Amazon Launches Lossless "Hi-rez" HD Music Service

David

A good friend (thx Robelvick) who has just got the Amazon on trial too has offered what seems to be at least a working solution for now.
He used a Lightning to Camera ( female USB) adapter right out of his iPad and then any decent USB audio cable.
This basically mimics using a MacBook as a USB audio source.
Says it streams 24/192 quite happily that way.
Of course this literally ties the iPad to the rack as now it is tethered by cable but if SQ is up there I can live with that for now.

Oh also he has an Audioquest Jitterbug inline too.

Uber, is your Ayre close to a TV? Also, have you considered output from an older video focused streamer which (generally) used to offer Optical Outputs? Current / latest units have moved to HDMI out only; some may offer USB (micro) out. 

Anybody have any usefull ideas around this problem?

Just signed up for the 90 day free trial for Amazon music hd.
Loaded the apps on both my android phone and ipad mini
On the phone the app sees my two chromecast audio pucks that are on my vintage systems and streams to them instantly. Which is perfect.
The ipad does not see them and reading the help files it should not and can only stream to an airplay device.
So problem is that neither app has any way to stream to my Ayre ex8 that I see right now as it uses the mconnect control app which does not support amazon music.
email to the devs for them and they say is Amazon fault as they do not release api to 3rd party developers so not likely to see that added any time soon.
So the options to get Amazon to the ayre are as follows imho
Buy another chromecast audio and connect to the ayre through analog or a mini toslink.
However Amazon help does say music resolution is limited to std on a chromecast so kinda pointless
Or buy an airport express, connect it via ethernet cable to my network then via 3.5mm to 2 rca into the ayre. According to Amazon help this MIGHT stream in hd.
Sounds like a crap shoot either way and both options leave the ayre actual built in streaming out in the cold.
Unless anyone here may know of some other way round it?

Hk-fan
Me neither!
That's why I went to Qobuz... Lol.

@uberwaltz , I'm not a fan of the Tidal ownership so as soon as I can find somewhere else to spend my money for an equal or better product I will.

the great thing about spotify is its discovery algorithm--it's uncanny how accurate its recommendations are. amazon's is primitive in comparison, although i notice it gets a little better the more i listen to the app. also, whereas spotify has radio stations for every artist, amazon has very limited stations. amazon does sound better, but at the end of the trial period, it may come down to how hard i want to work at setting up my play queue.
speaking of which, is there a function on amazon which continues to play similar songs after a queue is finished?

⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆

Be careful what you wish for......

This is awesome, I can't wait to dump Tidal.

As of right now I could not try Amazon Music if I wanted to.
Neither mconnect or Bubbleupnp offer Amazon Music as an option.
Being Ayre based streaming they are my only options for control app's.

If it gains traction I am sure it will be added to one or the other at some stage.

I had mentioned above that I can scan and save artists, playlists, albums, etc. from the one on my lap, but the list is independent of any other device. When I checked my phone app and laptop app this morning, they both had the same saved playlists as the one I originally saved them to. But I wish they all would show what was currently playing and had the ability to save, skip, change, etc. what was playing on the other device.

Amazon HD resides within the Amazon Music service on the Node, its just not very well implemented yet. Hopefully this will change. Unlike Tidal and Quboz where you get album thumbnails that show what the resolution is, Amazon Music just shows albums as a list, with no way to know what the resolution is until you start playing. Once playing, the album resolution will show in the now playing box. I haven’t found a way to search by resolution. This is with the BlueOS app on iPad. Hopefully, Bluesound will issue an update to address this. I’ve signed up for the 90 day trial of Amazon HD but won’t renew unless there is a change in the Bluesound app. If I’m missing something, hopefully someone will point me in the right direction.

That's exactly what my Node 2 does.  Still deciding if there is any difference between this, (both 16/44.1 &  24/96) and Tidal w/MQA?  I've listened all weekend and if there is a difference, I sure the hell can't hear it...

Agree with this!
If I have to do anything more than push a few icons on my phone to listen to whatever it is I am streaming I am not interested.

Just downloaded the 90 day free trial.  I've been using Spotify because of the cost and ease of use.  I like the fact that I can control Spotify with multiple devices.  I use a laptop from my listening seat to control the notebook that's connected to my stereo.  Can't do that with Amazon.  I have to get up and check the one on the stereo to see if I would like to save an artist from a playlist.  I can scan and save artists, playlists, albums, etc. from the one on my lap, but the list is independent of any other device, so I have to do this with each device with Amazon.  I called Amazon and talked with someone about this.  They seemed genuinely interested and asked a lot of questions.  I said they should make the app more user friendly like the way Spotify is set up to access different devices.  I feel I'll cancel Amazon Music if they don't make it more user friendly.  I lost count of how many times I've had to get up and cross the room to the side of my system to do something with the app.  I'm at the age where just sitting with a remote is best.

Not sure why, I remember from my days with the Vault2 that Amazon Music was there as a service.
I tried it and it worked for sure.

There are 17 separate steaming services available on my Node 2 I....but Amazon Music isn’t one of them.....

I can’t find Amazon music anywhere on my Node 2i.....

This was on another Amazon thread, not sure if it will help you.

Amazon HD resides within the Amazon Music service on the Node, its just not very well implemented yet. Hopefully this will change. Unlike Tidal and Quboz where you get album thumbnails that show what the resolution is, Amazon Music just shows albums as a list, with no way to know what the resolution is until you start playing. Once playing, the album resolution will show in the now playing box. I haven’t found a way to search by resolution. This is with the BlueOS app on iPad. Hopefully, Bluesound will issue an update to address this. I’ve signed up for the 90 day trial of Amazon HD but won’t renew unless there is a change in the Bluesound app. If I’m missing something, hopefully someone will point me in the right direction.

How are you guys getting your Amazon app on your BluSound device. Under “ More Music “, in the BluOS app I don’t find Amazon listed.....?

Going to wait this one out for a bit.
Was very dissapointed with Amazon last go around.
Word so far is that this relaunch is not quite as rosy as they say.
Big surprise.....
Not!

@duckworp,I did read that Chromecast compatibility in the FAQ section, and it is sad that through Chromecast, only standard streaming, not the CD or higher quality.

I am giving the 90 day free trial a go and so far Qobuz smokes Amazon Music HD in sound quality.  Amazon is crippled because it uses Windows sound mixer in shared mode, exclusive mode is not an option. Neither is Roon or Audirvana integration.

The best streaming sound quality I have on my desktop rig using a Yggdrasil DAC is playing Qobuz through Audirvana+. Audirvana uses Wasapi exclusive mode and sounds a bit better than the Qobuz desktop app.

First Half 2019 performance (financial) for Streaming, etc. Impressive growth. From, the 'High Resolution And Digital Audio' site:

https://www.hiresaudio.online/us-music-revenues-grew-18-in-first-half-of-2019/

Any word from Cambridge on the CxN streamer adding the Amazon app?

Update on Amazon HD with NAD C-388 w/BluOS2i MDC module...
It works great - fully integrated. Controls and automatically updates on Bluesound mobile and Win10 apps and sounds very good.

Bandwidth testing reveals: CD-quality tracks seem to average 1 - 2Mbps, while "HR" (UltraHD) seems to average 4x higher. However, it is variable, and I’ve seen HR peaks high as 16.1Mbps. Random HR examples:
The Cars, My Best Friend’s Girl (Best of UltraHD station) 4.8 - 6.5Mbps
Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) [2018 Remastered] 1.5 - 4.4Mbps
The Chainsmokers, Closer (feat. Halsey) flutters between 0.5 - 1.5 Mbps
Interesting, because The Cars (above) sustains ~5 Mbps throughout the track.

In all cases, between songs Mbps drops to "Idle", and bandwidth to the controlling device (in this case a Samsung tablet) is also measuring "Idle".

One thing that annoys me a little is the occasional volume imbalance between some tracks. Tends toward older tracks (example: Pretenders, Brass in Pocket) have a lower volume level than other (newer?) music. Maybe not a very ’audiophile’ statement, but I prefer some volume leveling (especially on a music ’station’). It’s a strange phenomenon, though - because it’s not all older tracks (example: Fleetwood Mac, The Chain) is normal volume relative to others - wow that track sounds good in HR on direct digital NAD integrated and electrostats with Polk T50’s added to extend broadcast of the highs.

So far, I’m liking the added quality of a service/membership partner I’m already connected with.

I like my CDs. They always sound great.👍

All of these platforms are just another way to reach deep into your pockets. I, myself, have a rather limited range of music that gives me great pleasure. Think of it as a Marie Kondo approach to music: keep what gives you joy and throw out the rest.

Most of what passes for music I don't care for, but that's just me. Granted, radio isn't what it used to be but its still free. And, there's internet radio as well. I can search for new music without paying for it, or rely on some algorithm to steer me to music that I could care less about, and which is never right.

All the best,
Nonoise

I just A/B'd the Amazon Prime Unlimited vs Audirvana on my Macbook Air with a Dragonfly black and a pr of hd600s.  Selected track- AC/DC For those about to Rock.....great intro for testing guitar and kick drum.....Anyway it was NO CONTEST!  Audirvana smoked APU. APU was lifeless by comparison. Still I make keed APU for access to 50m + songs.

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.

Any chance of gettin´a pluggin for Squuexebob (logitech media Server)?

Thank you usery for your link to the https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html link.  Now i know for sure that the higher res files (beyond cd quality) don't matter to me and that I couldn't really tell a difference between Spotify at high quality sound setting and Amazon cd quality or ultra high resolution sound quality.  Of course i also discovered on the audiocheck.net website that i can't hear anything above 13kHz either! 

44.1K/16bit is not a HD format. I don't know why Amazon call it HiRes. for most people an MP3 320kps is more than enough and compact on mobile device. For audiophile folks on this forum, 96K/24bit is barely minimum. I would say 192k/24bit or DSD64 get you into real HiFi. And only Qobuz have the most HiRe. Tidal's MQA is 2nd next to Qubuz.

...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.

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.

dynaquest4"Fidelity ENDS in the recording studio."
This is completely erroneous fidelity ends with the Music Reproduction System and the room within which it is engaged the recording system itself can account and represent for no more than half of the final end result at the user's ears.

@dynaquest4  Did you read John Darko's thoughts on this? Linked 10 posts above.

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.

This is very exciting news for music streaming and I am anxious to use it on my Aurender Music Server.

However, based on my understanding, Amazon needs to build an API for music servers, like the Aurender, Innuos, etc., to use to build their Server Apps (like the Aurender Conductor App) to interface to Amazon. This will take some time. We will see.

I am ready to use Amazon Streaming on my Aurender server. Do you have any information on when Amazon will release their API (if ever)?

I can’t stand amazon and usually stay away , but I did install the app and will give the 90 day trail a go . So far I really like the App,and sound quality has been excellent . Amazon’s app blows away Qobuz and I also enjoy it better than Tidal . I have already canceled Qobuz due to the weak library they have , and Tidal will more than likely be next .great job so far Amazon . 

Glad to get rid of Tidal pushing Rap on me.

It works with Bluesound node2

Most will not be hi res.  If they were originally recorded before digital recording, they cannot be high res as the source was not.  Putting them in a high res package, does not improve the resolution.

Wellllllll.....I am a early Roon adopter with a lifetime purchase..I have HiRez Tidal, I use iTunes for ALAC and I installed Amazon Music last night.  I’ve been using it for a few hours now....My initial impressions are very good.   Selection-excellent, sound quality-excellent (I signed up for UHD), navigation-interface much better than Roon and Tidal.  I don’t like Amazon (the business model) but I gotta say I like this.  Now, I also like Tidal for MQA so I’m not going to doing anything drastic yet...But I’m beginning to have dark thoughts that I could live with one service and Amazon may be it for me....say it ain’t so...RIGHT?

Just re-installed app.
Sound is normal now.

I just joined the Amazon streaming site.
sound is God-awful!!!

Let the upsampling - remonetization begin!!!
Very rare to source undithered 192/24 files.
Ear training schools will be needed.
12 mb mp3 to a 280 mb 192/24 bit files sound the same to most untrained ears. Heck some pay top dollar for vinyl cut from poorly dithered 44.1/16 bit files. One never knows the true source file unless it comes off the console - and most studios multitrack at 48k with poor summing. Sorry to crash the party - just speaking from the other side of the glass.

Thoughtful post by John Darko:

https://darko.audio/2019/09/global-feedback-do-you-classify-cd-quality-as-hi-res-audio/

From inner/Fidelity:

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/amazon-hd-music-launches-questions-remain

Awesome overview of streaming services available. Should be very helpful to members new to streaming.

https://www.consumerreports.org/streaming-media/best-music-streaming-service-for-you/

Note: not all services are covered. For example, Qobuz.

Sadly, due to the Google vs Amazon war the neat and effective Chromecast Audio is not, nor ever will be I doubt, compatible with Amazon Music.   This means it is a no-go for many users, a shame as it is £10 a month cheaper than Qobuz.

I am on vacation now and so I will have to wait until I return to try it on my Bluesound gear.  I currently stream Qobuz through Bluesound and it’s a very good quality but I find subtle differences between that and both CD replay or ripped CDs played back via Bluesound, so there is some room for improvement.
i currently use the limited Amazon streaming that my Prime Membership buys but it doesn’t do well with hapless playback.
  I do wonder at the economics.  Amazon has the cash reserves to take a loss on this but once they have driven the the high Rez streaming competition out of business can raise the price through the roof