Amazon Music HD On The Mark Levinson WOW!!

[milellie111]

Amazon Music HD just launched and offers tons of catalogues in HD (CD quality) and Ultra HD! Free for 90 days trial.
Highest Quality Streaming Audio | Amazon Music HD

I am an Apple Music guy and stream over Bluetooth on the Mark Levinson. It sounds good but Amazon Music totally blows it away! You are no longer able to tell you are streaming over Bluetooth. It sounds as if my ears have been opened up. The same songs I’ve listened too over and over sound so much clearer with more detail. Now I am totally impressed by the Mark Levinson system. Even older songs sounds as if they were recorded today. I am definitely canceling my Apple Music subscription!

 

[Madtiger]

Is it my imagination but playing music via USB sounds better than BT.

 

[milellie111]

Is it my imagination but playing music via USB sounds better than BT.

I’d bet good money you couldn’t find a discernible difference. High quality streaming technology has come a long way.

 

[luke27617]

I do the same. Huge difference from the regular radio.

 

[Sandroad]

I don’t know about that particular setup, but I do know that many (most?) complaints about high end audio systems come from feeding them bad (compressed) signals.

 

[Chocolate]

I listen to mostly 320kbps MP3 and sometimes HD radio. I've used a low profile Sandisk drive for years. For 8 bucks you can store a lot of music. This low profile USB drive fits with the cover closed on the LX.

 

[razzyrazz]

Usb>aux cable> bluetooth as far as quality goes. It all comes down to the source though. Been playing music on the Mark Levinson with Tidal for a year now and it is awesome. Master Quality has around 4 times the bitrate of an mp3. Will have to check out Amazon HD bitrate, wasnt aware they had added hifi and "better than CD quality".

 

[eminaise]

Is it my imagination but playing music via USB sounds better than BT.

It likely isn't the compression. It has to do with bypassing the DAC (digital to analog converter). Always better with USB. The test is to use the volume on your phone. When listening, if the volume on you phone also increases the volume in the car, then you have not bypassed the DAC. IF the volume on the phone does nothing, then you have.

 

[TeCKis300]

The LX Mark Levinson system is one of those systems that doesn't particularly colorize and excite sound with EQ or processing. Feed it a bad source and it'll lay it bare and naked out in the open which is to say it'll sound flat and bad. It's plays pretty faithful to the source.

Feed it a high quality source, and preferably let its own high quality DAC be in the drivers seat, and it'll come alive.

Any AUX connected source will be dead and flat as there's rarely good portable players with a high end DAC. Especially anything generally coming from a cell phone headphone jack.

BT is a digital transport with later versions able to transport music in bit-perfect streams. USB is also a digital transport, generally allowing for much higher bandwidth encodings. Both still subject to having a high quality and high bit-rate stream.

Amazon HD should be able to live up to that high bit-rate promise as @milellie111 points out. I need to try this!

 

[Chocolate]

It would be nice if FLAC files were supported. Large file size, but true lossless digital. Since that will never happen, 320 is very close. You can play them through FLAC player on an iPhone over the USB connection through the iPod interface, though I prefer the convenience of being able to select the music right from the screen.

 

[dnh1]

The irony of this thread on a board called "ih8mud" is pretty funny.

 

[LXCruza]

I thought the max bit-rate on Amazon music is 256 kbps. (as opposed to Spotify which is 320 kbps)!

 

[32cls6speedmt]

I thought the max bit-rate on Amazon music is 256 kbps. (as opposed to Spotify which is 320 kbps)!

What audio quality does Amazon Music HD support?

Amazon Music HD offers lossless audio in two quality ranges: HD and Ultra HD.

HD tracks are 16-bit audio, with a minimum sample rate of 44.1 kHz (16/44.1 is also referred to as CD-quality), and an average bitrate of 850 kbps. Ultra HD tracks have a bit depth of 24 bits, with sample rates ranging from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, and an average bitrate of 3730 kbps.

In comparison, most standard streaming services currently offer Standard Definition (SD) with a bitrate up to 320 kbps. These audio files use lossy compression, where details of the original audio are removed in order to reduce the file size. By contrast, Amazon Music HD preserves the original recording information to deliver the highest quality sound available, more than 2x the bitrate in HD and more than 10x the bitrate at the highest Ultra HD bitrate. Amazon Music HD will always play the highest quality content available, based on network, device capability and your selected settings.

Amazon.com: Amazon Music Unlimited FAQs: Digital Music

Online shopping for Amazon Music Unlimited FAQs from a great selection at Digital Music Store.

www.amazon.com

that is directly off amazon site.

 

[LXCruza]

What audio quality does Amazon Music HD support?

Amazon Music HD offers lossless audio in two quality ranges: HD and Ultra HD.

HD tracks are 16-bit audio, with a minimum sample rate of 44.1 kHz (16/44.1 is also referred to as CD-quality), and an average bitrate of 850 kbps. Ultra HD tracks have a bit depth of 24 bits, with sample rates ranging from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, and an average bitrate of 3730 kbps.

In comparison, most standard streaming services currently offer Standard Definition (SD) with a bitrate up to 320 kbps. These audio files use lossy compression, where details of the original audio are removed in order to reduce the file size. By contrast, Amazon Music HD preserves the original recording information to deliver the highest quality sound available, more than 2x the bitrate in HD and more than 10x the bitrate at the highest Ultra HD bitrate. Amazon Music HD will always play the highest quality content available, based on network, device capability and your selected settings.

Amazon.com: Amazon Music Unlimited FAQs: Digital Music

Online shopping for Amazon Music Unlimited FAQs from a great selection at Digital Music Store.

www.amazon.com

that is directly off amazon site.

Nice! though, it is not available in Canada yet.