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Amazon Music HD, Firestick, Denon 4500 - no 24 bit input

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RDoc

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I was finally able to find HDMI audio extractor model which did the job (link below) and my DAC got 24/192 signal from the Amazon Music HD app on my Firestick 4K. I should say I am impressed with the overall sound quality, which I think is great, regardless of the bit depth or sampling rate of the tracks. Both HD and Ultra HD tracks sound very dynamic and there is absolutely no noise. Of course, it is still not bit-perfect, everything is resampled at 192 kHz. My only gripe is that gapless playback is still not supported on FS 4K. Let's hope they will fix it sooner or later.

Kanex Pro HDMI Audio De-Embedder with 3D Support, 2-Channel, HDCP Compliant, Full HD 1080p (HAECOAX)
What were you connecting the Firestick 4K to that didn't work with 192/24? I'm wondering if the issue is that my Denon isn't reporting its capabilities in a way the Firestick can understand.
 

samshaver

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I don't understand what you're saying. Neither of your examples shows 192 kHz playback. The first shows 96/24, the second Standard which I believe is 48/16. How long did you wait on the second before taking the screen shot? Amazon HD often takes a minute or so before switching to a higher rate/depth.
What I was trying to get at is what @Bamyasi was saying, that I think the app (both iOS and Desktop for Windows 10) resamples everything to what your device capability is. If you look at the first picture, you can see that my DAC is showing 192kHz playback. However, that is NOT what the app says it was sending. Yet, in both cases for the 24/96 and standard screenshots I posted, the DAC was still displaying 192kHz playback. I have not come across any songs that are actually in 192kHz sample rate yet.
 

Videotape

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I'm using a 3rd Gen Firestick into a Denon AVR-X4500H streaming Amazon HD with Ultra HD turned on. This really does sound good, significantly better than Spotify HD, however it will only do 192 kHz 16 bit, not 24 bit. Does anyone have any idea why?

As an aside, I really didn't expect the Ultra HD to make much improvement, but both my wife and I immediately noticed the difference between the Amazon 192/16 and the Spotify HD versions of the same album. We both feel the sound is "crisper" and can tell the instruments apart more clearly. Both streaming services are great, but the Amazon Ultra HD really sounds more like we are listening to live music. Having said that, individual albums are different. For some there doesn't seem to be much difference, for others it's quite pronounced.

I have a firestick 4K plugged into a denon 3600h. AMHD currently reports the device capability as 24/192.

I believe they may have done an app update to support the higher bitrate as I was also getting 16/192 originally when I got the denon.
 

Bamyasi

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BTW, I have also recently tried Fire TV Stick Lite (2020) in hope that this might be the cheapest AMHD/Ultra HD streaming solution, at least for existing AVR owners, but alas, this one seems to be capped at 24/48. At least I was unable to get higher rates from it so far. Not that bad although, considering the price.
 
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I have a firestick 4K plugged into a denon 3600h. AMHD currently reports the device capability as 24/192.

I believe they may have done an app update to support the higher bitrate as I was also getting 16/192 originally when I got the denon.
That's very interesting indeed. If, as you say, it was a Denon update, I wonder if they'll bother with the 4500 since it's last year's model.
 

Videotape

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That's very interesting indeed. If, as you say, it was a Denon update, I wonder if they'll bother with the 4500 since it's last year's model.

Just to be clear. I was talking about update of the Amazon Music HD app that runs natively on the firestick. There was no update for denon involved.

I would recommend trying firmware update of your firestick to latest version and then try to get the latest version of the Amazon Music app.
 
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Just to be clear. I was talking about update of the Amazon Music HD app that runs natively on the firestick. There was no update for denon involved.

I would recommend trying firmware update of your firestick to latest version and then try to get the latest version of the Amazon Music app.
The firestick has the latest update and I don't think there is a way to update the music app except automatically.
 

JoeB4ever

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I've also been unsuccessful using my firestick with my Denon 2808ci. Amazon says my device only supports 16/192. Hopefully a future firmware update will fix the issue. I may test it with a newer Denon and a yamaha receiver to see what happens. Even though they'd be down grades.
 

Beershaun

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I've also been unsuccessful using my firestick with my Denon 2808ci. Amazon says my device only supports 16/192. Hopefully a future firmware update will fix the issue. I may test it with a newer Denon and a yamaha receiver to see what happens. Even though they'd be down grades.

Odd since the specs for your receiver say it supports dtsHD 24/96 and neuralX 192. Not clear what the actual PCM audio decoding spec is but it stands to reason your avr supports at least 24/96.
 

JoeB4ever

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Yeah I plugged it into a slightly newer yamaha receiver, and 24/192 works no problem. Not sure what to do since the Denon is better, and the yamaha doesn't have a phono input.
 

Beershaun

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Yeah I plugged it into a slightly newer yamaha receiver, and 24/192 works no problem. Not sure what to do since the Denon is better, and the yamaha doesn't have a phono input.
I wouldnt change your system because the Amazon app is wonky. You could try tweaking the fire stick audio settings or the music app settings to see if that changes anything. If that doesn't work you may just want to be at peace with it and check back when there is an app update.
 

redboat77

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I'm using a 3rd Gen Firestick into a Denon AVR-X4500H streaming Amazon HD with Ultra HD turned on. This really does sound good, significantly better than Spotify HD, however it will only do 192 kHz 16 bit, not 24 bit. Does anyone have any idea why?

As an aside, I really didn't expect the Ultra HD to make much improvement, but both my wife and I immediately noticed the difference between the Amazon 192/16 and the Spotify HD versions of the same album. We both feel the sound is "crisper" and can tell the instruments apart more clearly. Both streaming services are great, but the Amazon Ultra HD really sounds more like we are listening to live music. Having said that, individual albums are different. For some there doesn't seem to be much difference, for others it's quite pronounced.

Do you have Amazon Fire TV Stick plugged directly in the Denon, or are you routing the audio to the Denon through another path?

I also have the Amazon Fire TV Stick - got it about a week ago - and have a similar experience with Amazon Music HD. The most I get is 16 bit / 192 kHz.

I'm routing the Amazon Music HD audio through my Samsung TV and using a digital audio optical cable to get the audio to my integrated amp. (The amp does not have an HDMI interface.) I believe the Samsung limits bit depth to 16 bits in my case. The other possibility is the 10 ft TOSLINK cable is causing too much optical attenuation. My integrated amp has an internal 24 bit / 192 kHz DAC.

One weird thing was that Amazon Music HD initially reported my device capability as 16 bit / 48 kHz, and then, after several more hours of play, it updated the device capability to 16 bit / 192 kHz. Right now, if the recording is an Ultra HD source at 24 bit / 192 kHz, Amazon Music HD reports it is sending 16 bit / 192 kHz. If the recording is 24 bit / 48 kHz, it sends it at 16 bit / 48 kHz, even though the 24 bit / 48 kHz data rate would be less than 16 bit / 192 kHz.

I speculate that the Amazon Music HD method to calculate the data rate capability of the the path it is streaming to does a lot of averaging (hours or even days) to avoid being fooled by short term transients, and it is also conservative since it would rather get a continuous stream to the device at a lower data rate than suffer dropouts.

UPDATE: I was able to get full 24 bit depth...see my next post below.
 
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Beershaun

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I found this article that may indicate you have to change the settings in the Amazon Music app. to start seeing 24 bit audio:
https://www.aftvnews.com/fire-tv-sticks-now-support-amazon-music-hd-streams-at-24-bits-192-khz/

To stream at the improved quality, you need to have the latest version of the Amazon Music app installed, which is v3.3.581, and you need to manually enable HD audio within the app’s settings menu which can be accessed through the user icon in the upper right corner. Of course, you also need to have an Amazon Music HD subscription.

One of the replies posted in this thread states they were seeing 16/192 prior to changing the setting in the Music app and then saw 24/192 after changing the setting.
 

redboat77

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I found this article that may indicate you have to change the settings in the Amazon Music app. to start seeing 24 bit audio:
https://www.aftvnews.com/fire-tv-sticks-now-support-amazon-music-hd-streams-at-24-bits-192-khz/

To stream at the improved quality, you need to have the latest version of the Amazon Music app installed, which is v3.3.581, and you need to manually enable HD audio within the app’s settings menu which can be accessed through the user icon in the upper right corner. Of course, you also need to have an Amazon Music HD subscription.

One of the replies posted in this thread states they were seeing 16/192 prior to changing the setting in the Music app and then saw 24/192 after changing the setting.
THANKS! Amazon Music HD went from streaming 16 bit / 192 KHz to 24 bit / 192 KHz when I made this adjustment to the Fire TV stick.

This is quite a non-intuitive setting - which I was not even aware of - since it only occurred in the app residing on the Fire TV Stick, and does not exist in the Amazon Music HD app elsewhere (in my case, on my Mac). My Mac has a general set of internet-based account settings for the Amazon Music HD sound quality, including an AUDIO QUALITY setting that I already had at HD/ULTRA HD, and I assumed that would be effective globally for my Amazon Music HD account since most other settings are: once I set them on the Mac, they show up on the Fire TV Stick. But not this one. It's almost like Amazon doesn't want customers to find this one...
 
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Beershaun

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Great! Yeah it's annoying that you have to make a manual setting change in the app. I speculating that is has to do with working around Android OS trying to force all audio to 16/48. That's all I can get out of my fire stick from Plex or Tidal. Hopefully Amazon figures out a way for users to apply that setting in the OS for all apps and not just Amazon Music.
 
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I've got the Firestick directly into my Denon and I've enabled 24 bit playback in Amazon Music HD on the Firestick.

I assume the way Amazon Music and the Firestick know the DAC capability is with the HDMI EDID messages. I have no idea why it takes so long to change. I've also noticed that it starts playing at Standard then switches to higher rates, but over the course of 10s of seconds, not hours. That's really weird.
 

mdominic

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With my Denon x2700h and Ultra HD turned on on the Fire Stick 4K I'm getting 24/48 even if the track is 24/96. Why can't I get a higher kHz?
IMG_0415.jpg
 

mdominic

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I tried this morning with no changes and it was 16/192. WTF? And it's also now showing the codec.
IMG_0416 copy.jpg
 

redboat77

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I tried this morning with no changes and it was 16/192. WTF? And it's also now showing the codec.
View attachment 114169
My experience is that the Firestick software is somewhat buggy - finding that I have to occasionally pull the power and let it reboot to handle logic errors. In terms of Amazon HD, apparently it is constantly accessing the quality of the device it is shipping data to, and its assessment sometimes changes, although it seems not to be allowed to change very fast, presumably to avoid "chattering". It never sends data at a higher rate than what it thinks your device can handle. I have no idea why it did not display the codec and then started.

Also there is an Amazon HD setting that must be changed within the Firestick Amazon HD app (you cannot make the Amazon HD change from another device). Here's what I remember: go to settings and select Audio Quality, then select Ultra HD.
https://www.aftvnews.com/fire-tv-sticks-now-support-amazon-music-hd-streams-at-24-bits-192-khz/
 
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