Amazon Launches Lossless "Hi-rez" HD Music Service

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.

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.

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

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.