Amazon Launches Lossless "Hi-rez" HD Music Service

Amazon on Tuesday introduced CD-quality 24-bit “Ultra HD” music.

I'm disappointed that Amazon has fallen into the depths of deception along with everybody else.  CD quality is 16bit.  Putting a 16bit recording in a 24bit "container" won't make it sound any different.  And they "borrowed" the term Ultra HD which describes the resolution in 4K televisions.  Saying "CD Quality" is all they need to do...unless their full library of music was ORIGINALLY recorded in 24bit.  

CD quality, in my memory, has always been referred to as Standard Definition (16/44.1) yet Amazon has decided that 16/44.1 is now the new High Definition even though they are merely FLAC rips of regular CDs.  And then they take those same recordings, wrap them in a 24bit container and magically they are now Ultra HD Music.  Slick marketing but deceptive.

Fidelity ENDS in the recording studio.  You cannot add quality/definition to a recording after the fact.  Why do otherwise intelligent people not get this.

@dynaquest4  Did you read John Darko's thoughts on this? Linked 10 posts above.

dynaquest4"Fidelity ENDS in the recording studio."
This is completely erroneous fidelity ends with the Music Reproduction System and the room within which it is engaged the recording system itself can account and represent for no more than half of the final end result at the user's ears.

david_ten:

Oops...no I had missed that article but I am (as you have read) in perfect agreement.  And I thought the Hi-Rez Audio definition ONLY applied to equipment, not media.  Did Amazon just wave a wand and change that? 

The world of music media (And hardware) if full of dishonesty and deception...preying on people who do not appreciate the powerful influence of expectation bias.  

I switched from LPs to CDs in the late 80s and never looked back.  I played around with SACD in the 90s and decided, while it sounded better, it wasn't a significant enough improvement to buy all my music over again.  Many, like me, caused that marketing effort to fail.  I'm thinking Amazon may end up with egg on their face.

...fidelity ends with the Music Reproduction System

You are confused, clear (or not-so-clear) think.  The engineers in the recording studio are not concerned with your equipment (music reproduction system?).  they are concerned with the quality of the recording and the media that contains it.

You are always contrary so I will not debate this further with you.