![]() In other words, streamers that cost less than $1000. I will review the two that are probably viable for most people reading this. There are not too many of these devices that support Amazon Music Unlimited when compared to say something like Spotify or Tidal. ![]() Ok, so how do you actually listen to HD/Ultra HD? The easiest and most reliable way is to use a dedicated streamer. So I would argue that if your intent is high quality audio, your echo is not going to give you any appreciable sound improvement compared to streaming a lossless SD track on some cheap wired headphones (matter of fact, I would go with the SD on cheap headphones as at least you get 2 channels vs effectively mono). Not to mention that the speakers in these cheap devices are of terrible quality. * (Arguable) Devices like the echo/Fire TV/Sonos/etc - Some "technically" support HD/Ultra HD but I don't think we should ever view a single speaker source as equivalent to 2 channels from a "practical" standpoint. In other words, wireless bluetooth headsets are out. Standard bluetooth connections will not support even CD quality PCM streams (16bit/44khz). It's also difficult to tell whether the stream is going out lossy or lossless. ![]() There are some compression codecs like LDAC but even these max out 16bit/48khz (max bitrate of 990 kbs) but this requires a very good connection and you never truly know what you are getting as the quality can dynamically shift mid song based on signal strength and other factors. * Anything with a Bluetooth connection - Bluetooth does not have the bandwidth to support HD/Ultra HD streams. I say 98% as there are some reports that a few devices can truly output higher via a USB to OTG cable and then fed into an external DAC but I have not seen a definite list and most likely your Android phone/tablet does not support it. Android devices by default are limited and resample everything to 24bit/48khz. * Android Devices - Or at least 98% of them. Exclusive mode simply means that other system sounds won't be allowed to play over the music (like say a chime that you received a new email). Also, "Exclusive mode" has nothing to do with this resampling or quality of the sound file. So if you set your output device in windows to say 16 bit 48khz, ALL songs playing in the Amazon desktop app will be resampled to that quality despite the fact that you are actually downloading different quality tracks (which is what the Amazon app reports). The problem is that the app (or more accurately windows) sets the output to a specific bit depth and sampling rate. * The Windows Desktop app - This is often confusing to people as they see the HD/Ultra HD icon next to the song, and the app will also tell you that it's playing these songs. So the real question is, "how do I play lossless HD/Ultra HD content?" To answer this, it is easier to go through what DOES NOT play HD/Ultra HD first. Ultra HD is anything above HD, and up to lossless 24bit/192khz. HD is basically CD equivalent (lossless, 16bit, 44khz). To clarify what Amazon describes as "HD and Ultra HD" is important. This includes the source, player, DAC, speaker/headphones as well as all the connections in between. Second, all the links in your audio chain need to support HD/HD Ultra. You will only get access to lossy lower quality music with "Amazon Music Prime" and "Amazon Music Free". You will need to subscribe to "Amazon Music Unlimited." This is their pay service. Hopefully this will clear things up a little.įirst, there are 3 tiers of Amazon Music. There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the quality of the music that you get while streaming Amazon Music. It's geared toward more budget options but I figured maybe somebody would get benefit from it on CJO as well. I wrote this for another site concerning getting bitperfect from Amazon music which is actually impossible with most gear.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |