Popular Post markebrauer Posted October 17, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2019 My observations on Amazon Music HD after one month. First be aware, the 3 month free trial is only a trial of the HD service. To take advantage of this, one must also subscribe to the Amazon Music Unlimited service. I was not a subscriber, so when I signed up for HD I was also enrolled in the basic service. That offers only a 1 month free trial. After the first month, to continue to get the HD service, the cost would be $9.99 ($7.99 for Prime members). To "free trial" HD for 3 months would actually cost me $14.98. My month ends tomorrow and I will not be continuing the trial. I have a Bluesound Node 2 and the Amazon service works fine, just as Chris describes. SQ is good - no complaints. One quirk, CDs purchased from Amazon with the "auto rip" feature automatically show up in your ALBUMS. If you play them, they are the auto rip MP3 versions. If you want the uncompressed versions you must add them to your ALBUMS yourself. In the BluOS interface, when you search for something in Amazon Music, typing does not immediately start reporting "hits" like Spotify and Tidal do. You have to type first and then choose whether to search "my music" (things you have purchased) or "Amazon music" (the whole streaming catalog). This is a lot less convenient. I also use the Chromecast Audio and was curious how Amazon music works with that. Amazon admits it does not directly support Chromecast Audio but it does post instructions on how to play music on it. Basically you must use the local cast functions on your device, meaning the stream comes to your device and then is sent from there to the Chromecast. I believe this is what's called "mirroring". It does work but it is unclear if the stream is altered by the intermediate device, and of course, when the device leaves the local WiFi network, or the controlling app is shut down, the music stops. Streaming this way is also a constant draw on the controlling device's battery. So I acquired an Echo Input to see if staying in the Amazon ecosystem gave better results. Amazon has implemented its own casting function for Echo products. But again, it is a mirroring function. Even Amazon's own music app does not stream directly from the source to the Echo. The same is true for Tidal and Spotify. This is disappointing. (Side point: The Echo Input's SQ seems OK. Maybe not quite as good as the analog output of the Chromecast, and certainly not as good as the Chromecast's optical output feeding a good DAC, but good enough for my secondary system. I did not do extensive listening so my opinion on this could change.) As a final test I tried playing music directly from the Alexa app on my Android phone to the Echo Input. The app is not a music app. You cannot browse the music catalog. You cannot type in a search on "Beatles" and then see their albums. In the app you are stuck with the suggested playlists and "stations" that Amazon sees fit to present on the screen. The way to play what you specifically want is to ask Alexa for it, by speaking to ALexa through the Echo Input. This works fine if you are satisfied by saying "Alexa, play Taylor Swift" but if you want to hear "Tales from the Vienna Woods by Johann Strauss played by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra lead by Jacob Kreizberg" - well good luck. The problem is you have probably forgotten (I did) that that it's really the Weiner Symphoniker, the titles of the songs are in German where "tales" is pronounced "geschichten", and it's Yakov not Jacob. You can spend quite a bit of time speaking at Alexa before you ever hear one note of the music you want. The good news is, if you start the stream using Alexa, the music is cast directly from Amazon Music to the Echo, no intermediate device is involved. Bit perfect? Who knows. asindc, k-man, austinpop and 2 others 1 4 Link to comment
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