Amazon Launches Lossless "Hi-rez" HD Music Service

...fidelity ends with the Music Reproduction System

You are confused, clear (or not-so-clear) think.  The engineers in the recording studio are not concerned with your equipment (music reproduction system?).  they are concerned with the quality of the recording and the media that contains it.

You are always contrary so I will not debate this further with you.

Amazon on Tuesday introduced CD-quality 24-bit “Ultra HD” music.

I'm disappointed that Amazon has fallen into the depths of deception along with everybody else.  CD quality is 16bit.  Putting a 16bit recording in a 24bit "container" won't make it sound any different.  And they "borrowed" the term Ultra HD which describes the resolution in 4K televisions.  Saying "CD Quality" is all they need to do...unless their full library of music was ORIGINALLY recorded in 24bit.  

CD quality, in my memory, has always been referred to as Standard Definition (16/44.1) yet Amazon has decided that 16/44.1 is now the new High Definition even though they are merely FLAC rips of regular CDs.  And then they take those same recordings, wrap them in a 24bit container and magically they are now Ultra HD Music.  Slick marketing but deceptive.

Fidelity ENDS in the recording studio.  You cannot add quality/definition to a recording after the fact.  Why do otherwise intelligent people not get this.

david_ten:

Oops...no I had missed that article but I am (as you have read) in perfect agreement.  And I thought the Hi-Rez Audio definition ONLY applied to equipment, not media.  Did Amazon just wave a wand and change that? 

The world of music media (And hardware) if full of dishonesty and deception...preying on people who do not appreciate the powerful influence of expectation bias.  

I switched from LPs to CDs in the late 80s and never looked back.  I played around with SACD in the 90s and decided, while it sounded better, it wasn't a significant enough improvement to buy all my music over again.  Many, like me, caused that marketing effort to fail.  I'm thinking Amazon may end up with egg on their face.

herman:

Welcome to the world of "you're not smart enough to figure out we are lying to you."  Especially on this forum where you will find people who tell you you need to spend $1000 for a power cord or must break in your $300 AC receptacle by plugging it into your refrigerator for a month.

Fluffers...I’m all about great sounds in my ride which includes a JL Audio 12" sub. I usually play lossless FLAC files from a connected flash drive. But let’s get serious. Road, engine and wind noise is going to negate any benefit provided by high resolution music files. High bit rate MP3 is good enough...just don’t worry about it, crank up the volume and enjoy.

Don't get stressed about that, bstatmeister. Unless you are trying to listen to a recording that was originally recorded in the studio in 24bit (few are), there is no quality difference between Amazon's HD and Ultra streams - a fact Amazon deceptively does not mention.  And forever, it seems, Redbook CD recordings (16/44.1) have been referred to as "standard definition." Amazon has, in an equally deceptive decision, decided that their "CD quality" streams are now HD.  Just listen to HD, enjoy it and don't fret over Ultra.

Don't get too excited about "Ultra HD" files on Amazon.  Those files are merely standard resolution CD quality recordings re-processed into a 24bit container.  You cannot add quality to an original analog (or digital 16bit) recording merely by encasing it in a higher bit rate package.  That Amazon is involved in this deception is very disappointing.

Simao...I dont do Tidal.   

Your ears will often times tell you you are hearing what you anticipate hearing.  But the fact is that fidelity ends with the recording session...typically analog.  You cannot take an analog recording converted to 16bit digital and make it "better" by reprocessing it into a 24bit container.  How could anybody believe that?

Unless a recording was originated in a 24bkt digital studio, it can never be a "real" 24bit recording.  An original 16bit (CD) recording can never sound better than the original 16bit recording no matter what you do.

Bstatmeister said above: "...even if it is 16/44."

Nothing at all wrong with CD quality 16bit/44.1khz.  That bit and sampling rate was designed to fully cover the frequency and dynamic range of human hearing.  Human hearing does not advance with technology...it is a constant.  It is unlikely that even a TRUE, ORIGINAL 24bit recording could be distinguished by the average human.  A well done 16/44.1 recording is all anyone needs.  Anything else is an effort to deceive you out of your money.

I agree!  If you want to enjoy something more because you think it should sound better....it will.  Especially if a third party is telling you you should.  To ignore the power of the science of confirmation bias is naive. 

If you pay attention, you will realize that this is just a matter of semantics. Amazon calls 16/44 "HD". And anything above that is "Ultra HD".

Yes....but anything "above" 16/44 or ULTRA HD (as Amazon claims) would have to have been originally recorded in a 24bit studio to be actually be superior to 16bit....and little has.

While streaming, to me, is entirely viewable and listenable, I still get Blu-Ray discs from Netflix specifically as my understanding is that, regardless of the speed of your internet service, streams will always be of lower overall (audio and video) than BR discs.  

But a better reason is that the newest movies are only available from Netflix on disc.

But this is really an entirely different subject.