[psikey]

Just signed up for the 90 day trial.

Just tried on my Desktop Media/Gaming rig where I listen at home which has a 24/192 audio capability through a set of KEF LSX which are 24/96 capable.

All sounds great to me.

Currently playing a track and showing:

Track Quality: 24/44.1
Device Capability: 24/192
Currently Playing: 24/44.1

Just listened to a Diana Krall UHD Track (I'm familiar with Tidal MQA version) and sound just as stunning

Track Quality: 24/96
Device Capability: 24/192
Currently Playing: 24/96

Will try with my LG V30+ and S10+ phones next​

Slight update. If I set the sound card to its max of 24/192 the track still plays at 24/96 (which it should).

Just remembered that my LSX is connected to PC by analogue so if track was a 24/192 it would go out from PC as 24/192 but LSX itself would down-rate 192 tracks to 96.

On my S10+ & V30+ looks like Android converts to 24/48 if higher track rate than 24/48 and as mentioned, no go in UAPP. If a track is 24/44.1 it does show as 24/44.1 (not android scaling to 24/48)

Also, have an old 128GB iPhone 5S put make that can do is 24/48 so 96 tracks played at lower quality of 24/48.

So on my mobiles looks like it will play at 24/48 MAX but doesn't seem to try to upscale 24/44.1 to 24/48 which is fine.

PC and all 3 phones stream perfectly over my AC3200 5Ghz router.

Seems good to me at the lower price than Tidal.

Just found an actual 24/192 track and does feed out of my PC at 24/192 so seems to be perfect for PC playback but limited to 24/48 on Android phones and my iPhone 5S.

 

[a-LeXx]

I did notice mix of different bitrate tracks, but I really doubt it works as you described, that would be a total chaos. Track from compilation album has different id than the same one from separate release.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/catalog-number-2460354

So my guess that either they are still filling the gaps or this is some technical or licensing issue.

There is also option 'download duplicates', what is it set to?

It is total chaos. On about third of my downloaded albums I have mixed quality. There is no option ‚download duplicates‘ on a iOS app.

 

[a-LeXx]

That's what I get with redbook tracks as well. No upsampling unless the popup is lying.

popup IS lying. No matter what it says, my DFR always show 24/96. It shows correct sampling rates on any other streaming service, was also showing 44.1 correctly before I upgraded to Music HD. After the upgrade, the app upsamples everything and is lying in the popup about the output sampling rate...

 

[Soundizer]

popup IS lying. No matter what it says, my DFR always show 24/96. It shows correct sampling rates on any other streaming service, was also showing 44.1 correctly before I upgraded to Music HD. After the upgrade, the app upsamples everything and is lying in the popup about the output sampling rate...

Exactly same here. My Dragon fly Cobalt via iPad USB-C + Chord Mojo via Apple iMac optical. Both DACS show Amazon HD upsamples everything.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Popup is not "lying", it shows bitrate that app sends to audio stack, where depending on shared mode bitrate settings, upsampling can take place.
If you set Control panel shared mode sample rate to match your audio material, you will get same sample rate as original on your audio device.

Processing flow:
Amazon Player >>> OS Audio Stack (resamples in shared mode) >>> Audio Device >>> Unhappy Listener

 

[a-LeXx]

Popup is not "lying", it shows bitrate that app sends to audio stack, where depending on shared mode bitrate settings, upsampling can take place.
If you set Control panel shared mode sample rate to match your audio material, you will get same sample rate as original on your audio device.

Processing flow:
Amazon Player >>> OS Audio Stack (resamples in shared mode) >>> Audio Device >>> Unhappy Listener

iOS never upsamples anything. I‘m talking about an iOS app. It‘s definitively amazon‘s own app that is performing upsampling, even though it is showing output to be in a native data rate. There is no way no avoid this with the new amazon app for iOS. Older versions of the app (8.xxx), before Music HD has been introduced, never upsampled. New version (9.xxx) started upsampling even without Music HD subscription

 

[Soundizer]

I talked to Audioquest about it and they are aware of the upsampling issue via Amazon Music HD. They suggested to stick with TIDAL HIFI because of this issue with Amazon Music HD.

 

[psikey]

More listening and it works perfectly via a PC and Desktop version of Amazon Music HD.

Seems to work fine with phones internal sound chip but to a max of 24/48 on Android.

 

[robm321]

Until they add exclusive mode, Amazon HD is useless to me. I have a 3 month trial and still just listen to Tidal which sounds better.

 

[grokit]

I really think Amazon is actively (not AI) monitoring this thread. I'm now missing the little HD/ULTRA HD button, when playing a album that is labeled ULTRA HD; all the songs in the album are individually labeled the same way. But no button to activate the pop-up while the song is playing. This is to me a tacit acknowledgment that it was indeed "lying" with the displayed information. I hope this means they are working on a fix.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Which OS?
Both Android and Windows were updated like yesterday. Windows is 7.8.4.2118 now, Android 16.3.2, both have badge still, but no exclusive option.

 

[a-LeXx]

I really think Amazon is actively (not AI) monitoring this thread. I'm now missing the little HD/ULTRA HD button, when playing a album that is labeled ULTRA HD; all the songs in the album are individually labeled the same way. But no button to activate the pop-up while the song is playing. This is to me a tacit acknowledgment that it was indeed "lying" with the displayed information. I hope this means they are working on a fix.

Dream on. There is amazon‘s own forum, called amazonforum.com. They are not even monitoring that one. People are complaining since sommer, paying customers, and nothing is happening, bugs are still not fixed. Moderators there suggest to open a call with support for any technical problem, because amazon is NOT monitoring any forums, even not their own. Of course the support turns to be utterly useless as well, as this ‚support‘ is provided by aunties having absolutely no technical understanding, suggesting the same things over and over again, like reinstall the app, clean cache... They neither understand what the customers are telling them, even with detailed written bug descriptions, nor do they follow up with real support...

Amazon shows very little interest in this product, the main value for them is now, they can claim they are better than competitors in terms of data rate. It‘s obvious that product definition and implementation has been done by people having no understanding for what audiophiles need.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

It‘s obvious that product definition and implementation has been done by people having no understanding for what audiophiles need.

Do audiophiles themselves know what they need?

 

[Papa253]

I have no more patience for Amazon music, I cancel my trial and deleted it.

Good luck to you all, you'll need it!

 

[grokit]

I'm sticking with it for now. I did just notice something though.

The ULTRA HD button is back. First I restarted the app to see if that made of a difference. It didn't. Then for no reason, I selected the miniplayer from the view menu. I noticed the ULTRA HD button displayed prominently on the miniplayer so I clicked it. It went to the full-size player, with the pop-up displayed. When I closed the pop-up, the ULTRA HD button was still displayed, ready for me to click on it again and get the pop-up.

Nothing weird about that, nosireee... but I'll take it. Like I said, for now. It sure sounds good to me. I'm using the Mac desktop app.

edit: They did change the info displayed in the pop-up.
Now it says:

Track quality: 24 bit / 44.1 kHz
Device capability: 24 bit / 96 kHz
Currently playing at: 24 bit / 44.1 kHz

At least they're being honest about the playrate now.
But my opinion is that 44.1 kHz should be called HD, not ULTRA HD