hex editor - Frhed (FRee Hex EDitor). I used Frhed to mark a few hundred bytes in the middle of the track, CTRL + F, copy the marked bytes. Then open the ripped file in Frhed and press CTRL + F, paste in the bytes and click search.
If Frhed finds a match then the track Amazon played is an exact copy of your original ripped one and the complete path from Amazon to your Audio Input device is bit perfect.
You can convert existing FLACs to Wav with Foobar2000 with a right click(Check option Dither=Never)
Note that I had to try three different tracks to get a match. Compilation CDs, EPs and Albums and the multiple release versions of tracks make it diffcult to find the right one to compare to.
I did not test any ULTRA HD (24 96+) tracks.
I hope this helps somebody. It was a PITA checking and re checking every tool and questioning every step of the way.
Guide
Right click windows speaker icon > Open sound settings > Select output device > Device properties > Additional device properties > Advanced > Set default format to 16 bit @ 44100 Hz
Go back and select output device > some other device not the one you want to use with Amazon Music. Don't skip this step.
In Amazon Music desktop app:
Set Audio Quality to HD/Ultra HD
Set Loudness Normalisation to OFF
Set Allow Exlucisve Mode to ON
Play a HD(16 bit @ 44100 Hz) track
Cliick the speaker icon and select the output device and set the Exclusive mode slider to ON [<<Edit forgot this step]
Click on the [HD] icon beside the track controls. Notice how Quality, Capability and Playing are all 16 bit / 44.1 kHz
Confirming
I confirmed by comparing the bytes (samples) in a known good WAV rip from my CD collection and the WAV ripped from some tracks from Amazon music.
I used two different devices to confirm. A miniDSP miniStreamer (USB board with SPDIF output and input) with a input and output connected with a cable. The other device being free VB-Audio Virtual Cable which provides bit perfect virtual input and output devices joined together.
I also used some free tools from yamamoto2002 - WasapiBitmatchChecker 1.0.8.0, PlayPCMWin 5.0.84.0 and RecPCMWin 1.0.35.3(included with PlayPCMWin program folder)
First step is to test if your Output and Input (Virtual Cable or miniStreamer) are bitperfect. Use WasapiBitmatchChecker to send 1 million PCM frames between your input and output devices, setting the dwChannelMask if you get a "recording setup error"
If the test is sucessful then you should get bit perfect from Amazon Music HD
Configure the Input and Output devices as in the guide above.
If using the Virtual Cable then set the internal sampling rate to 44100 with the VBCABLE_ControlPanel(Not sure if this is needed)
Start RecPCM Win and select the Input device, setting dwChannelMask if it complains with an error.
Hit Record then play the track in Amazon Music.
Compare the known Wav file to the ripped one with a hex editor - Frhed (FRee Hex EDitor). I used Frhed to mark a few hundred bytes in the middle of the track, CTRL + F, copy the marked bytes. Then open the ripped file in Frhed and press CTRL + F, paste in the bytes and click search.
If Frhed finds a match then the track Amazon played is an exact copy of your original ripped one and the complete path from Amazon to your Audio Input device is bit perfect.
You can convert existing FLACs to Wav with Foobar2000 with a right click(Check option Dither=Never)
Note that I had to try three different tracks to get a match. Compilation CDs, EPs and Albums and the multiple release versions of tracks make it diffcult to find the right one to compare to.
I did not test any ULTRA HD (24 96+) tracks.
I hope this helps somebody. It was a PITA checking and re checking every tool and questioning every step of the way.
Last edited: