Amazon Music HD

With the launch of Amazon Music HD we neeeeeed a solution for streaming Amazon to the Bridge-II.

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Stream from a computer with an Ethernet connection is the way to go. Or if you have another ethernet device connected you’ll need a switch.

Pretty sure BubbleUPnP and/or mConnectcontrolHD will offer updates delivering Amazon Music HD in their Cloud Setup lists :wink:

Just got the 90 day trial and comparing my 192/96_24Bit DVD-A’s against Amazon’s SQ. “Amazon Music HD will deliver them all in the lossless FLAC file format, instead of the MQA format that Tidal uses”

Sounds like Neil Youngs Xtreme technology. If so. Awesome !!!

Amazon HD Music

Any word on cost or whether it comes free w amazon prime? :slight_smile:

Oh wait. 12.99/mo for prime members? Wow

It will be a better price than Tidal and Qobuz, even if you are not an amazon prime member.

I’m a tidal Hifi customer, an amazon prime customer and a lifetime roon customer with a large local music library. I’m going to sit tight for the first 6 months to see how this all unfolds.

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Just set it up on a macbook pro using my Amazon Prime account. took 5 minutes.

They seem to have a 50-track ultra HD playlist for Classical, Jazz etc. Sent it to my Devialet Expert Pro using Devialet Air. Even with the Air protocol there was some cracking on the first track, but others were fine. Tells you bitrates. No album booklets, which is bad news for classical.

The Amazon Music player is very sophisticated, not much good for classical, and I won’t hold my breath to see it embedded elsewhere.

For a HD mobile phone option with good headphones, it looks like a very good option. That’s where the market is, not static systems. I suspect it will become popular with Prime account holders.

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p.s. there is a free trial period, used it, cancelled it.

Amazon says that its HD service will be compatible with products from “Denon and Marantz with HEOS Built-in, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, Sonos, McIntosh, Sennheiser, and many more.”

Went back on the trial just to check it out a bit more.

Amazon Music is hosted on my Bluesound Powernode 2i and it took 30 seconds this time to be playing HD through it.

Have you tried the Bluesound connected to the DSD?

My concern is that no matter how good the Amazon HD library might be if there’s no way to hear it via good components then it’s not so compelling.

No because I don’t have a DSD. I have run it through Devialet Expert Pro.The Bluesound is playing out from P3ESR speakers and sounds great.

The best way to experience Amazon HD is over headphones with a 24-bit audio phone like Samsung S10+ and several (other new models). This is how most people listen to music these days, not audiophiles with static systems. A $250 pair of headphones will easily do the job.

Partners are here:

“The best way” is subjective and I’m not most people :smile:

Most people don’t care too much about hi-res music.

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Sooo, dumb question here, but running the Amazon HD through my laptop to my SGCD will work ok? USB connection.

Indeed, that’s how the Mac Mini brigade will be doing it.

Does anyone have any listening impressions yet on their system? Compare/contrast with Tidal, Qobuz, etc.?

FYI: I contacted Damien with Audirvana regarding Amazon Streaming HD and he said the following:
“Because they are Amazon, we believe their new HD service will contribute to promote quality audio, and we support that in general. So we are open to integrate their service into Audirvana, but that is the only thing we can say so far.”

I hope Audirvana jumps on board…then I probably would too.

As in this situation Amazon is the “big fish” and Audirvana, Roon, Conversdigital and others are the “little fish” the questions of if and when on integration are in Amazon’s court. At this point the companies whose products were Day 1 compatible are parts of large conglomerates no “little guys” on that list.

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What we all can hope is, Amazon didn’t list any “little fish” because they offer little marketing value so the choice was to only list the heavy (national/international) hitters… BUT are open to any and all companies willing to help bring their HD services to the masses. My guess is Amazon is more interested in selling mass quantities of their HD music subscription services than they are creating hardware exclusivity. We can only wait and see…

And down the road they may be but it will be on their terms. They now hold all the cards not the aftermarket companies like Roon. They would probably be more inclined to do integration into the supplied software of hardware manufacturers like Auralic, Lumin, Aurender and even Innuos when they finally get their own app finished months later than promised. Probably much like Spotify Connect.

Using the OSX apps for AMU and Qobuz, couldn’t tell any difference. Both excellent.

The vast majority of subscribers will be mobile headphone users. Static hardware systems will be a much lower priority.

So far, and from what we can tell, it appears the only requirement is a connection to Alexa to qualify. That doesn’t sound too hard and we’re looking into it. Maybe Damien will as well.

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