Amazon Launches Lossless "Hi-rez" HD Music Service

Today is the day High Resolution Audio went mainstream. This will do much, much more than "disrupt things a bit." The implications for our hobby are significant.

I’m excited for the wider catalog access, but truly excited for what this means for impact on hardware (major) choices and software support solutions.

Normally you get trickle down, but in this case we will get the opposite...a trickle up effect. Good news for everyone.

As a single example, can you imagine the impact on sales for Audioquest’s Dragonfly Cobalt....or OEM DAC chips...

I have a TIDAL account with a Scott Nixon dac so no hi-rez necessary. Do you think switching over to Amazon is worthwhile? Yes I have a Prime account.

Hopefully the added competition will result in lower prices from Tidal and/or Qobuz.  I don't buy anything from Amazon if I can help it for a number of reasons, so I won't be using their music service even if the prices for other services remain the same or go up.

I have a TIDAL account with a Scott Nixon dac so no hi-rez necessary. Do you think switching over to Amazon is worthwhile? Yes I have a Prime account.

I don’t know which Scott Nixon DAC you have, but if it is only decodes / outputs CD quality I don’t see why not. How you value the other factors related to streaming, I can’t say.

From the Scott Nixon site, for his newer DACs:

"The usb models are not hi-rez, but I really think most listeners don’t need it yet (or ever). For hi-rez I recommend the s/pdif models and a pro-interface or usb/spdif dongle that will output 24/96. The Chibi and TD2.2 will decode 24/96 and output 16/96. There are usb hi-rez models in the works, but will be 4 to 5 times the cost of these offerings."

Hopefully the added competition will result in lower prices from Tidal and/or Qobuz.

@big_greg  It will definitely be interesting to see how Tidal and Qobuz respond. Spotify and Apple also.