Article: Amazon Music HD Is Still Lossy

[asdf1000]

Speaking of Chromecast, it seems the Amazon Music HD app is the only one missing from the list of apps supporting Chromecast!

 

Even Apple Music made it in 2020 - something I never thought I'd see !

 

If the desktop and iOS and Android apps eventually supports Chromecast, that should enable bit perfect playback up to 96kHz (for things like Chromecast Audio if you have one).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[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/

 

[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!

[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 !

[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..

[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 !

[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. :~)

[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.

[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..

 

[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. 

[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. 

[charlesphoto]

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

[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.