Amazon Launches Lossless "Hi-rez" HD Music Service

I have found that even with the HD service, not all albums are lossless. There are still some MP3 quality recordings.

Sound quality for the HD and Ultra HD tracks is very good. But the interface when using Bluos on a Node is far behind Tidal.

I have been intrigued by the Amazon HD music service - and finally did get motivated to pay for streaming when Amazon entered the game. First impressions: sounds far better than the free services I have been tolerating for years. I have not run into a situation where I couldn't find something I was looking for. I do wish their playlists or recommendations were a bit more intelligent like Spotify, but I imagine things like this will get ironed out.

Does it sound better than Tidal or Qobuz? A challenge difficult to abx objectively without the right gear in place.    

My biggest gripe?  I can't use the android app to control the playback in hi-res formats ( per tech support ) when playing through AV gear... it only plays aac quality files. So if I want to hear hi-res in all its glory - you have to use the desktop app ( or a native app in a streamer ).  Or use the app with some headphones plugged in.

I am not sure this is the case with other services mobile apps.

So, my immediate work around was to use HEOS on my Marantz AV7704 - but honestly the HEOS app sucks balls -- BUT -- it does allow me to play back content in hi-res. At least it worked. I am hoping that bubbleupnp or something like it - gains support for the Amazon Music service.  There has got to be something better than HEOS.

I am eager to see if Roon or others will support Amazon Music integration - when that happens I think Tidal and others will be put on notice to up their game further.

The Amazon desktop app works, its stable - looks good, and is functional.

On a side note: What is the best way to connect my laptop/desktop to my preamp for streaming?... usb vs hdmi vs spdif?

I recently chatted with one recording engineer whom found some of work on Amazon that is being sold as HD when in fact it’s 16/44 .

I enjoy streaming as much as the next guy however what is being offered as premium Hi-Res , HD and what have you at is not as advertised and all the services do it of course .
Im going to be speaking with another recording engineer whom also subscribes to another popular streaming service whoms work he noticed at least one of his recordings is offered as Hi-Res which in fact was originally recorded on tape .

I recently chatted with one recording engineer whom found some of work on Amazon that is being sold as HD when in fact it’s 16/44 .

If you pay attention, you will realize that this is just a matter of semantics. Amazon calls 16/44 "HD". And anything above that is "Ultra HD".


That said, I have found that a few titles are not in either. Just whatever the standard stream rate is, 320 kbps I am assuming.