Article: Amazon Music HD Is Still Lossy

[audiobomber]

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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 Computer AudiophileI just set my laptop to output 24/192. Generally people see oversampling and upsampling as beneficial. Is there any reason not to do that? 

 

I will likely leave Amazon HD for a few reasons:

1. Their apps are really poor; basic and clumsy

2. No video content. YouTube Music is great for that

3. Chromecast Audio streams Amazon as MP3 only, no HD

4. I can't stream Amazon HD to my better devices (RPi, sMS-200, Playpoint)

 

Unfortunately no Qobuz in Canada.

 

 

[audiobomber]

5 hours ago, jcbenten said:

Amazon set up their music service to support their "smart", Alexia speakers...not to cater to a few hanging out in the corner messing around with cables, optical networks, and power supplies.  These little speakers are nifty and sound ok but are meant to be convenience devices stuck in a corner.  Much like Apple, Amazon is not going to mess around to satisfy the few even though Amazon probably has the power and $$ to make the labels create really good masterings of the music.  

I agree, but why did they need HD and Ultra HD for their crummy Alexa devices? Maybe HD is just a marketing angle, or hopefully they will provide access to more capable systems later.

[audiobomber]

I compared a few Amazon Ultra HD tunes to FLAC zero compression CD rips in my NAS, through my headphone system. In each case, the CD rips sounded better.

[audiobomber]

No one answered, so I'll ask again. What is wrong with setting Windows to play all Amazon HD files at 24/192? Why is bit-perfect preferred?

 

I did some sound checks and found Amazon HD doesn't sound as good as a CD rip, but better than Google Play and YouTube Music. How do Tidal and Qobuz compare? A friend brought Roon/Tidal over with his Mac and I was not impressed at all. PRaT was not good.

[audiobomber]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Setting default output format in Windows control panel to 192 for example means that is the format Windows audio engine doing software volume, mixing and rate conversion, outputs. It has certain output format because you could be playing hires content at the same time as email application needs to play "ding, you've got new email" notification and you watching a YouTube video on web browser. All three things mixed together into single output, although at different sampling rates from their respective applications.

 

macOS has equivalent control for CoreAudio engine.

 

Audiophile players use WASAPI Exclusive mode or ASIO driver to bypass this audio engine and claim exclusive control of the audio device. Also means that you won't get mixing of different source applications.

 

All "sounds" are muted in my Windows settings.