In my quest to find a good and convenient source for Amazon Music in my living room recently found out FireTV cube supports Ultra HD quality up to 24bit/192kHz on Amazon Music over HDMI. It was disabled by default, but when I enabled it wow, the difference is remarkable and very obvious. Like a vail was lifted from the speakers.
Setup:
FireTV cube HDMI to Onkyo TX-NR656 receiver with Revel W383 in-wall speakers and BIC PL-200 sub.
Important - disabled Dolby processing in FireTV settings, it’s pretty bad when it’s on - sends multichannel Dolby Digital signal that receiver has to down-mix to stereo.
Switching Ultra HD on/off is very quick and allows for easy A/B comparison, even a blind one. The difference is so pronounced that I’m even a bit skeptical some shenanigans might be involved. I would not expect such audible difference between 16/44.1 and 24/44.1. It’s interesting that the difference for 24/192 tracks is even more pronounced.
I’d be curious if a more experienced listener has FireTV with Amazon Music HD and could try it out and share their opinion. Is this really the Hi-Res audio magic or some clever trickery?
Until then I’ll enjoy listening, my living room stereo never sounded so good!
Setup:
FireTV cube HDMI to Onkyo TX-NR656 receiver with Revel W383 in-wall speakers and BIC PL-200 sub.
Important - disabled Dolby processing in FireTV settings, it’s pretty bad when it’s on - sends multichannel Dolby Digital signal that receiver has to down-mix to stereo.
Switching Ultra HD on/off is very quick and allows for easy A/B comparison, even a blind one. The difference is so pronounced that I’m even a bit skeptical some shenanigans might be involved. I would not expect such audible difference between 16/44.1 and 24/44.1. It’s interesting that the difference for 24/192 tracks is even more pronounced.
I’d be curious if a more experienced listener has FireTV with Amazon Music HD and could try it out and share their opinion. Is this really the Hi-Res audio magic or some clever trickery?
Until then I’ll enjoy listening, my living room stereo never sounded so good!
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