Amazon Music HD - What resolution are you getting?

ahender

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From a review: "Amazon Music HD delivers lossless FLAC audio at 24-bit/192kHz."

I have a Amazon Music HD trial and the highest resolution I get is 96 kHz. Only about 10% of the Ultra HD songs I clicked on today are above 44 kHz.

What resolution are you getting?

I'm streaming with a Node 2i, ethernet connection, and coaxial out to a Marantz PM7000N. The Marantz supports 24-bit/192-kHz.

Thanks.
 
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It is what it is, sounds great to me
“Sounds great” does not answer my question. I‘m going back and forth between AMHD and Spotify and I can‘t distinguish any sound improvement for the Ultra HD. Maybe if I was getting 24/192 as advertised I might. Not worth paying for an extra music service if there is no 24/192. The Spotify interface is by far the better of the two.
 
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From a review: "Amazon Music HD delivers lossless FLAC audio at 24-bit/192kHz."

I have a Amazon Music HD trial and the highest resolution I get is 96 kHz. Only about 10% of the Ultra HD songs I clicked on today are above 44 kHz.

What resolution are you getting?

I'm streaming with a Node 2i, ethernet connection, and coaxial out to a Marantz PM7000N. The Marantz supports 24-bit/192-kHz.

Thanks.
Not every album/track on Amazon Music HD is available at 24bit/192kHz
 
Spotify is 320kbps, Amazon HD is a minimum of 16/44.1

But if you can't tell the difference and you prefer the spotify interface I'd stick with that.
 
Thanks for the replies. Cancelled the AMHD trial. If there’s no way to identify 24/192 music, just don’t see the point.
 
You can see in the amazon app which tracks are at which bit/sample rate but the bluesound app just states CD or HR. The latter will always be 24-bit but can vary from 44.1- 192khz. I personally struggle to notice much difference above CD quality but I notice a big drop in quality on my main system and my headphones when going down to a 320kbps stream.
 
You can see in the amazon app which tracks are at which bit/sample rate but the bluesound app just states CD or HR. The latter will always be 24-bit but can vary from 44.1- 192khz. I personally struggle to notice much difference above CD quality but I notice a big drop in quality on my main system and my headphones when going down to a 320kbps stream.
Thanks. I can see the bit/sample rate on the receiver. Can’t see whether it’s HD or Ultra HD on the Node BlueOS app. When I was testing, I was using the iPhone to find out which were Ultra HD. I listen to mostly Americana music recorded within the last ten years. The quality of the recordings are outstanding, which I think narrows the gap of the “listening” experience between Spotify and AMHD. At least on my system and with my ears. As a Prime subscriber, $8 a month for AMHD is a fantastic deal. With Spotify, we have the family plan. Either way, music streaming is fantastic.
 
Thanks. I can see the bit/sample rate on the receiver. Can’t see whether it’s HD or Ultra HD on the Node BlueOS app. When I was testing, I was using the iPhone to find out which were Ultra HD. I listen to mostly Americana music recorded within the last ten years. The quality of the recordings are outstanding, which I think narrows the gap of the “listening” experience between Spotify and AMHD. At least on my system and with my ears. As a Prime subscriber, $8 a month for AMHD is a fantastic deal. With Spotify, we have the family plan. Either way, music streaming is fantastic.
Agreed, there are too many variables in an individuals system, the mastering of the song, perception of what sounds good and an individuals requirements (I.e interface, integration etc) as to what is best.

For example a lot of people will say the records are of inferior quality to a high res stream. I use AHD for convenience but I much prefer the sound I get from my TT to any of the streaming services I've used and that includes AHD, Spotify, Quobuz and Tidal. I actually prefer Quobuz over any of the streaming services but I'm too tight to leave AHD 😂. If the Spotify HIFI tier ever arrives and it is priced correctly it would win me over because AHD integration is shocking.
 
Agreed, there are too many variables in an individuals system, the mastering of the song, perception of what sounds good and an individuals requirements (I.e interface, integration etc) as to what is best.

For example a lot of people will say the records are of inferior quality to a high res stream. I use AHD for convenience but I much prefer the sound I get from my TT to any of the streaming services I've used and that includes AHD, Spotify, Quobuz and Tidal. I actually prefer Quobuz over any of the streaming services but I'm too tight to leave AHD 😂. If the Spotify HIFI tier ever arrives and it is priced correctly it would win me over because AHD integration is shocking.
Thanks again. Love the Spotify interface. I have about 200 albums. My wife bought a cheap USB turntable years ago but I do not use it for fear of damaging the album. Not knowing anything about current TT, what’s the entry price for one with a decent cartridge?
 
Again there are a lot of variables with a TT. Not all cartridges will be compliant with every tone arm so worth doing a bit of research on which carts would match but across the different brands you can pick a very capable stylus up for the £100 mark. But if you need to upgrade the stylus and cart it would be a bit more. The good thing (or bad thing depending on how you look at it) Different brands have their own sound signature so you will get a different sound depending which brand you go for and once you have that cart you can usually upgrade just the stylus within that brands cart to get more of the same. Its a big rabbit hole though 😂
 
Again there are a lot of variables with a TT. Not all cartridges will be compliant with every tone arm so worth doing a bit of research on which carts would match but across the different brands you can pick a very capable stylus up for the £100 mark. But if you need to upgrade the stylus and cart it would be a bit more. The good thing (or bad thing depending on how you look at it) Different brands have their own sound signature so you will get a different sound depending which brand you go for and once you have that cart you can usually upgrade just the stylus within that brands cart to get more of the same. Its a big rabbit hole though 😂
Thanks. I’m just climbing out of the current rabbit hole! Might just ask around to see if I have a friend who has a decent TT I can try out.
 
Yeah deffo worth listening to a few different options. You can also go to a few different dealers and see what they have to listen to. Most will have a range of TT with entry level carts setup.
 
To be fair, the Amazon subscription top tier is AHD. So that's 16bit/44.1Hz 'basic' with up to 24bit/192Hz (ultra) where available. Although I did get a 'free' upgrade from the Music Unlimited to HD on one of the Amazon offers, and it's the only streaming service I'm signed up to.

I still think I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between 16/44 and 24/192. And with re-mastered tracks the actual difference between old and new could also be down to 'editorial' restorative work on the original recordings as opposed a straight increase in bit depth and sample rate per-se.
 
AMHD coming in a £7.99 for a huge catalogue of minimum CD quality of 16bit/44.1khz and many beyond that is great value for me.
Not sure if Spotify HD is out yet but isn't the standard Spotify £9.99 per month?
 
I just signed up last night. Planning on streaming through the desktop app, should I just not worry about the bit perfect playback..
 
I just signed up last night. Planning on streaming through the desktop app, should I just not worry about the bit perfect playback..
Streaming through desktop to what? From my experience Amazon HD will stream to the capability of what it detects downstream. So for my home laptop straight the Headphones its 24bit 192Kz. My work laptop presumably has a less capable soundcard so that's at 24bit 48KHz.
 
Streaming through desktop to what? From my experience Amazon HD will stream to the capability of what it detects downstream. So for my home laptop straight the Headphones its 24bit 192Kz. My work laptop presumably has a less capable soundcard so that's at 24bit 48KHz.

Modi 2 uber connected via optical to motherboard out. I set output settings to 192, sounds pretty good. Gonna set and forget.
 
It works out even cheaper if you have annual sub like I have, £79/year so £6.58/month bargain for CD and HD vast library.

My S10+ now also seems to play tracks at rates upto 24/192 and all correct ones below with Amazon Music app.

My iPhone 13 mini does 24/48 max without external 3rd party DAC but still great.

My KEF LS50WII speakers play bit perfect all the way upto 24/192 via KEF app.
 
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only issue is that I have to have another device to pin down a track or artist as the search tab on the Amazon tab is really basic/dull with its choice options. I haven’t experience with other music services so I have no benchmark to say if that’s good or bad.
Also the quality of the app experience across different platforms varies. But that’s also due to the level of integration between Amazon and 3rd parties. Played through telly app can be well basic. Whereas through the app through the firecube or pc you get a better interplay between your choice history etc.
 
I‘m going back and forth between AMHD and Spotify and I can‘t distinguish any sound improvement for the Ultra HD. Maybe if I was getting 24/192 as advertised I might.
If you can't hear any difference between 44.1 mp3 and 24/96, then there's no chance you'd hear any difference between 24/96 and 24/192, given 44.1 is enough to fully reproduce every frequency you can hear.
 

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