Low volume produced by Amazon Music App on Amazon Fire TV Stick

[Dwballer11]

Last night, I updated the Amazon Music App on my Fire TV Stick 4K Max to firmware v3.4.1021.0. On the main menu of the app, a new Loudness Normalization setting appeared. It was set to ON by default. When I set it to OFF, the volume of my reference tracks increased by about 16 dB and they sound much better.
So it appears that back in December Amazon quietly built this loudness normalization into the app and hardcoded it to ON by default, causing the users to complain on this thread and others. But it took Amazon over 9 months to fix the issue by exposing the setting, so that users can bypass the loudness normalizer.
Please try this new setting and report here if you consider the problem fixed.
BTW, this latest version of the Amazon Music app seems to disable the Ultra HD playback quality by default. So check that setting on the main menu and set it to ON if your playback device is UHD capable and you want the higher resolution.

Ah....so it has worked HOWEVER there is now a huge variation in audio level across tracks meaning when you have one set to a good level another comes on and is either super quiet or literally blows your ears off. FfS Amazon, maybe its not sorted...

 

[lc6]

There are still bugs in the latest v3.4.1201.0 of the Amazon Music app for Fire Stick. When the app is first opened, the settings for Ultra HD and Loudness Normalization are wrongly shown, e.g. if a setting is OFF the description says "enable" and in some instances the description does not match the slider position. The volume of tracks in Dolby Atmos is still about 16 dB too low and that cannot be fixed by setting Loudness Normalization to OFF. In fact, this setting appears to have no effect on sample Atmos tracks, so it probably is hardcoded to ON inside the app.

 

[Dwballer11]

So I have still been trying to explain the issue to amazon music tech and they said "we are not aware of any current issues"
They agreed to send me a replacement firestick saying its just me having the problem ajd must be firestick issue (!!)
Got the new stick up and running finally tonight and guess what...Still the same issue. Its 100% related to atmos content though. Toggle spacial audio off and the same track is so much louder than when spacial audio is toggled and it plays with atmos. Going g to try to get my hands on a dB meter to actually give amazon some figures to back up what I'm saying!

 

[Martin_320]

he volume of tracks in Dolby Atmos is still about 16 dB too low and that cannot be fixed by setting Loudness Normalization to OFF. In fact, this setting appears to have no effect on sample Atmos tracks, so it probably is hardcoded to ON inside the app.

Potentially good news. Read on...
Background: I had honestly given-up with Amazon Music on Fire TV (Cube/Stick), so for a long time I've only been using Amazon Music via HEOS built into my Marantz AV Processor to hear the Ultra HD songs' played losslessly and at their proper dB levels.

Today by chance I wanted to quickly find a song, so I used the Amazon Music app on the Fire TV Cube.
When I went to the app's audio settings, to my surprise I found that all the sound related settings had been re-set to defaults. eg:
~ Ultra HD quality was OFF
~ Loudness Normalization was ON
~ Spatial Audio was ON

So I then set them as follows:
~ Ultra HD quality = ON
~ Loudness Normalization = OFF
~ Spatial Audio = OFF

And then the Ultra HD songs are back to their correct volume level it seems!

Can you folks perhaps check as well?

 

[SSS]

I use Amazon Music on the PC with their play software. Above settings I set too with good result. There is another setting for always "best quality" which I set.

 

[Martin_320]

I use Amazon Music on the PC with their play software. Above settings I set too with good result. There is another setting for always "best quality" which I set.

Ok, sure, but that's not what we're testing here, and not what this thread is about.

Can people check their Amazon Music app on their Fire TV Stick or Cube with the below settings -- connected directly to amp via HDMI?
(First make sure the Fire TV is on the newest firmware, and also, don't have your amp's volume dial set to more than about 60)

~ Ultra HD quality = ON
~ Loudness Normalization = OFF
~ Spatial Audio = OFF

 

[lc6]

Ok, sure, but that's not what we're testing here, and not what this thread is about.

Can people check their Amazon Music app on their Fire TV Stick or Cube with the below settings -- connected directly to amp via HDMI?
(First make sure the Fire TV is on the newest firmware, and also, don't have your amp's volume dial set to more than about 60)

~ Ultra HD quality = ON
~ Loudness Normalization = OFF
~ Spatial Audio = OFF

On the Fire TV Stick 4k Max, in the latest firmware version 3.4.1311.0 there is a mismatch between the graphical representation of settings and what the actual processing is. For example, you can set Loudness Normalization to OFF (so that the slider control is in the left position and the "Disable loudness normalization" description appears), then reboot the Stick, go back to the settings and see that "Enable loudness normalization" appears, while actually the loudness normalization is disabled (which you can verify by changing that setting during playback of a non-Atmos track). But for Atmos tracks, the loudness normalization appears to be always ON regardless of the setting, which causes the volume to be ~16 dB lower than for non-Atmos tracks. How can Amazon coders be so sloppy?

 

[Martin_320]

But for Atmos tracks, the loudness normalization appears to be always ON regardless of the setting

Ah, what you need to do is make sure the Spatial Audio is set to OFF.
Then the Atmos tracks are replaced with the original Ultra HD hirez tracks -- ie. so you shouldn't see the Atmos logo anymore (Atmos is not hirez!! Moreover, Atmos tracks play back into an AVR receiver as lossy Dolby Digital+, not as stereo LPCM.)

In short, stereo HD Flac streaming on the latest Fire TV firmware (across all Sticks, Cubes etc.) has been finally been corrected (after about a whole year of waiting), such that now all hirez and HD tracks (ie everything from 16bit/44.1kHz up to and including 24bit/192kHz flac/LPCM audio) are not dB attenuated anymore when Normalization is turned off.

On the other hand, for people who are not paying subscribers to Amazon's Ultra HD Music service, those folks can leave the loudness normalisation set to ON, so all their music -- including any Atmos (a.k.a. "Spatial") content -- is normalised (ie dB attenuated by the -16db that you've noticed) so that it plays back at the same level as all their other Fire TV apps. 'Horses for courses'.

 

[valerianf]

Thank you @Martin_320 , the 3 settings worked with a Fire stick 4k (first Gen).
Now the Amazon Music level is higher which indice larger dynamic.

 

[Dwballer11]

These settings seem to have allowed me to have a good playback level now. Just frustrating it's still not right in Atmos but at least I can make the most of the receiver and speakers now. Amazon really are terrible at this!

 

[Hattrick]

lc6 said: Does anyone else experience the same issue?

Yes, it is also happening with Amazon Video app on my smart TV and my Fire stick 4K.
Workaround: I increased (a few dB) the internal gain of my AVR.
Watching other forums it seems to be general to all Amazon audio products including the Cube.

I too have a FireTV stick and when trying to stream Amazon HD music the volume is very low in comparison streaming from my WiiM Pro to my AVR. It would be great if the quality would be the same as the WiiM Pro and utilize the image features of Fire TV.

 

[Hattrick]

Last night, I updated the Amazon Music App on my Fire TV Stick 4K Max to firmware v3.4.1021.0. On the main menu of the app, a new Loudness Normalization setting appeared. It was set to ON by default. When I set it to OFF, the volume of my reference tracks increased by about 16 dB and they sound much better.
So it appears that back in December Amazon quietly built this loudness normalization into the app and hardcoded it to ON by default, causing the users to complain on this thread and others. But it took Amazon over 9 months to fix the issue by exposing the setting, so that users can bypass the loudness normalizer.
Please try this new setting and report here if you consider the problem fixed.
BTW, this latest version of the Amazon Music app seems to disable the Ultra HD playback quality by default. So check that setting on the main menu and set it to ON if your playback device is UHD capable and you want the higher resolution.

I just checked my FireTV stick and the Amazon App and made the changes as you stated and the sound is a bit better but still sucks compared to streaming from my Wiim Pro Streamer using Amazon Music. So, I am thinking the issue is in the Fire TV Stick not the App unless the App on the Fire TV is different than the App on my iPhone which integrates via the WiiM Pro Software.

 

[Hattrick]

Ok, sure, but that's not what we're testing here, and not what this thread is about.

Can people check their Amazon Music app on their Fire TV Stick or Cube with the below settings -- connected directly to amp via HDMI?
(First make sure the Fire TV is on the newest firmware, and also, don't have your amp's volume dial set to more than about 60)

~ Ultra HD quality = ON
~ Loudness Normalization = OFF
~ Spatial Audio = OFF

I have a Sony 5000ES AVR and it supports Spatial Audio and the App recognises it so shouldn't I leave that on?

 

[lc6]

I have a Sony 5000ES AVR and it supports Spatial Audio and the App recognises it so shouldn't I leave that on?

IMO, one of the key benefits of Amazon Music Unlimited is to be able to stream tracks in Dolby Atmos to experience the spatial format as it was originally mixed (as opposed to the spatial effects an AVR may artificially add). When you turn Spatial Audio off in the app, then you are downgrading the track to stereo PCM. Sure, as @Martin_320 wrote, Atmos may currently be streamed in lossy format, so turning it off may enhance playback quality. But what really should happen is Amazon fixing the still low volume of Atmos playback (about 16 dB lower than PCM of the same track). This is likely caused by Loudness Normalization hardcoded to on for Atmos tracks, regardless of the overall app setting.

Also, in the latest version of the app (updated a few weeks ago), there is still a bug that the setting for Loudness Normalization is misrepresented. After you disable normalization and reboot the device, normalization is presented as enabled, but behind the scenes it is off (as configured).

 

[Dwballer11]

IMO, one of the key benefits of Amazon Music Unlimited is to be able to stream tracks in Dolby Atmos to experience the spatial format as it was originally mixed (as opposed to the spatial effects an AVR may artificially add). When you turn Spatial Audio off in the app, then you are downgrading the track to stereo PCM. Sure, as @Martin_320 wrote, Atmos may currently be streamed in lossy format, so turning it off may enhance playback quality. But what really should happen is Amazon fixing the still low volume of Atmos playback (about 16 dB lower than PCM of the same track). This is likely caused by Loudness Normalization hardcoded to on for Atmos tracks, regardless of the overall app setting.

Also, in the latest version of the app (updated a few weeks ago), there is still a bug that the setting for Loudness Normalization is misrepresented. After you disable normalization and reboot the device, normalization is presented as enabled, but behind the scenes it is off (as configured).

100%.
I've turned off Atmos and the listening experience is way better. But the whole reason I went Amazon unlimited was for Atmos on my set up. The tech people still seem to not get it!