Lossless Streaming in 2019 - A Comparative Overview & Review

All Things Music
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I’ve been looking into Amazon HD and thought I’d post a few findings.

The setup is Windows 10 (1909) and SU-9 dac with ASIO driver.

  1. Amazon Music does not use ASIO even when Exclusive Mode is selected in the program. I know this because the ASIO driver has a status panel that shows if ASIO is active.

  2. Amazon Music looks at the dac capabilities when it starts up but never changes the dac sample size or sample rate.

What you end up with is that the dac needs to be set to the same format as the track you want to play, at the time Amazon Music starts.

If the dac is set to 16/44 when Amazon Music starts it will always play the track at 16/44.

Amazon music will report that a track is 16/44, the dac is 16/44 and it’s playing at 16/44.

If you then play a 24/96 track Amazon Music will report that the track is 24/96, the dac is 16/44 and it’s playing at 16/44.

But, if you exit Amazon Music, set the dac to 24/96 and restart Amazon music it will report that the same track is 24/96, the dac is 24/96 and it’s playing at 24/96.

I don’t have the gear to verify that what is going over the USB cable is what Amazon Music claims it is, but the dac does display sample rate so I can verify that much.

The bottom line is that Amazon Music does appear ‘bit perfect’ in terms of not altering sample size or rate, but only for whatever the dac was set to when the program starts.