September 17, 20196 yr comment_810941 Amazon Launches Amazon Music HD https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited/hd Ooh , more bits ... For less .. https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/17/20869526/amazon-music-hd-lossless-flac-tier-spotify-apple Oh, Hi Neil, Pono? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/business/amazon-music-hd.html Earth will never be the same again, apparently. https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-music-hd-launches-to-compete-with-tidal/ https://variety.com/2019/music/news/amazon-music-unveils-hd-highest-quality-audio-streaming-1203338552/ 90 day free trial. Nice. Report
September 17, 20196 yr comment_810945 Will be interesting to see 1) what TIDAL and Qobuz do in relation to this, and 2) if/when Amazon is integrated into Roon. I will eagerly await both results..... Report
September 17, 20196 yr comment_810946 I hope Apple Music and Spotify add a lossless tier as well. Tidal has worked great but I'm open to trying something new. Report
September 17, 20196 yr comment_810948 Amazon will charge $14.99 a month for the HD tier... Tidal’s Hi-Fi plan costs $19.99 monthly. I will happily pay an extra $5 to not support Amazon. https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/12/25/streaming-music-services-pay-2019/ Report
September 17, 20196 yr comment_810951 Can I pay an extra $5 to get Neil Young to stop talking about compression? Report
September 17, 20196 yr comment_810952 I got nuthin' better to do for 90 days. I might have to at least 'try' it out. Report
September 17, 20196 yr comment_810961 Not needing an MQA compatible DAC to stream hi-res is nice. Cheaper is nice. 3 months free is nice. I paid Tidal for a year but will try it out after that ends. Edited September 17, 20196 yr by robm321 Report
September 18, 20196 yr comment_810963 Amazon: “I’m-a hop aboard the high-res bandwagon, hee-yuk!” Report
September 19, 20196 yr comment_811010 Interesting... I've already succumbed to Alexa, so I might need to give this a try at some point. I don't want to give up tidal / roon, but this could be a nice convenience to ask Alexa to play some High Def music. I was already looking at Echo Link as a possible transport. I'm not sure how this will all tie together. Edited September 19, 20196 yr by Kerry Report
September 26, 20196 yr comment_811364 Alright, I'll take the plunge on the trial. I'm not really unhappy with Tidal, but I worry about their ability to survive with (IIRC) around 5mm subscribers when Amazon, Apple and Spotify all have many multiples of that. I'll check back in with thoughts after some use. Report
September 27, 20196 yr comment_811367 On 9/17/2019 at 6:04 PM, dsavitsk said: I will happily pay an extra $5 to not support Amazon. https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/12/25/streaming-music-services-pay-2019/ You and me too. Report
November 5, 20196 yr comment_812825 Amazon Music HD uses Windows mixer in shared mode only. The ability to use Wasapi exclusive mode is absent from the Windows app. Both Tidal and Qobuz have had the ability to use exclusive mode for years. As a result Amazon Music HD is not bit perfect, and even if you are receiving a 24/192 stream it will be down sampled to 24/96 if that is your user setting in Windows sounds. Same for up sampling. I use Tidal and Qobuz and find Amazon Music HD to sound inferior to both. Hard to understand why they did not launch with the ability to use exclusive mode with an external DAC. Report
November 5, 20196 yr comment_812827 I agree, the sound is bright and thin compared to Tidal. And regarding the hi res, without Wasapi in exclusive mode, Amazon HD is useless to me. I'm keeping my 3 month trial active in case they remove that bottleneck. Report
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