Amazon launches lossless high-res music service!

[mkawa]

amzn has more bandwidth and storage than god. spotify has to pay for its bandwidth and storage. lossy is almost certainly here to stay for spotify. that doesn't mean it can't improve SQ, but it is very much imperative for them to minimize the size of streamed files to keep scaling at the rate they have been

 

[Music1969]

the group of people who care about lossless audio is really small. it's the new pricing that will suck people in. this is way cheaper than spotify, period.

Amazon HD is not cheaper than Spotify? It is more expensive...

Amazon HD is cheaper than Tidal HiFi and Qobuz Hi-Res streaming plan...

 

[mkawa]

if you buy annually, it's much cheaper (for the first year, but i will be shocked if the annual pricing doesn't regularly drop during shopping seasons or in response to moves by spotify).

 

[blueone]

I agree about the cost of memory and internet download speed undercutting the case of lossy formats.

Hi-res (24/96 or higher) is another story... especially with mobile devices that are memory limited.

Hi-res in a mobile device is overkill too. What's that old saying about killing a mosquito with a cannon?

Actually, I'm not a fan of hi-res at all; I think it's a gimmick.

Lossless 16/44.1 will probably appeal to a lot of folks for home systems. The term "lossless" implies you're missing something with lossy formats, even if you can't hear it, so like you I predict increasing uptake of lossless media even with non-audiophiles.

MP3-256 or MP3-320 is more than adequate for the listen-on-a-phone-through-earbuds crowd, so I suspect it lives on for the foreseeable future. Does anyone listen carefully on a bike or a treadmill? ;-)

 

[Cahudson42]

FWIW - the $29.95 base Fire 7 - at least for me - is making a nice, dedicated, streaming wifi server for Amazon Music HD trial. It's a front end to a Liquid Spark, using the 7's built-in DAC with a short 3.5mm to RCA adapter.

Previously, I streamed to the LS from my Moto g6 via a bt adapter. But the Moto 6 Android 9 update intentionally disabled LDAC, and bt degraded to basic aptX. Not great. That's now all gone, replaced with the dedicated Fire 7. Ultra HDs often show 24/96 tracks, with 'device capability' and 'current playback' showing 24/48. Seems to stream great over my 5G wifi. No stuttering so far. And using Alexa for playback control is kinda neat and easy, as unlike the Moto g6 Alexa app, it doesn't need to be toggled on in the F7.

The Fire 7 will also directly drive my SHP9500 HPs - the phones I usually use directly plugged in to the Moto, or a bt receiver to connect to the TV's Firestick. With the LS, I use HE400i phones - and of course it has no problem driving them.

Have to admit, I'm really curious how the F7 DAC objectively performs, but being a subjectivist for a minute, the F7-LS-HE400i sounds pretty good to me.. Maybe I should offer to buy one for Amir to test..

If you buy an F7, note nothing will seem to work right until you update both the OS, and Manually apply a bunch of updates, whose notifications are buried in Settings. AM app initially had a 2008 date, and it needs to be the current Sept. 2019 date.

Keep in mind YMMV if you try this. But for $30, I'm happy...
Chris

 

[Ratatoskr]

Let's see where Amazon Music HD is three months from now. They start out the gate with a disadvantage using Windows shared mode playback, not bit perfect like Qobuz and Tidal can achieve using exclusive mode. Some feel they can hear the difference some don't and it really comes down to voting with your credit card. From my own experience Qobuz has nothing to worry about so far. Also, customer support from Qobuz is available at a thread at Audiophile Style that David Craff from Qobuz frequents. I don't see Amazon hanging out at audio forums.

 

[StevenEleven]

Well I have been sitting around puzzling how to inject a 24-bit 192 khz Amazon Ultra HD audio stream directly into my receiver.

Check the receiver manual: will the internal DAC do 24 / 192? You bet!

The test track: The Pretenders, Brass in Pocket. "Ultra HD" -- 24-bit / 192 khz. What to do. I stared at every piece of electronics in the house. Could that do it? Could this do it?

Finally--I set eyes on my mid-2012 bottom-of-the-barrel minimum configuration Macbook Pro Retina original version (this was the first version of the Macbook Pro Retina).

Google is your friend: this might be it.

Install and fire up Amazon Music HD for Mac. The Amazon HD music app app tells you you can set your audio settings to output hi res from your mac, and provides a link to an Amazon page saying kind of how to do it!!!!

Hook up to my receiver's front-facing HDMI auxiliary input.
Macbook pro settings: Audio Output Device: HDMI!
Applications-utilities-audio-midi settings: 2 channels, 24-bit / 192 khz!
Well, there's my Macbook screen up on the TV.
Play music.

Yes! It's happening-my receiver is getting an Amazon Ultra HD 24-bit / 192 khz stream of the The Pretenders, Brass in Pocket!! The Amazon music app confirms it! I have the ultimate hi-res streaming box! A mid-2012 bottom-of-the-barrel minimum configuration Macbook Pro Retina original version!!

And it struck me: this is pointless. I did it, but it's pointless. It was an interesting conundrum, but it's pointless. There is no sonic benefit to this whatsoever. Unhook Macbook Pro. Audio output: Internal Speakers. Return to default settings.

For my home theater, I'll just use my Amazon Fire Stick 4k, and just settle for 16-bit, 48 khz, for the Ultra HD tracks. Besides the Amazon Fire Stick 4k only cost me $35 and the Amazon HD music app for it is beautifully done.

And the mid-2012 bottom-of-the-barrel minimum configuration Macbook Pro Retina original version cost me. . . well, never mind what it cost me. But over seven years down the road and it still packs a punch!!!! It's still my one and only laptop. And it will receive and output a 24-bit / 192 khz Amazon Music HD Ultra HD audio stream!!!! Pointlessly so. So no further need to go chasing my tail about that.

 

[Sal1950]

Yes! It's happening-my receiver is getting an Amazon Ultra HD 24-bit / 192 khz stream of the The Pretenders, Brass in Pocket!! The Amazon music app confirms it! I have the ultimate hi-res streaming box! A mid-2012 bottom-of-the-barrel minimum configuration Macbook Pro Retina original version!!

Just a question out of curiosity, did you try playing some other albums that use different data rates? It's possible something in that Mac was up-sampling everything to 24/192?

 

[Sal1950]

Good question! It is with glee that I refute your hypothesis! At this very moment, I have the bit rate and frequency on the Mac set to 24 / 192 but the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams, a vanilla 16 / 44.1 song, is playing back at 16 / 41.

But are you sure??? LOL

 

[Sal1950]

Did I mention I also run Windows 10 on this mid-2012 MacBook? Do you think I could do the same thing in Windows? Hell no I couldn't, even on the exact same hardware!!!

I've run Hackintosh on Windoz PC's
But I don't use either if I don't need to.
Been on a Linux desktop since 2000

 

[makinao]

Does Amazon HD or other HD services uses any dynamics processing like program compression, limiting, or normalization?

 

[somebodyelse]

I've run Hackintosh on Windoz PC's
But I don't use either if I don't need to.
Been on a Linux desktop since 2000

So how's Amazon Music HD working out for you? I've not tried it on linux yet. Ideally I'd like to see a logitechmediaserver plugin, but given that nobody's written an ordinary Amazon Music one so far I'm not holding my breath. I've not tried this one either.

 

[somebodyelse]

Does Amazon HD or other HD services uses any dynamics processing like program compression, limiting, or normalization?

Amazon HD has an option marked 'loudness normalization' that acts like using ReplayGain according to many reports. There have been reports of other streaming services doing the same sort of thing to avoid volume jumps between tracks, but I don't know the current state of any of them.

 

[Julf]

Amazon HD has an option marked 'loudness normalization' that acts like using ReplayGain according to many reports. There have been reports of other streaming services doing the same sort of thing to avoid volume jumps between tracks, but I don't know the current state of any of them.

As far as I know, that only adjusts the volume level of the whole track and doesn't do dynamic compression.

 

[ktm125]

Does Amazon Hi-Res work with Android Auto?

 

[Sal1950]

So how's Amazon Music HD working out for you? I've not tried it on linux yet. Ideally I'd like to see a logitechmediaserver plugin, but given that nobody's written an ordinary Amazon Music one so far I'm not holding my breath. I've not tried this one either.

With Linux so far I'm limited to the webplayer which limits the data rate. My AVP reports 44.1 but there's no way around Pulse sampling this way..
We'll need the app for Linux before I can do better but even the Windoz app doesn't have a direct path available.

 

[ktm125]

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/the-next-track-episode-159-amazon-music-hd-r838/

sorry, couldn't find the member who posted this link for me to quote...very interesting take on Amazon Hi-Res

 

[g29]

... The Amazon music app confirms it! ....

What does your DAC say what it detected and locked onto, or doesn't it have a display ?

 

[gvl]

Looking at the discussion on amazon forums, no one yet was able to actually play at hd resolutions on various devices. Speaking of half ass services. I'm going to wait until they sort it out before I waste my trial on this mess.

 

[ripvw]

Looking at the discussion on amazon forums, no one yet was able to actually play at hd resolutions on various devices.

2017 iMac 27" 5k running Mojave 10.14.6 into Topping D50s/P50 into JDS Labs Atom