Amazon HD music streaming - what you might want to know

Chris Connaker, founder of Audiophile Style and Computer Audiophile, wrote a very interesting piece on playing back music from Amazon's new HD audio services. He's outlined his process and done a very good job setting up a system to test what is coming through his systems.

If you're an audiophile or music lover or musician who wants to find out a little more about the confusion going on in the world of streaming HD, this is a highly technical and interesting evaluation. Those of you who are audiophiles have heard about these comparison tests before. Those of you who are knew to the world of HD might want to keep a close look at the advancements. Those of you who are musicians or studio engineers who want to preserve your music quality to the best of your ability, you need to follow along.

If you're a record label, you expect that the music you upload to a distribution service is being transferred in the same way. Sadly, this is not the case. We are uncovering new anomalies every day. There is little transparency when a label uploads a file for distribution. Is it really that hard to upload a high sample rate file and expect it gets to the digital audio store the same way? Apparently it is. We recently uncovered some of these issues. Chris has discovered it from a consumer side.

As a long time audiophile, pro audio engineer and producer, I want to see the HD market flourish. When companies alter the sound then deliver our music to the digital audio stores, that can be irreversibly damaging to our HD culture as a whole... especially to the newest members of the HD culture. If they can't deliver what we upload, what is the point of HD?

In early 2021, there will be a solution so that you can trust the source of your music. Be on the look out.

It's going to be a very interesting next few years.

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/update-amazon-music-hd-is-...