Amazon HD Music goes live

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by BubbaMc, Sep 17, 2019.

  1. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    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.
     
  2. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    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.
     
  3. Morbius McDalek

    Morbius McDalek Mobilis in mobili

    Location:
    Oxford UK
    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.
     
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  4. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Well, it definitely gets you around the Windows mixer, so it's addressing that concern.
     
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  5. Subvet

    Subvet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Maine
    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.
     
  6. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    ClassicalCD likes this.
  7. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    mtrot, Beercallus, aroney and 2 others like this.
  8. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    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?
     
  9. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    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.
     
  10. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    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.
     
    sami likes this.
  11. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    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.
     
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  12. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    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?
     
  13. Coltrane811

    Coltrane811 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    Spotify and Pandora both had algorithms that limited how many songs you could skip on their free versions.
     
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  14. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    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.
     
  15. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    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.
     
    sami likes this.
  16. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    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?).
     
  17. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    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.
     
  18. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    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.
     
  19. The Dude Abides

    The Dude Abides Strikes and gutters, ups and downs.

    Location:
    England
    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!
     
  20. 500Homeruns

    500Homeruns Peaceful Punk

    Location:
    Lehigh Valley, PA
    It is not working well.

    I wish it were.
     
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  21. The Dude Abides

    The Dude Abides Strikes and gutters, ups and downs.

    Location:
    England
    mine works fine,

    I have a Mac
     
    boyhitscar likes this.
  22. 500Homeruns

    500Homeruns Peaceful Punk

    Location:
    Lehigh Valley, PA
    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.
     
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  23. The Dude Abides

    The Dude Abides Strikes and gutters, ups and downs.

    Location:
    England
    Which cylinder isn't working ?
     
  24. 500Homeruns

    500Homeruns Peaceful Punk

    Location:
    Lehigh Valley, PA
    See post #2539.
    I think @dtuck90 explains it pretty well.
     
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  25. The Dude Abides

    The Dude Abides Strikes and gutters, ups and downs.

    Location:
    England
    So really more Oil Filter?
     

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