Grahame Posted September 17, 2019 Report Posted September 17, 2019 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. 6
skullguise Posted September 17, 2019 Report Posted September 17, 2019 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.....
TMoney Posted September 17, 2019 Report Posted September 17, 2019 I hope Apple Music and Spotify add a lossless tier as well. Tidal has worked great but I'm open to trying something new. 1
dsavitsk Posted September 17, 2019 Report Posted September 17, 2019 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/ 3
blessingx Posted September 17, 2019 Report Posted September 17, 2019 Can I pay an extra $5 to get Neil Young to stop talking about compression? 3 3
mikeymad Posted September 17, 2019 Report Posted September 17, 2019 I got nuthin' better to do for 90 days. I might have to at least 'try' it out.
robm321 Posted September 17, 2019 Report Posted September 17, 2019 (edited) 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, 2019 by robm321
Dusty Chalk Posted September 18, 2019 Report Posted September 18, 2019 Amazon: “I’m-a hop aboard the high-res bandwagon, hee-yuk!”
Kerry Posted September 19, 2019 Report Posted September 19, 2019 (edited) 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, 2019 by Kerry
TMoney Posted September 26, 2019 Report Posted September 26, 2019 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. 3
EdipisReks1 Posted September 27, 2019 Report Posted September 27, 2019 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.
sbelyo Posted September 27, 2019 Report Posted September 27, 2019 Looks like it's $12.99 for prime members. Interesting
allegro Posted November 5, 2019 Report Posted November 5, 2019 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. 1
robm321 Posted November 5, 2019 Report Posted November 5, 2019 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.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now