Eh. Upsampling shouldn't cause issues if it's done correctly and your D/A converter works right. Especially if you're upsampling to a multiple of the original sample rate (or just increasing the bit depth). It could cause issues I suppose if you're upsampling to something that isn't a clean multiple of the original, although if you go high enough (like to 192) any artifacts would likely be inaudible, anyhow. Upsampling doesn't really bother me. Getting around the Windows mixer on the other hand is crucial if you want something unaltered. That's definitely going to make a measurable difference, and likely an audible one as well.
You know what? I read all these posts, and my head is ready to explode. All I know is, I plug my phone into a DacMagic 100 and into my Sansui, and through my Wharfedales it sounds incredibly good. Now, I have vintage equipment (aside from the DAC), and I'm sure those of you with systems worth as much a new car can hear all the glitches and limitations. But on my system, Amazon HD sounds about as great as I could wish for. From the reading on my DAC, looks like I'm getting upsampling as well. The new Garcia Live 13 set shows on my phone as 24/48, and the Dac shows 96, so I guess that's okay based on what @sunspot42 just posted.
Both. That was certainly true with Windows XP. Later versions don't seem to cause a problem as far as I can tell, but obviously you still need to switch off enhancements, spatial sound and the sound scheme. But I know there'll always be that niggling doubt, which Amazon exclusive mode was supposed (actually it was assumed by the likes of us) to address but didn't.
Considering Amazon HD Music has tracks at 44.1, 96 and 192, there is no one setting you can set in Windows to always be a multiple. I also don't want Microsoft's upsampling in the path.
Seems like one is better off going with Qobuz or Tidal where this just works already and isn’t a problem. Even Deezer may have this at some point in the future Asio & wasapi support for desktop | Deezer Community, bringing music lovers together
Amazon's library is way, way better. It costs less. Yes, I want wasapi or asio, BUT the reality is amazon sounds very good just as it is.
I'm willing to try Deezer, but I don't fully understand it. It's free trial page tells me "Skip the tracks you don't like with Deezer Premium" - wth? Why would I choose something I don't like? Why would anyone ever NOT be able to skip tracks? Is this actually the same kind of streaming service as the others?
Think as far as the library is concerned it’s personal as others have said different than you. Plus from what I have noticed the others are improving. Qobuz is on par with Tidal and Spotify for mainstream stuff.
I don't really disagree with this. It definitely is personal, as far as whether a service has more of what a given person wants or not. For me, it was amazon, and it was not close. I agree the others are improving. It's just not enough. I can't pay for a service on the hopes that the selection will keep improving over time. All the services I've tried do really well on mainstream stuff. It's when you break away from that stuff and go exploring that their limitations really show up quickly - especially qobuz.
This. Amazon's interface is easy to use, the selection is great, many of the stations are fantastic, and playing from my phone through a DAC and into my stereo, I couldn't ask for anything to sound much better. Plus, I never experience the buffering that was a daily thing with Qobuz. An absolute no-brainer.
That's true, but when upsampling 44.1 all the way to 192, not being an exact multiple won't matter much anymore. I'd be possibly more concerned about upsampling 88.2 content, but does Amazon even have any?
Spotify and Pandora both had algorithms that limited how many songs you could skip on their free versions.
You’re thinking about Qobuz is probably in the past when you tried it early on before it had injested much of it’s content as you have been using Amazon for a while now so you can you really say that now? You are free to believe it however as at the time it was your experience. No one service is prefect yet as I have different problems with each one unfortunately. Hopefully they improve soon. I know some of them are trying harder than others at this point though.
I did my qobuz trial from Dec 2019 - March 2020 Still in my 5 month Tidal deal, started that in January of this year. I used the time to really dig in and see what each service had in it's library. For me, it was amazon, by far.
Amazon's library is much larger, isn't it? I'd imagine the Amazon, Apple and Spotify libraries are all vastly superior to those offered by other services (apart from maybe Google - is that still going?).
Out of curiosity what titles did you use to try and stump the services with? Seeing I have no idea of what music you care for.
Seeing they have been around the longest and have had the time to get the files loaded makes sense. Google is said to be still around but people keep saying it’s supposed to be turned into YouTube music at some point or just go away altogether. They sure are taking their sweet time doing either with it though. Not so sure google has the catalog strength but with them allowing the user to upload one’s own files it really shouldn’t matter. Same goes for Apple Music and to a lesser extent Spotify.
Just seen they've added Exclusive mode to the latest update. I hope its working well, And all those users said they'd never do it!
Mne works fine too, but it doesn’t really work like Exclusive mode should. It’s like saying, “My car works fine” even though it has a cylinder that isn’t firing. To some people, that would be fine. To others, it would be a serious issue.