Good way to stream Amazon Music HD to DAC

[Ddredd]

I bought an inexpensive I5 fanless PC with USB into my DAC to use as a dedicated music server. For about the same price as a Amazon link I can run Amazon HD and Foobar using Windows Remote PC software. I think it sounds better than both the Raspberry PI digi one hat (which doesn't support Amazon) or the Chromecast Audio using Toslink. I can't just tell it to play music but I do yell at it occasionally.

What mini pc? If you dont mind me asking.

 

[DanaGer]

Kingdel Fanless Mini Desktop Computer, Mini PC with Intel i5 CPU from Amazon.​

They have really gone up since I bought mine. OUCH but it's given me no problems and haven't had any driver or WASAPI issues

 

[MikeF]

Figured I'd throw my hat in the ring. I have an Amazon Firestick 4k max that I just purchased. I have AMHD subscription. I have two rooms with different setups that I tried the Firestick in in hopes of getting bit perfect output. Unfortunately, all failed.

Living Room. This is my main home theater. I have a 64" Samsung F8500 and Anthem MRX720. If I plug the Firestick into the back of the AVR, it only shows 16/192 for device capability. I have read elsewhere on the web that this is a known EDID issue. Seems that info is correct as the anthem supports 24/192. Evidently multichannel 24/192 confuses the Firestick so it defaults to 16/192. Still sounds good though.

If I plug the Firestick directly into the F8500, then it will show device capability as 24/192. I have to send the audio to the Anthem via the Audio Return channel otherwise the TV resamples to 48khz via the TV's optical out. The on-screen info shows track currently playing at the same resolution as the track quality, but I was not able to confirm what the Anthem was receiving. This also did not work for movie stuff as running the Firestick though the older TV limited soundtrack options for movies. Since this room is for movie watching it will just stay plugged straight into AVR.

My second setup/room consists of an Emotiva DC1 DAC and a 51" F8500. This room just has stereo speakers and setup. I purchased a Kanexpro HDMI audio extractor. https://www.kanexpro.com/item/HAECOAX I went with this unit because it has both Coax and optical out. I wanted COAX out since the DC1's optical input is presently being used by my PS3. With the Firestick plugged into the Kanex and then the Kanex plugged into the HDMI input on the TV and the Coax out plugged into the DC1, I get device capability as 24/192 on my screen. Unfortunately, even though the screen info shows that the "currently playing" resolution is the same as the "Track quality" resolution, the DC1's display shows everything coming in at 192khz. So as previously mentioned here, everything is getting upsampled.

If anyone has been able to get the actual output from Firestick to be bit perfect with track resolution, I am all ears. So far, I was unsuccessful.
I also have a windowws 10 laptop running the AMHD app connected to the DC1 via USB and while that has Exclusive mode, everything gets resampled to the setting chosen in the windows properties box. Foobar auto switches just fine.

Mike

 

[Poultrygeist]

With the 4K Fire Stick and Cables Matter HDMI extractor my Topping DAC shows 192 kHz which is what is displayed on the monitor. Sounds really good in my two channel set up.

 

[MikeF]

With the 4K Fire Stick and Cables Matter HDMI extractor my Topping DAC shows 192 kHz which is what is displayed on the monitor. Sounds really good in my two channel set up.

View attachment 185628

Mine as well. But when playing anything other than 24/192 the dac still shows 192 as the sample rate. Try playing 24/96 or 16/44.1 and see what your dac shows. My guess would be it would be the same as mine and still upsample to 192 instead of adjusting the output bit rate to match the source material and be bit perfect.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Fire TV Sticks now support Amazon Music HD streams at 24 bits & 192 kHz

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick now support streaming music through Amazon Music HD at up to a 24 bit depth and a 192 kHz sample rate. Previously, the only Fire TV model that was capable of streaming the higher quality music was the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube.

www.aftvnews.com

 

[ClassicGuy]

Mine as well. But when playing anything other than 24/192 the dac still shows 192 as the sample rate. Try playing 24/96 or 16/44.1 and see what your dac shows. My guess would be it would be the same as mine and still upsample to 192 instead of adjusting the output bit rate to match the source material and be bit perfect.

I believe that's the behavior of the Amazon HD app on Firestick (fixed at 192). If you try Spotify, you would be able to get 16/44.1.

And that's why I returned my Cable Matters, I bought it specifically to get 44.1/16 lossless out of Amazon Music (some reviews seem to erroneously suggest it can). I have plenty of HDMI switches that can extract 192 from HDMI to optical.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Mine as well. But when playing anything other than 24/192 the dac still shows 192 as the sample rate. Try playing 24/96 or 16/44.1 and see what your dac shows. My guess would be it would be the same as mine and still upsample to 192 instead of adjusting the output bit rate to match the source material and be bit perfect.

You're correct. My monitor shows 24/96 when playing 24/96 but the SU-9 doesn't agree. What's really strange is that the Topping's display agreed before. I wonder if I accidentally changed the setting on the extractor. Both DACs are consistent with the Node 2i output.

 

[DanaGer]

HMMM DACs are weird. I tried the Firestick 4k Toslink from the Samsung TV to my DAC but USB sounds better on my MHDT Orchid. The same thing happened when I used the digital connection from the Allo digione digital to it.

 

[BN1]

If you try Spotify, you would be able to get 16/44.1

Spot at CD ?

 

[ClassicGuy]

Spot at CD ?

No, using the Spotify app on FireStick. The Amazon Music app on FireStick is fixed at 192 kHz output, but the Spotify app can output 44.1 kHz songs properly at 44.1 kHz.

 

[MikeF]

and just in case it helps anyone, I also have an IFI Zen Blue hooked up to my DC1 Dac. I can send AMHD from my Pixel 4a via LDAC bluetooth at 24/96 at the highest LDAC transmit rate. 24/96 is the max of the Pixel 4a and the upper limit for LDAC anyway. I am using an App from Sony called Sony Music Center, I launch AMHD from within the Sony App. Doing it this way, you can use the Sony app to set the audio quality for LDAC at the highest setting. (ie 909/950). It saves this choice/setting so you don't have to set it each time you launch the app unlike doing it from within developer options which resets every time. Saw this in a reddit thread I believe.

Only thing is, it defaults to 32 bit instead of 24 bit for same reason. It also doesn't adjust the bit rate to match recording so again no bit perfect but music sounds really good none the less. I also use this to connect to my LDAC head phones as well as a FIIO BTA3pro that is installed in my LX570, Factory bluetooth in car is SBC. Now I have LDAC via aux in. I tried just going to aux in straight from headphone out of Pixel 4a but volume is too low. Not enough voltage out on Pixel headphone jack.

 

[Music1969]

You're correct. My monitor shows 24/96 when playing 24/96 but the SU-9 doesn't agree. What's really strange is that the Topping's display agreed before. I wonder if I accidentally changed the setting on the extractor. Both DACs are consistent with the Node 2i output.

Hi, so with Firestick + HDMI extractor - can you actually 'cast' to it, from an iPad for example?

Are are you using the UI of the Firestick itself ?

cc @notakosan @MikeF

 

[valerianf]

If you connect directly the Firestick 4K to an Avr, it will play 16/24 bits 44.1/48/96/192 khz in regard to the source file quality.
It is the simplest way to get hi-res music.

 

[Music1969]

If you connect directly the Firestick 4K to an Avr, it will play 16/24 bits 44.1/48/96/192 khz in regard to the source file quality.
It is the simplest way to get hi-res music.

Yes I'm aware but if you follow earlier posts, you can use HDMI extractor to use with external DAC.

I'm curious if one can cast from Amazon HD app on iPad, casting to Firestick.

Or are you forced to use Firestick UI?

 

[ClassicGuy]

Hi, so with Firestick + HDMI extractor - can you actually 'cast' to it, from an iPad for example?

Are are you using the UI of the Firestick itself ?

cc @notakosan @MikeF

For me casting to the Fire Stick is hit or miss (mostly miss). I use the UI instead.

 

[Music1969]

For me casting to the Fire Stick is hit or miss (mostly miss). I use the UI instead.

Thanks!

Damn, I really hope this year there is an updated Echo Link.

And simple bit perfect casting - not forcing everything to PCM192k

Now that Apple is firmly in the HD audio race, that might force Amazon to do things properly with HD audio.

Maybe. We can only hope.

 

[Dumdum]

Anyone using Amazon music with an external dac should really have a check of the bitrate it claims to be putting out… I found that android was victim of the android audio layer, despite claiming 96khz or whatever all it put out was 48khz sample rate

And the apple app was also claiming to be putting out 96khz or whatever, when in reality the display on my topping told a different story, from memory of the dac is capable of 384khz the apple app upsamples everything to that sample rate despite the screen claiming what it should be, no other app does this so I’m presuming it was Amazon implementing this no thanks Amazon, Deezer just works at 44.1khz, and Apple Music also just works on my idevices

 

[Poultrygeist]

I haven't done A/B testing between the Node 2i playing AMHD hi-res through a SU-9 and the 4K Fire Stick/HDMI audio extractor into the same DAC but the difference isn't that great. The Fire Stick /extractor is the cheap and cheerful way to stream AMHD.

 

[Dumdum]

So to show my point I’ve just taken a free trial out, my dsp in the workshop doesn’t accept more than 96khz from the topping d10

So I play a track, 44.1khz 16bit as per this screenshot above

And the topping shows the above… and no audio comes out of my speakers, how hard is it to get 44.1khz to actually play 44.1khz… seemingly for a retarded music app it’s very hard! Don’t get me started on the other bugs every other music streaming app has sorted… add a playlist of 160 songs and Amazon adds 160 albums with 1 track in each… why not just make a tick box for do not add individual songs from playlists like apple offer or just don’t add them to the album list like tidal doesn’t, it’s not hard really is it?