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Amazon launches lossless high-res music service!

pjug

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I get a feeling that this launch was rushed before it was ready for business reasons. Probably got wind of something being launched by a competitor in the next month or two.
But they seem to have added the streaming of higher quality formats without a hitch. On the other hand they have had quite a while since the launch of Amazon Music Unlimited to improve their crappy software. It seems they just don't care too much about making it good. I guess we'll see if they start making improvements.
 

samshaver

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can someone please tell me which bitdepth is shown when your DAC plays back CCA streams via optical in?

Not CCA or optical related, but it is interesting to note that using my iPhone as a source with the CCK, all 3 of the DACs that I tested it with (xDuoo XD-05, Topping DX7s, and SMSL M8A) register it as 192kHz sampling rate, regardless of what the bit depth or sample rate is displaying under “Currently playing at:”.
 

day7a1

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register it as 192kHz sampling rate
Considering that it was showing what my device was capable of, I would expect nothing less from 3 dedicated DACs.
 

audimus

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But they seem to have added the streaming of higher quality formats without a hitch. On the other hand they have had quite a while since the launch of Amazon Music Unlimited to improve their crappy software. It seems they just don't care too much about making it good. I guess we'll see if they start making improvements.

They have not done much other than load the files of higher quality (they may have been sitting on some of these for a long time from which they derived their mp3s) into the cloud and indexed with a tag or just stored in a branch. Not much can wrong there. What is served is probably based on the signature of the client in the request that does not require any client to change. So, I would say they basically did the minimum necessary to make the announcement.

A good intern can probably do this in a week or two.
 

Grattle

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The press release stated 16/44 was HIGH DEF and 24/192 was ULTRA HIGH DEF. Truth in advertising, not so much. 16/44 - SD and 24/192 - HD. Don't actually know what ULTRA HIGH DEF audio is (384KHz) ???

"... High-resolution audio, also known as High-definition audio or HD audio, is a technical and marketing term used by some recorded-music retailers and high-fidelity sound reproduction equipment vendors. It refers to higher than 44.1 kHz sample rate and/or higher than 16-bit linear bit depth. It usually means 96 kHz or 192 kHz, sometimes informally written as "96k" or "192k", meaning a Nyquist frequency of 48 kHz. However, there also exist 44.1 kHz/24-bit, 48 kHz/24-bit and 88.2 kHz/24-bit recordings that are labeled HD Audio. ..."

High-resolution audio
It’s hi res in the sense that it’s lossless redbook at worst. It is not playing back a kissy file.
 

day7a1

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High-resolution audio

From your own link and slightly rearranged for clarity:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), [et al] [define] high-resolution audio in 2014: "lossless audio capable of reproducing the full spectrum of sound from recordings which have been mastered from ... music sources [better than CD quality] which represent what the artists, producers and engineers originally intended.

Redbook is lossless, full spectrum, and was mastered from music sources of higher quality than CD. Redbook fits the standard of "high-resolution" under this definition with the possible exception of music recorded into 1411kbps files, which is rare. I was recording 24/192 15 years ago.

Originial source is in the wiki article: https://www.riaa.com/high-resolutio...and-branding-materials-for-digital-retailers/

Key phrase: "recordings which have been mastered from better than CD quality sources". Not "recordings that are distributed at better than CD quality".
 

direstraitsfan98

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Do they offer a student plan? I’m paying $9.99 a month for Tidal Premium with my 50% off student discount. I believe any music on Tidals premium plan that is “Hi-fi” and above (Master) is 16/44 lossless. Correct me if I’m wrong however.

Anyways, I would gladly switch as I have zero alligance to any service, but, if Amazons service winds up being more then what I currently pay (CAD$9.99, ~$7USD) I don’t see the point in switching.

What would be really nice, though, is the ability to control music on my PC from the comfort of my iPad. Tidal lacks this basic feature that Spotify has had for years.
 

day7a1

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Do they offer a student plan?
They do, but it's also 90 days free to start so you can try it without quitting Tidal just yet. I couldn't find how to activate my student discount without agreeing to the sale, so I just did the free trial.

Good luck. I cancelled a couple of hours later and sent a nice little note about what they would have to do to the UI to get me to come back. It's a damned mess.
 

vert

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Not sure if service will be available here in Switzerland, but that's over $10 cheaper than Qobuz. I might be interested!
The other day at IKEA I was able to hear their new speakers developed with Sonos. I don't need any of those but they cost less than competitors and sounded fine for what they are. What is it with the big consumer companies getting interested in sound?
 

JJB70

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I know that the point has already been made, but what would be a lot more interesting is offering hifi masters rather than trying to pretend an awful lot of zero's in upsampled ultraultraHD streaming makes a difference to SQ.
 

gvl

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No Chromecast support and their desktop can't do WASAPI exclusive. I pass.
 

VintageFlanker

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Uggh, yeah. The desktop app doesn't do exclusive/direct mode.
Well, that's a pity.

I'm actually happy with Tidal + Roon. Being an Prime Member, I also has a limited acces to Amazon Music, but I never use it.

Once Amazon Music HD will (if it will) be implemented in Roon, I would think about drop Tidal, not before.
 

AudioSceptic

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With this and possibly other entrants into this space like Apple I would be surprised if Tidal and Qobuz are still around 12 months from now.
Can they compete on price? I don't know what the margins are. Otherwise I can imagine them moving to niche markets (hi-res on obscure labels. etc.) that the big players don't bother with. Either way it will be a struggle.
 

March Audio

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Pono had me lost for words. Pointless and wrong in every possible way.

The only possible application was portable, so they made it Toblerone shaped and impossible and probably painful to put in your pocket. Moronic.

Has anyone else tried to bite a chunk off a Toblerone and stabbed the roof of their mouth, or is just me being daft?
 
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