In short it means that because all this is going through the windows mixer/system what is actually coming out of your computer is totally dependent on the settings you choose for your device capability. If you set them lower than the streaming file, windows will downsample. If you set them higher than the streaming file, windows will upsample. The resolution shown in the amazon app means nothing. The resolution shown on your DAC means nothing.
yes, shows as playing at 24/192 but audio captured from the stream, when viewing the sound wave, reveals exactly what I said. See image below.
I'm new to Amazon music and only signed on to hear the Ultra HD tracks. When I check the resolution while listening to UHD tracks Amazon shows that the "Track Quality": 24/96 but my PC's "Device Capability" is only: 24/44.1 and it's "Currently Playing" at 24/44.1. Sometimes UHD tracks only play at 16/44.1. I get get periodic dropouts. I use Spectrum formally TimeWarner for my internet provider. I've started using a external USB headphone DAC that should do 24/192. Does that help? I have noticed I get better track quality on my Samsung S9. Do I need to up my internet speed to make this work properly on my PC?
Internet Speed , assuming you are not running on a shared 5mb connection, is not going to be the least likely culprit so before you up that there are multiple other steps to try. What is the current computer you are running on? What version of Windows, assuming that is what you are running, and have you followed the various guides out there for maximizing Windows sound.
sounds good, will do this when I return from holidays abroad. be back after the new year and will start this
Well, I have no idea how to read that, but if what you are saying is true, you should report Amazon to the FTC for fraud.
Well, now I have to take all that back. My Amazon Windows desktop app quit working after a Windows update and nothing I tried made it work again. So back to Qobuz with Roon. I will miss Amazon's 'stations'. They work better than roon radio with tidal or qobuz. But qobuz sounds excellent, plays bit-perfect, and they seem to have fixed their volume leveling issues. The are supposed to be coming out next year with an autoplay/radio/station feature similar to tidal and amazon. Roon radio +qobuz will get me by 'till then
Good lord. More bugs than a sewer. Hire some effing developers who know what they're doing, Amazon. I realize this will take some precious Bezos cash, but somehow I think he'll survive.
For Amazon HD, have you offline downloaded before recording? The app has had known issues with downsampling to lossy when streaming only, for no apparent reason. But offline downloads / playing those back do not have the same issues. I'd test your examples myself...but my trial just ended today (went back to Tidal for now).
I'm running Window 7 Ultimate with an Intel i5-4590 CPU at 3.30 GHz w/8GB RAM 64-bit. I just purchased a FX-Audio DAC-X6 that I'm testing out and my internet speed is 240 mbps.
What program, or programs are you using to perform such tests? And what tests are these programs running which enables them to verify that these streams are not CD quality?
I gotta give Amazon credit for getting me seriously interested in music streaming with their HD service. Because it pushed Qobuz into lowering their monthly rate to $14.99, cheap enough for me to want to give it a try, and so I am three weeks into a Qobuz free month trial, and after numerous annoying headaches with their Windows app, today I installed Audirvana to handle my Qobuz stream and Wow Bob Wow. This is what I'm talkin' about! Beautiful sound and stable playback performance. Listening to some vintage Steve Kuhn on ECM at 16/44 and sounding so good... and the Hi-Res offerings, my oh my. I am going to give Tidal a free trial run within the next month or so, and decide on which of the two I wanna keep. Would never have given this a shot were it not for Amazon, and many thanks to the forum users who have documented all of the drawbacks and failures of Amazon HD for saving me from wasting my time with that business. I don't care how much deeper their catalog is, as far as I'm concerned what I want foremost is optimal sound quality and dependable performance. Loving Qobuz/Audirvana so far...
So for those folks getting inconsistent bit rate within same album, is this just adaptive stream rate mechanism when network of buffer problems exist? the way to tell would be to go back and play track at different times, see if rate changes downloading It as other suggested would confirm they at least have the right file if this is what’s going on, I’m curios how the other services handle that.
General observation and fun feature of the service is that once you have added several albums and songs to “My Music”, then click on your “Songs”, then the shuffle icon, you’ll find you now have a really cool radio station-like mix of tunes.
Unless your DAC is broken the DAC display will agree with the bit depth and sample rate set in Windows Sounds. This was the first tip off to me that Amazon Music HD was operating in shared mode.
I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! Hey, if you are a fan of Mahler's music or classical music in general, I just want to say that I'm listening to this Mahler Symphony No.5 now in 24/192 on Amazon HD Music. OMG, the sound is glorious, so smooth and pure sounding. Seriously, try it out. As far as I can tell, this is not available in high res on any disc format. Discogs does, however, show some 24/192 data files. I had this on my Amazon wish list and somebody gave it to me for Christmas. But when I checked in Amazon Music HD, I found that it was in Ultra HD. So, I returned the disc for credit.