Steaming Amazon with HEOS vs a Firestick and HDMI.

[MabeHall]

recently switched from Spotify to Amazon Music. Using HEOS and Spotify and playing a song I knew well, I didn't think the sound quality matched the sound of the CD I own. I listened to the CD, and it just sounded better. Using HEOS and Amazon Music corrected the problem, but, I was disappointed in the HEOS/Amazon Music interface. I read about using a Firestick, and since Amazon Prime had the Firestick 4K Max for $25, I went with it. The Amazon Music interface isn't perfect but is closer to the phone/tablet/computer version. The Firestick will show the streaming resolution similar to HEOS but....if I check the Denon information, evidently, using the HDMI input, the Denon converts the FLAC signal to a 192 khz PCM signal instead of using the original FLAC signal. Theoretically these should be identical, and yes, I know the levels don't match, and yes, it is slow switching from the one source to the other but...I'm pretty sure on many tracks, the HEOS playing the FLAC signal just sounds better than tracks from the Firestick. WHY???? Can I correct this? If I'm hearing things I won't be offended by you saying so. I realize this is a possibility, I just don't think that's the case.
Some additional info: the track information when using the Firestick indicates the track is FLAC or ATMOS--and gives the tracks resolution--but states the Denon is "ATMOS capable" and indeed, for Atmos encoded songs, the receiver plays 48khz Atmos instead of 192 khz PCM. Playing ATMOS if the track is encoded that way is nice but, because sound levels are completely different for a stereo track and an atmos encoded track, I will need to make playlist to separate the two.

Thanks for any suggestions.
Mabe
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[Focus SE]

Unfortunately I didn’t read this before posting my own post titled Heos. I found an issue between Heos and Apple Music. It was suggest switching to Heos would improve sound quality. Furthest thing from accurate for me. I deleted Heos and all the songs added to my playlists after installing Heos. When I re downloaded them all glitches were gone. For what it’s worth