[adias]

Amazon Music Unlimited can be bit perfect. I use the Amazon Music app on iOS and cast it via Alexacast to WiiM Pro.

 

[dstea]

Didnt know that Amazon Music Unlimited existed, will definitely look into it.

 

[Polky74]

After two years of Amazon Unlimited Music HD I switched to Qobuz due to the fact that even today with Amazon Unlimited Music HD (on Android) it is not possible to avoid resampling to 48kz. What did I pay to get an HD subscription to listen to tracks resampled by Androids at 48kz? Qobuz via UAPP allows you to listen to songs up to 24/192 so it's not comparable... then when Amazon raised the price of the subscription the choice to change was inevitable. If you listen to Amazon HD on a computer (maybe) it can still make sense... if you do it on an Android DAP or as I do with an Android phone dongle, forget about the high resolution of the songs.

 

[adias]

After two years of Amazon Unlimited Music HD I switched to Qobuz due to the fact that even today with Amazon Unlimited Music HD (on Android) it is not possible to avoid resampling to 48kz. What did I pay to get an HD subscription to listen to tracks resampled by Androids at 48kz? Qobuz via UAPP allows you to listen to songs up to 24/192 so it's not comparable... then when Amazon raised the price of the subscription the choice to change was inevitable. If you listen to Amazon HD on a computer (maybe) it can still make sense... if you do it on an Android DAP or as I do with an Android phone dongle, forget about the high resolution of the songs.

Something is off. I know plenty of people casting AMU on Android using Alexacast to any WiiM streamer up to 192kHz/24 bit perfect.

 

[Polky74]

Something is off. I know plenty of people casting AMU on Android using Alexacast to any WiiM streamer up to 192kHz/24 bit perfect.

Broadcasting to a streamer is one thing... listening directly to an android DAP/dongle connected to your phone is another. They are different uses... if you buy a good DAP/dongle and have a subscription you would prefer to listen to it directly (using its internal DAC) connected to the IEM/headphones you prefer (at least that's how it is for me) and not transmit the signal to who knows where to be able to listen to it without it being degraded by Android or by a poorly made app (Amazon Music) that lets Android decide the sampling (48kz). This also applies if you have a dongle connected to a phone... but with Amazon and Android you don't go beyond 48 kz (not even native but resampled) so let alone the quality. I asked Amazon several times (before abandoning it) to implement a decent app for Android that would really allow me to enjoy music with its native high resolution sampling or (as Qobuz does) allow the use of dedicated apps (UAPP) for be able to get around the problem... the answer hasn't reached me yet.

 

[adias]

Broadcasting to a streamer is one thing... listening directly to an android DAP/dongle connected to your phone is another. They are different uses... if you buy a good DAP/dongle and have a subscription you would prefer to listen to it directly (using its internal DAC) connected to the IEM/headphones you prefer (at least that's how it is for me) and not transmit the signal to who knows where to be able to listen to it without it being degraded by Android or by a poorly made app (Amazon Music) that lets Android decide the sampling (48kz). This also applies if you have a dongle connected to a phone... but with Amazon and Android you don't go beyond 48 kz (not even native but resampled) so let alone the quality. I asked Amazon several times (before abandoning it) to implement a decent app for Android that would really allow me to enjoy music with its native high resolution sampling or (as Qobuz does) allow the use of dedicated apps (UAPP) for be able to get around the problem... the answer hasn't reached me yet.

Even with a dongle, there must be a way… but it doesn’t matter for you as you moved on.

 

[Polky74]

Imagine...
1) I buy a nice brand new Hiby R8II (android dap) and I would like to listen to music in high definition... I launch the Amazon app and everything is resampled to a maximum of 48kz even if the song was 24/192.
2) I buy a nice brand new HibyR8II (android dap) and I would like to listen to music in high definition... I launch the Qobuz/Tidal app or even UAPP with the Qobuz/Tidal credentials inserted and listen to all the songs at their maximum definition without any resampling and using the DAC of my new DAP.

Which of the two situations do you prefer? I'm the second.

 

[adias]

Imagine...
1) I buy a nice brand new Hiby R8II (android dap) and I would like to listen to music in high definition... I launch the Amazon app and everything is resampled to a maximum of 48kz even if the song was 24/192.
2) I buy a nice brand new HibyR8II (android dap) and I would like to listen to music in high definition... I launch the Qobuz/Tidal app or even UAPP with the Qobuz/Tidal credentials inserted and listen to all the songs at their maximum definition without any resampling and using the DAC of my new DAP.

Which of the two situations do you prefer? I'm the second.

I do not prefer either. I just commented to suggest that there are ways to listen to AMU on Android.

For me? My portable devices are iOS and they are not without limitations either.

 

[Polky74]

Even with a dongle, there must be a way… but it doesn’t matter for you as you moved on.

The solution would be to create an Amazon Music application that independently manages the Hi Res data flow by sending it directly to the dac/dongle without passing under the hands of the Android operating system which resamples everything in a format that isn't even musical (48kz). This is not impossible since other apps do it without any problem: Tidal, Qobuz, UAPP, Hiby Music. Instead the only thing the Amazon Music app does when it starts is write HD... but HD of what?

 

[adias]

I do not listen to IEMs or headphones connected to phones. Since you asked: for me - AMU Alexacast to WiiM Pro to high end DAC and 2 channel pipeline.

Bit perfect 192kHz/24bit:

 

[Polky74]

Obviously I'm certainly not picking on you... but it's just a consideration on the fact that important companies like Amazon get lost in a glass of water. I don't think that the other apps that I mentioned and that have solved the problem have a giant like Amazon behind them... which however remains behind for not solving something so important and which severely limits the user experience. If Amazon could make hi-res music work on my Android devices I would be very happy and I would definitely immediately reactivate my Amazon Unlimited subscription in half a second.

 

[adias]

And incidentally… 48kHz sampling is more than adequate for full fidelity recordings. Just ask BBC.

 

[adias]

You have a point… Amazon and Apple are large cos. offering good assurance that their Music services will endure. Will Qobuz or Tidal?

 

[dharmasteve]

I use Amazon HD on my HiBy R6III and I am very happy with it. I had Tidal for 3 months at the same time previously, and I found Amazon equal to Tidal. I used Tidal through UAPP, bit perfect, allegedly. Still couldn't hear Tidal was any better than the high quality settings in Amazon HD.

 

[Nick24JJ]

Thank you, all, for your replies and valid points.

It is true, @adias , that Amazon Music can be bit-perfect using a WiiM Pro. I have received the same response/recommendation when I had asked Amazon Customer Service about bit-perfect playback. The thing is that I am using my smartphone and, now, a DAP. On these devices, Amazon Music is not bit prefect. Someone said, there must be a way, I wish there was, I do not think there is. My question to the Customer Service, placed in the beginning of January, was if Amazon Music will offer bit-perfect on Android 14. I've placed the question around January 9, the Rep said they've escalated it to the Dev Team and to give them 72 hours to get a response, I've followed up 10 days later, still no response until today.

I do not think Amazon plans to enable/offer bit-perfect on Android 14, even though the OS offers this possibility now.

The reason, I believe, they won't is the below, which is the most plausible explanation I've read, so far:

A comment from an iOS user:

Amazon's not providing bit-perfect playback is a feature, not a bug, and is the same on all OS systems, also on iOS. By default, iOS does not use any SRC, and also amazon music app was playing in 44.1/16 at a time there was only lossy music service available.

By the time of Music HD introduction, Amazon changed the strategy. They now use adaptive streaming, and the bitrate/compression is changed based on available bandwidth. To do this, Amazon's apps on any OS, Android, iOS, Windows and so on, is now selecting the highest bit rate of the DAC as default, and upsample/downsample everything to this frequency. It's done by the app itself, not by a subsystem of the OS. This is done to ensure that in case of b/w problems there are no clicks or disconnections during the playback, and change of the quality happens 'seamlessly' in case there is a sudden drop in the available b/w. In first implementations on iOS this upsamping was so buggy and slow, that it would even drive the HW to the limits, resulting in overheating, stutter and battery drain on older iOS devices. That has been fortunately fixed later, but it took Amazon around 3 months to do this.

Other services do not use adaptive bitrate, so, if the available streaming b/w for some reasons just goes down, the playback would start to stutter. Amazon will continue playing, but with the lower quality.

So, I think, everyone can ditch any hope Amazon Music will ever be bit perfect. It's not possible based on a way they implement the streaming in their apps. I ditched the hope as well, and moved on to Apple Music, which is bit perfect on iOS, at least...

I also agree with you, @adias , that 48kHz is adequate for an enjoyable music experience. I have a subscription on YouTube Premium, as well, and it is the best service I am currently using, mostly due to the excellent work of the Algorithm and the recommendations. The music sound very good to my ears, too.


My "issue" with Amazon Music Unlimited is that they do not seem to be willing to even consider enabling bit-perfect on Android 14. It does not have to do with the quality of playback. I feel like I am paying for a service I cannot fully utilize.

This is why I got Qobuz, as well. Until December when my Amazon subscription ends, I will have plenty of time to compare the 2 services and decide which one suits me better. With Qobuz, though, I will be utilizing all the features I am paying for.