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Article: Amazon Music HD Launches


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  • 3 weeks later...

I have spent time listening to both Amazon Music HD and my preferred Qobuz using the Audirvana+ player on Win 10. Qobuz sounds noticeably better using my Yggdrasil DAC. The same tracks on Amazon Music HD sound less involving and dynamic, with loss of sound stage depth, width and imaging. The music is less clear and when I switch to Qobuz a veil is lifted.

 

I blame the poorer sound quality on Amazon routing sound through Windows mixer in shared mode so there is up and down sampling. You can't trust the sample rate and bit depth displayed in Amazon Music HD for a track. Everything is resampled to the user settings in Windows Sounds as shown by the display on my DAC. Sure there may be some limited 24/192 files on Amazon but when I play them they are down sampled to the 24/96 I have set in Windows Sounds.

 

We can't really tell how good the masters Amazon is using sound because, unlike Tidal and Qobuz, Amazon Music HD has no provision for playback in Wasapi Exclusive mode. Will they add it? Who knows, I suspect their is a greater chance that instead of improving the app they may open their API for a fee to Audirvana.

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  • 2 months later...

A post on another forum claims that Amazon Music HD latest version can autoswitch sampling rates on the new Windows 10 1909 update. Anyone upgraded from 1809 yet and confirmed?

 

Quote

However i don't have this issue. My Dac auto switches according to the sample rate. Maybe some people don't have the version of windows i spoke of before (1909 ) with the nov 26 update to resolve audio playback issues. Where it shows you all the formats your dac is capable of and you have to check all those boxes and check auto. Plus you have to check exclusive control. Windows mixer is not control my bit rate when the DAC is being used, it's just a pass through. I agree with you the DAC does not lie. And im not having any issue.

 

I unsubscribed from Amazon and don't want to upgrade to 1909 until a few months have passed so can't try it myself.

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40 minutes ago, rn701 said:

 

Curious where you saw this? I installed 1909 and do not see these settings. Amazon Music desktop app still plays on the default device at whatever rate it's set to. Wonder the the source you quoted is talking about a special driver or other player software?

 

Sorry here is the link:

 

Quote

However i dont have this issue. My Dac auto switches according to the sample rate. Maybe some people dont have the version of windows i spoke of before (1909 ) with the nov 26 update to resole audio playback issues. Where it shows you all the formats your dac is capable of and you have to check all those boxes and check auto. Plus you have to check exclusive control. Windows mixer is not control my bit rate when the DAC is being used, it's just a pass through. I agree with you the DAC does not lie. And im not having any issue.

 

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