[AVUpdate]

I would like to use Amazon HD Music as a source for high-quality audio (24-bit/192Khz whenever possible).

I have an AV Receiver, PC, Wired Ethernet, and Wired Speakers; I don't want to use WiFi for anything, I don't use headphones, and HEOS sounds a little lame(?)

Can you advise me on how to get from Amazon Music at 24-bit/192Khz to my speakers with as little loss in fidelity as possible?

Thanks!

 

[M0ltar]

You’re not going to lose anything by using WiFi as long as you have a solid WiFi signal with something like a chromecast or chromecast audio, but if you want to use only hard wire connections just run optical out of your pc sound card or hdmi out of your mobo/gpu to your AVR.

 

[PlanetAVS]

I would like to use Amazon HD Music as a source for high-quality audio (24-bit/192Khz whenever possible).

I have an AV Receiver, PC, Wired Ethernet, and Wired Speakers; I don't want to use WiFi for anything, I don't use headphones, and HEOS sounds a little lame(?)

Can you advise me on how to get from Amazon Music at 24-bit/192Khz to my speakers with as little loss in fidelity as possible?

Thanks!

Ethernet to your AVR, and HEOS as a controller

 

[AVUpdate]

Ethernet to your AVR, and HEOS as a controller

Thanks for the response, much appreciated. So, I guess that means I need to buy an HEOS compliant AVR? I read some reviews of the HEOS app, and it sounds a little flakey. Have you used HEOS? Cheers, and I hope to hear from others who may have insights.

 

[PlanetAVS]

Thanks for the response, much appreciated. So, I guess that means I need to buy an HEOS compliant AVR? I read some reviews of the HEOS app, and it sounds a little flakey. Have you used HEOS? Cheers, and I hope to hear from others who may have insights.

I was assuming you already had a Denon/Marantz since you had an opinion on HEOS. What kind of AVR do you have? And why are you opposed to wifi?

Buying an AVR that supports HEOS just to stream Amazon HD seems like overkill. Streaming from the Amazon app on your phone to any Chromecast plugged into an HDMI port on any AVR will provide high res audio as long as the AVR supports high res.

 

[InvaderZim]

I bought an Amazon Echo Link during Prime Day for $60 off to try it out. Learned later that the TOSLINK optical and coaxial digital outputs on the Echo Link can only do 16 bits at 48khz and everything else is downsampled to that rate (you have to read through the Amazon customer Q&A to get a definitive answer). That's just stupid!

It does have analog outputs; when I tried those on my Marantz 8801 preprocessor, the sound was also decent. In this case, the link is using its internal DACs and the Marantz is either digitizing and processing it or passing it through when in "Pure" mode. Either way, it sounded fine -- noticably better than streaming Amazon Music HD to the Marantz from my iPhone over Airplay v1 or streaming it to the AppleTV, and playing it with the Marantz over the audio return channel (which is also limited to 16 bit 48k, I believe).

I'm going to upgrade the 8801 soon -- to either a Marantz 7706 preprocessor, Denon AVR-x6700H AVR, or Marantz SR8015 AVR. They all have HEOS, and while I haven't checked yet, I'm hopeful that any of these can stream AmazonHD and Deezer or Tidal at full resolution. They also support Airplay 2, which probably has better resolution but I have no idea if the iPhone can take advantage of it. Regardless, the Echo Link will go on eBay because the 48k sampling rate limitation is ridiculous.

Can anyone confirm?

 

[InvaderZim]

Streaming from the Amazon app on your phone to any Chromecast plugged into an HDMI port on any AVR will provide high res audio as long as the AVR supports high res.

Dang, I wish I'd known that before dropping $140 on the Echo link. Seems like the only advantage is that I can tell Alexa to play music on the Link and she obeys.

 

[PlanetAVS]

I bought an Amazon Echo Link during Prime Day for $60 off to try it out. Learned later that the TOSLINK optical and coaxial digital outputs on the Echo Link can only do 16 bits at 48khz and everything else is downsampled to that rate (you have to read through the Amazon customer Q&A to get a definitive answer). That's just stupid!

It does have analog outputs; when I tried those on my Marantz 8801 preprocessor, the sound was also decent. In this case, the link is using its internal DACs and the Marantz is either digitizing and processing it or passing it through when in "Pure" mode. Either way, it sounded fine -- noticably better than streaming Amazon Music HD to the Marantz from my iPhone over Airplay v1 or streaming it to the AppleTV, and playing it with the Marantz over the audio return channel (which is also limited to 16 bit 48k, I believe).

I'm going to upgrade the 8801 soon -- to either a Marantz 7706 preprocessor, Denon AVR-x6700H AVR, or Marantz SR8015 AVR. They all have HEOS, and while I haven't checked yet, I'm hopeful that any of these can stream AmazonHD and Deezer or Tidal at full resolution. They also support Airplay 2, which probably has better resolution but I have no idea if the iPhone can take advantage of it. Regardless, the Echo Link will go on eBay because the 48k sampling rate limitation is ridiculous.

Can anyone confirm?

HEOS supports high res from Qobuz, Amazon but doesn't support MQA high res from Tidal. You'd still get 16 bit from Tidal though. Deezer has lossless 16 bit but doesn't stream high res.

 

[InvaderZim]

HEOS supports high res from Qobuz, Amazon but doesn't support MQA high res from Tidal. You'd still get 16 bit from Tidal though. Deezer has lossless 16 bit but doesn't stream high res.

I had trials of Tidal and Deezer and both sounded pretty good from my iPhone but then AmazonHD came along and I'm sold--sounds much better than anything else, and I know I'm not maxing out the quality with their stupid box. I still have Apple Music because my offspring sniff at anything else -- when will Apple offer HD? Haven't tried Qobuz yet but I'll give it a look. Thanks!

 

[PlanetAVS]

Dang, I wish I'd known that before dropping $140 on the Echo link. Seems like the only advantage is that I can tell Alexa to play music on the Link and she obeys.

Voice activation via Echo is nice but the last time I checked everything is downsampled to Amazon SD. Not even CD quality.

 

[PlanetAVS]

I had trials of Tidal and Deezer and both sounded pretty good from my iPhone but then AmazonHD came along and I'm sold--sounds much better than anything else, and I know I'm not maxing out the quality with their stupid box. I still have Apple Music because my offspring sniff at anything else -- when will Apple offer HD? Haven't tried Qobuz yet but I'll give it a look. Thanks!

They each have their pros/cons. I use Qobuz as it is the best balance on price, sound quality for me. But I don't like their lack of Amazon Echo support, lack of radio and the app is functionally weaker than the competition.

 

[AVUpdate]

You’re not going to lose anything by using WiFi as long as you have a solid WiFi signal with something like a chromecast or chromecast audio, but if you want to use only hard wire connections just run optical out of your pc sound card or hdmi out of your mobo/gpu to your AVR.

I was assuming you already had a Denon/Marantz since you had an opinion on HEOS. What kind of AVR do you have? And why are you opposed to wifi?

Buying an AVR that supports HEOS just to stream Amazon HD seems like overkill. Streaming from the Amazon app on your phone to any Chromecast plugged into an HDMI port on any AVR will provide high res audio as long as the AVR supports high res.

Agreed, I have a decent Onkyo Receiver, and don't really want to buy a new one just for HEOS. But streaming to Chromecast won't work - Chromecast does not support anything other than "SD" from Amazon HD Music. So, I'm still stuck. I thought maybe someone would recommend an affordable DAC?


It does have analog outputs; when I tried those on my Marantz 8801 preprocessor, the sound was also decent. In this case, the link is using its internal DACs and the Marantz is either digitizing and processing it or passing it through when in "Pure" mode. Either way, it sounded fine -- noticably better than streaming Amazon Music HD to the Marantz from my iPhone over Airplay v1 or streaming it to the AppleTV, and playing it with the Maran

 

[AVUpdate]

"optical out of your pc sound card" sounds like the best option so far; thanks M0ltar.

 

[Desert Pilot]

Can you advise me on how to get from Amazon Music at 24-bit/192Khz to my speakers with as little loss in fidelity as possible?

Thanks!

I use a dedicated Home Theater PC and recently added Amazon Music. I run an HDMI cable from the PC to my pre/pro. Amazon offers an app for Windows which I use to play Amazon music. There are a number of settings you must select to get 24/192. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to do this. Once set up, I get 24/192 with no issues.

Marcus
Las Vegas, NV

 

[jsny44]

Marcus is right. I researched this over the summer and spoke to Amazon. They do not even sell a device that can export 24/192. You need to have a dedicated HTPC with a good enough sound card to do the output....Frustrating....One would think that if Amazon is releasing all of this "HD" music that they are also going to produce a device that can play it...I have to believe its in the works....For now, a HTPC is the answer....

 

[MikeKlim]

Perhaps this is an option as well? NODE 2i - Bluesound I believe it would allow the full resolution without downsampling.

 

[rcbracer]

I currently stream HD 2.0 music from my fire stick 4k to my AVR and it sounds ok. My go to is playing 24/92 5.1 suuround files (ripped from dvdA discs) from my NAS using Plex. Has anyone been able to play Hi rez 5.1 music on your AVR from one of the streaming services? Do any of the streaming services even have surround sound content? Supposedly Amazon HD has Dolby Atmos surround sound tracks but my AVR will only play them in 2.0.

 

[Goyle99]

I would like to use Amazon HD Music as a source for high-quality audio (24-bit/192Khz whenever possible).

I have an AV Receiver, PC, Wired Ethernet, and Wired Speakers; I don't want to use WiFi for anything, I don't use headphones, and HEOS sounds a little lame(?)

Can you advise me on how to get from Amazon Music at 24-bit/192Khz to my speakers with as little loss in fidelity as possible?

Thanks!

Now i've seen varying reports on whether or not optical can do 24/192 stereo lossless. My mobo sound drivers do not give me the option maybe yours do.

So i just use HDMI with an AV reciever, looks like you have all the gear required. Connect your GPU and reciever then go into window display and mirror it with another or put it off in a corner. Set output to that "virtual" TV in windows and you've got lossless sound. Should be able to get atmos, my receiver only supports TrueHD but that works fine.

Main downside to this is if you switch inputs on my reciever windows notices and it kills the feed to that display. Beyond that pretty clean solution tho. Could also just have it touch a corner of one of my edge displays too but there are other downsides there.

 

[valerianf]

You just plug the latest Amazon TV Fire stick 4k in a HDMI input of your AVR and you get a 2.0/192khz soundtrack.
For myself I prefer to configure the Fire stick output to DD+ as i get stronger bass frequencies and I am able to use the AVR dsp. The sampling rate is 48khz for DD+.
I am very satisfied by the result.

 

[M0ltar]

Just connect your PC to your receiver like I said earlier and use an app like unified remote on your phone to control your pc. Adding other devices just increases complexity in my eyes. You could go the way of Blue Node 2, but then you’re increasing your cost by a significant margin. Imo direct connection of PC to receiver and using an app to control it is the simplest and best solution and removes complexity and other variables from the signal chain. Can your receiver even do bypass for its internal DAC?