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    The Computer Audiophile

    By The Computer Audiophile •

    Amazon Music HD Is Still Lossy

    Just over one year ago Amazon launched its Amazon Music HD streaming service. Many people uninterested in the success of small businesses and good customer service cheered the new offering from the 1.7 Trillion dollar company. At the time Amazon's $14.99 per month plan was the lower than all the other lossless or above music services. Not long after Amazon launched, Qobuz matched its pricing and now offers a $14.99 /month plan and $24.99 /month family plan. Let's take a look at Amazon Music HD, one year later. 

     

    I've been an Amazon Music HD subscriber since day one and have used the service off and on since signing up. Most of this use has been on my mobile phone or desktop. There just aren't many options for listening in another way, such as integration with Lumin, Aurender, Auralic, JRiver, Roon, etc... Given that Amazon is notoriously difficult to work with, it's no surprise that we have so few options. One year on, the landscape is still Sonos, Bluesound, and Denon HEOS (I'm sure people will let me know if I missed any). 

     

    The limited number of options for playback isn't a showstopper in and of itself because many audiophiles use computers directly attached to their HiFi systems. A USB cable between the computer and one's system is all that's required and Amazon Music HD will send along its highest quality. 

     

    What is Amazon Music HD's highest quality? I started testing where I always start testing, with bit perfect playback. If a service or app can't output bit perfect audio, then I have big problems because I don't know where the losses are happening and how big the losses are. The quick and dirty truth is that I can't play bit perfect audio from Amazon Music HD on Windows 10, macOS Catalina (10.15.7), or a Sonos Port using coaxial S/PDIF digital output. 

     

    rr.jpgI can match the sample rate of the audio sent from Amazon Music HD, but the stream or the file is being altered somewhere before it hits my house. In other words, when Amazon says it's playing a 24 bit / 96 kHz file, I can get my DAC to say 24/96, but the stream doesn't pass bit perfect testing. 

     

    Note: Not to toot my own horn, but I've been around the bit perfect block a few times and understand what's required to obtain bit perfect playback. If there is something special about Amazon Music HD, that isn't required for Qobuz and Tidal, I'd appreciate someone pointing it out to me. These other apps played bit perfect when I ran them through the exact same tests this morning. 

     

    Furthermore, the Amazon Music HD applications for Windows and macOS will not change the same rate automatically. For example, if I set Windows 10 to output 24/96 audio and set it to give exclusive access to Amazon Music HD, the music will always be output to my DAC at 24/96. Even though Amazon says the file is 16/44.1 or 24/192 etc..., the Amazon Music HD app can't change the sample rate of the audio output. This is problematic for people who think they are streaming what Amazon calls Ultra HD, but are really listening to a CD quality stream because that's what their computer is set to play. Apps that take control of the sample rate have been around for over a decade. There's no excuse to advertise and offer content at multiple sample rates, yet require users to manually change their control panel / audio midi settings between tracks just to hear the native quality. 

     

    It's hard for me to even think about looking further into Amazon Music HD as an option for people who care about sound quality and customer service. The company has had one year to fix issues, but based on its responses to users' request for these basic features, I won't hold my breath that the service or app will improve. There really isn't a reason to look at user interface and catalog if the company can't even stream the lossless audio it advertises. 

     

    One last note. I'm sure some people have seen the newly announced partnership between Amazon and Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to release new high resolution remasters of albums from Eagles, Marvin Gaye, Nirvana, Tom Petty, Diana Ross, Linkin Park, J. Cole, Waylon Jennings, Ramones, 2 Chainz, Lady Gaga, The Notorious B.I.G., Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and more. While this may seem like a good thing, I'm unfortunately not optimistic. It isn't often that remasters actually sound better when created for the masses. I hope those in this partnership don't cross the audio DMZ and cause the loudness wars to flare up once again. 

     

    nevermind.jpgLast week, and again this morning, I went looking for these new remasters. I was able to see some of the albums because Amazon placed a convenient link to them on the Amazon Music HD app's main page. This link is no longer on my main page, so I went searching. What I found is a soup sandwich. For example, I looked for Nirvana remasters and found a single album labeled Remastered. I clicked into Nevermind (Remastered) and hoped to see an indication that this was the new remaster touted in all the press releases. Unfortunately the only date I can find on this album is "copyright 2011 Geffen Records." This is the same as the Deluxe remaster released in 2011 for the albums's anniversary. Think this is a one-off issue? Think again. I went through many other releases and found the same thing. There's no way to tell if an album has been newly remastered unless you find a link from Amazon, stating it's the new remaster, to the album. Even those albums have incorrect dates on them however. 

     

    And finally, these new remasters are exclusives to Amazon Music HD. Say what you want about exclusives, but I hate them. Dan Mackta, the Qobuz USA Managing Director, believes these exclusives won't last forever and we should see the new remasters come to other services in due time.

     

    As it stands today, one year after launching, Amazon Music HD isn't for anyone who cares about customer service,  audio quality or about using streaming services through integrations with numerous hardware and software vendors. If things change I'll be happy to reevaluate Amazon Music HD. For now I highly recommend Qobuz as the number one choice for streaming lossless high resolution audio. 
     

     

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    Cookie Marenco

    Chris, thank you for the article.  You are on the right track.  

     

    Blue Coast Records has recently signed a distribution deal with a very large company (to be announced soon) and in the process have uncovered some interesting processes that have not been transparent in the past.  What you suspect about the files is true....  what the labels upload to the servers for distribution is not what the digital services providers get (like Amazon, Spotify, Tidal, Apple, and also known as dsps in our legal agreements).  

     

    We were signed because of the oncoming push for HD... specifically Amazon.  I can't mention names right now, but I can say that there are third party delivery services that take what the label uploads to the distributor and delivers to the dsps. 

     

    Here's an example of what happens. 

     

    We uploaded 192WAV and the dsp is selling a 9624.  Huh?  The dsp can handle 192.  They already have our directly sent files... so who sent the 9624?  And did an unapproved conversion in the middle?  Yes, our interns can hear the difference.

     

    I can't talk about this publicly yet, but I will chat with you on email or phone.   The dsps in the know are not happy about this situation either and we're all being thrown into this hodge podge partly because of ignorance on the end of the third party delivery service or their unwillingness to spend the money to provide the correct files.

     

    So why did we do this deal in the first place?  Yes, we have our own store at BlueCoastMusic.com where we continue to sell DSD, WAV and FLAC downloads that we personally prep and perfect to ridiculous standards.  We did this deal for the sake of the artists on Blue Coast Records who aren't all audiophiles and need Spotify to validate their existence.  We did it to reach a larger audience where quality is less of a concern.  I believe our acoustic music merits a wider following so we're stepping out into the fray.

     

    But not at the expense of our audiophile listeners.  We plan on giving them the best quality files we can where ever we can.  You are right... it's a mess out there.

     

    It's been a long time since we've chatted, my audiophile friend!  

    Stay well,

     

    Cookie Marenco

    Blue Coast Records and Music

    https://bluecoastmusic.com/

     

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    The Computer Audiophile
    26 minutes ago, Cookie Marenco said:

    Chris, thank you for the article.  You are on the right track.  

     

    Blue Coast Records has recently signed a distribution deal with a very large company (to be announced soon) and in the process have uncovered some interesting processes that have not been transparent in the past.  What you suspect about the files is true....  what the labels upload to the servers for distribution is not what the digital services providers get (like Amazon, Spotify, Tidal, Apple, and also known as dsps in our legal agreements).  

     

    We were signed because of the oncoming push for HD... specifically Amazon.  I can't mention names right now, but I can say that there are third party delivery services that take what the label uploads to the distributor and delivers to the dsps. 

     

    Here's an example of what happens. 

     

    We uploaded 192WAV and the dsp is selling a 9624.  Huh?  The dsp can handle 192.  They already have our directly sent files... so who sent the 9624?  And did an unapproved conversion in the middle?  Yes, our interns can hear the difference.

     

    I can't talk about this publicly yet, but I will chat with you on email or phone.   The dsps in the know are not happy about this situation either and we're all being thrown into this hodge podge partly because of ignorance on the end of the third party delivery service or their unwillingness to spend the money to provide the correct files.

     

    So why did we do this deal in the first place?  Yes, we have our own store at BlueCoastMusic.com where we continue to sell DSD, WAV and FLAC downloads that we personally prep and perfect to ridiculous standards.  We did this deal for the sake of the artists on Blue Coast Records who aren't all audiophiles and need Spotify to validate their existence.  We did it to reach a larger audience where quality is less of a concern.  I believe our acoustic music merits a wider following so we're stepping out into the fray.

     

    But not at the expense of our audiophile listeners.  We plan on giving them the best quality files we can where ever we can.  You are right... it's a mess out there.

     

    It's been a long time since we've chatted, my audiophile friend!  

    Stay well,

     

    Cookie Marenco

    Blue Coast Records and Music

    https://bluecoastmusic.com/

     

    Thanks for all the info Cookie!

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    asdf1000
    32 minutes ago, Cookie Marenco said:

    Blue Coast Records has recently signed a distribution deal with a very large company (to be announced soon) and in the process have uncovered some interesting processes that have not been transparent in the past.  What you suspect about the files is true....  what the labels upload to the servers for distribution is not what the digital services providers get (like Amazon, Spotify, Tidal, Apple, and also known as dsps in our legal agreements).  

     

    We were signed because of the oncoming push for HD... specifically Amazon.  I can't mention names right now, but I can say that there are third party delivery services that take what the label uploads to the distributor and delivers to the dsps. 

     

    Here's an example of what happens. 

     

    We uploaded 192WAV and the dsp is selling a 9624.  Huh?  The dsp can handle 192.  They already have our directly sent files... so who sent the 9624?  And did an unapproved conversion in the middle?  Yes, our interns can hear the difference.

     

    Whilst MQA is not the solution I wanted (and I want MQA to go away), this is a problem Bob Stuart has spoken about a lot too.

     

    Files being fiddled with along the supply chain. Not only downsampled in as in your example, but also files being upsampled. People have caught many examples of the latter over the years.

     

    What a disaster !

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    BMWDoctor
    On 10/13/2020 at 5:17 PM, Daren F said:

    You can create an account with a VPN but payment will fail with a Canadian credit card or paypal account.

    Yes you can get Qobuz in Canada if you use a vpn to sign up. Its $14.99 US for Studio plan ($20 CAD) a month. Once you have signed up you will be able to steam without a vpn.  You can use a US Paypal account to sign up to Qobuz too. (Canadian paypal can fail). You could just assign your Canadian credit card to a US Paypal account.

    I used an American Express credit card with no problem although I have a post office box with a US zip code. I just used the zip code and my credit card was fine. I don't see why you could not use any US zip code.

     

    I hope this helps..

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    asdf1000

    Hi @The Computer Audiophile

     

    Are you keeping your Amazon Music HD subscription going or cancelling?

     

    Would be interesting if you could revisit every 3 or 4 months, unless someone else discovers a breakthrough in their desktop apps.

     

    The fact that they introduced 'Exclusive Mode' earlier this year gives me hope that someone at Amazon had an idea to try and get bit perfect playback, even if it failed for now.

     

    So I have hope they will work it out at some point in 2021.

     

    Especially if they bump into this article of yours !

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    The Computer Audiophile
    7 minutes ago, asdf1000 said:

    Hi @The Computer Audiophile

     

    Are you keeping your Amazon Music HD subscription going or cancelling?

     

    Would be interesting if you could revisit every 3 or 4 months, unless someone else discovers a breakthrough in their desktop apps.

     

    The fact that they introduced 'Exclusive Mode' earlier this year gives me hope that someone at Amazon had an idea to try and get bit perfect playback, even if it failed for now.

     

    So I have hope they will work it out at some point in 2021.

     

    Especially if they bump into this article of yours !

    I keep it going for two reasons. 
    1. I have to know all the services inside and out and test them. 
    2. My mom streams Amazon Music HD to her EarPods with my account and loves it. She told me how good it sounds. No way I’ll get rid of it now. :~)

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    asdf1000
    1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

    2. My mom streams Amazon Music HD to her EarPods with my account and loves it. She told me how good it sounds. No way I’ll get rid of it now. :~)

     

    LOL, wait till she gets the new Airpods Max you're getting her for Xmas !

     

    Those should sound incredible, if the Airpod Pro are anything to go by.

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    WR1

    Amazon HD sounded pretty decent until the revamp around October - November 2020.

    Before you could hear newer well recorded music, which played beautifully, and easily hear the difference with not so well recorded tracks and albums.

    80s music was bright, as it mastered back in the day, but that's ok.

    It's meant to be that way, a bit of eq, or low pass cut with APO eq made it sound how it would on CD.

     

    But after the update within a minute you could hear the difference, it had lost it's soul and everything sounded just ok.

    My best guess, it's all been upscaled to 24/96, to make all the not so good recordings sound better. But it makes all the music fatiguing.

     

    I've just gone back to Amazon HD after a few months break, but sad to hear its still the same.

    I'm sure the person who upscaled Amazon HD thinks it sounds great on his hifi at home, and their phone and echo, but on a decent system it's not nice to listen to for long.

    The new interface is not an improvement either, especially after losing the on screen volume.

     

    We can only hope Bezos asks for Amazon HD to be upgraded again for his mega system at home, which presumably also now sounds fatiguing and boring.

     

    As for Tidal, the reviews are not good when it comes to payments.

    I couldn't get logged in after paying for the cut cost trial, so they are now blocked on the credit card.

    Will try Qobuz next..

     

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    JETHEAT

    nothing irritates me more than the amazon music HD app with family plan. 

     

    i listened via a windows10 pc with a dac magic 100 connected via usb2. which was intern connected to R-41pm's and a SW-100 from klipsch. for the price it was very enjoyable. but it was just always missing something. i then tried to use HD tracks .com and musicbee. this was more enjoyable but more technical to set up. having to force your signal from the windows computer is just not believable to me. i guess it works i don't know it works. 

     

    as it stands i want to still get into a network streamer but f*** that s***. all of the ones i have looked at from cambridge audio to NAD to marantz all seemingly ignore amazon music hd. i wonder why. 

     

    there are so many variables in picking hifi components you can easily run into decision paralysis. 

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    The Computer Audiophile
    3 minutes ago, JETHEAT said:

    all of the ones i have looked at from cambridge audio to NAD to marantz all seemingly ignore amazon music hd. i wonder why. 

     

    The deal with Amazon Music HD is not that HiFi companies are ignoring it, more like Amazon is ignoring HiFI companies. Amazon is notoriously difficult to work with and doesn't even respond to most HiFi companies attempts to communicate with Amazon. 

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    charlesphoto

    I can also tell you from personal experience Amazon is 'cheap.' Takes hoarding money to make more money I guess...

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    Daren F
    1 hour ago, JETHEAT said:

    nothing irritates me more than the amazon music HD app with family plan. 

     

    i listened via a windows10 pc with a dac magic 100 connected via usb2. which was intern connected to R-41pm's and a SW-100 from klipsch. for the price it was very enjoyable. but it was just always missing something. i then tried to use HD tracks .com and musicbee. this was more enjoyable but more technical to set up. having to force your signal from the windows computer is just not believable to me. i guess it works i don't know it works. 

     

    as it stands i want to still get into a network streamer but f*** that s***. all of the ones i have looked at from cambridge audio to NAD to marantz all seemingly ignore amazon music hd. i wonder why. 

     

    there are so many variables in picking hifi components you can easily run into decision paralysis. 

     

    NAD/Bluesound BluOs and Marantz/HEOS do support Amazon Music HD (AMHD) 

     

    I have no experience with HEOS but I do have a Bluesound Node 2i and am able to play AMHD via the BluOs app bit perfect.

     

    Comparing AMHD to qobuz, I agree that there seems to be something missing in terms of sound quality. Not sure why AMHD's bits sound different than qobuz's bits but, IMO, qobuz sounds better.

     

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