That could be it and its more optimistic than my thinking. Its still annoying. Not sure it explains everything as I’ve lost some songs repeatedly, which means either constant updates or app foolishness.
They all do it. Its been going on since music streaming started. https://studybreaks.com/culture/music/streaming-services/
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For all our Canadian brothers and sisters https://www.amazon.ca/music/unlimited/hd/
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I’ll have to go back and read your review of this. See if it’s a legitimate Tidal alternative. Thanks for the heads up.
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Now with Roon integration!!!
Just kidding. I wish.
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I don’t think any one platform is a legit replacement for another (unfortunately) 
which is why I still have 3… but at least Canada can try it now.
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Even if it’s equivalent I’d consider ditching Tidal. Not that I’m keen on throwing more money at Amazon.
I really would like Qobuz to become available.
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Amazon tells me that to properly enjoy Amazon “ultra HD” I need speakers/headphones capable of handling a dynamic range of 40kHz.
This makes me smile.
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They must be working on the matching cybernetic ear replacements so you can hear up to that range. Coming to a Ripper Doc near you! Alexa Ears!
I just hope they look better than this.
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For a sec I thought that was Bezos!!!
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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.
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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.
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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.
There is a good observation over on Audiophile Style: https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/update-amazon-music-hd-is-still-lossy-r961/
Whats interesting, the test made found that a "The Bluesound Node 2i successfully streamed lossless audio from Amazon Music HD from 16 bit / 44.1 kHz up through 24 bit / 192 kHz. Amazon’s own apps are unable to do what the Bluesound ecosystem can do with respect to playing the highest quality lossless audio. " Not even his Berkeley REF DAc did that.
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This suggests that the Amazon Music infrastructure is willing to stream at higher resolutions (in some circumstances at least) but the various Amazon apps have limitations.
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That’s not how it works with my Macbook Pro. I set the DAC to its highest capabilities in the OS, and then Amazon HD moves it up or down as needed. The yellow “HD” or “Ultra HD” icon for the current track is clickable – it’ll show the actual bitrate in use. This changes constantly to match the potential of the track.
That’s why I listed the setup. It may work differently on different platforms.
What does your DAC say when you play music through Amazon HD from the Macbook Pro?
I know with my Chord HUGO TT2 on Windows 10, the TT2 will show 24-bit 192Khz (what the Windows 10 driver is set to by default) regardless of the bitrate of the track.
This is not the case with Tidal where the TT2 will play and show bit-perfect.
No external display, just the OS readout.
yeah, that won’t tell you anything since my Amazon Music HD app and Windows OS also says it’s “changing” but the DAC knows it’s not getting bit-perfect.
This suggests to me your ASIO “driver” isn’t properly bypassing the Windows Audio Engine, which is resampling your audio. I’ve recreated this scenario with my ADI-2 DAC fs. Using standard output (not Wasapi or ASIO) I can set the bit and sample rate to a fixed value and the ADI to will always show this value. The moment I switched to wasapi or ASIO, it shows the tracks’ bit and sample rate regardless of what I selected in properties, illustrating that the audio engine is being bypassed.
Try it yourself with Wasapi instead if you prefer.
You using the Windows 10 ASIO driver, or ASIO4All?
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The issue is that Amazon Music will not use exclusive mode of any kind (Wasapi or ASIO), even when exclusive mode is set in the program.
When playing tracks with MusicBee it can use Wasapi (exclusive) and ASIO, and the dac will change sample rates to match the track being played. In Wasapi (shared) the dac stays at the Windows setting.
I think this is showing that Amazon Music is always in shared mode even when exclusive mode is selected. I know it’s not using ASIO because the ASIO control panel shows that ASIO is not in use.
I don’t know if it’s just my system or if this is common for Amazon Music on all Windows systems.
I’m using the SMSL ASIO driver.