Saw this today on another forum:
I can’t access Amazon Music HD from my country.
Maybe someone could test and confirm?
The new version allows exclusive mode.
It does not set the bit-rate on my Pro-Ject Pre Box S2, so no bit perfect,
It also appears not to remember the selected settings across app restarts 
This is actual more like hog mode. It takes full control of the volume and doesn’t allow other programs to output sound. It’s not auto changing sample rate like Qobuz or Tidal does. So still useless for hires.
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I am using the exclusive mode with my Oppo HA-2SE DAC. Unfortunately, the Amazon Music app believed the DAC’s capability tops out at 24 bit/48 kHz…obviously wrong. I realized then that Amazon is looking at whatever the Windows properties are for the device which sets a default bitrate. So, it looks like the “exclusive” mode Amazon is using still relies on the Windows sound output and it seems all music is getting resampled to the max Windows output rate. I have mine now set at 24 bit / 192 kHz but I believe this isn’t bitperfect still.
Same behavior on MacOS. If you set a bit rate (using OS util), then set exclusive mode in Amazon app, the app adopts whatever rate you set, and actually will not let you change it.
This may be a good sign, as the app is in some sense controlling the bit rate, just not switching it per song (yet). One would think that capability will be coming down the pike sooner rather than later.
That behavior is the same as iTunes and is not a good thing. You want the app to control the output like roon does in exclusive mode. So no matter what the utility is set that app will change it based on the actual file it’s playing.
Not sure if any updates were made to the mobile software but it also didn’t change sampling rate. Even though software claimed it does, the dac would should the same input not matter what.
Also, does not support upNp
Amazon has not shown any interest in adding bit rate conversion to its service. That is really the crux of the matter for many of us who are accustomed to using music services that utilize that feature.
Strange & somewhat irrational reason!
This is a Roon forum, so I suppose it is fairly reasonable to assume that you use Room as a front end for your streaming system. So, you would abandon Roon and move to Amazon just to avoid the remote possibility that you accidentally play an MQA encoded track from Tidal from time to time?
Weird!
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Neither strange nor irrational 
MQA has well documented shortcomings. Lossy “hires” is pointless to me. I have no need for a faux hires solution as bandwidth is adequate for my streaming needs. Others may need what MQA offers and those needs may outweigh the disadvantages the format offers. My chief complaint beyond it being lossy, is the vendor lockin. I don’t want to see a Dolby situation happen in music. It will help nobody except Meridian.
I have a lifetime license to Roon, I have zero plans on abandoning it. I supported it a few years ago and haven’t looked back. I have no reason to move to Amazon as Qobuz suits my needs just fine, and accidentally playing MQA would indeed be a disaster 
Those distortions aren’t suited to a HiFi setup.
Nothing weird about this. I think it’s weird people are willing to put up with yet another lossy scheme when we have a perfectly good choice of lossless codecs.
It’s not weird at all.
MQA wants to influence the digital audio market to adopt rent seeking license fees and eventual DRM to own, and get paid at every step of production, distribution and playback, in the guise of solving a problem that didn’t exist.
I don’t care how it sounds. That’s not good for consumers or anyone else.
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Consider these reasons that led me away from Tidal to Qobuz. First, Tidal’s performance over cellular in the Bay Area of California is dismal in many spots. Once I reported it and worked with them for over 6 months, their final solution was for me to run a VPN app along with the Tidal app to make their app work. It didn’t!
So, I switched to Qobuz and there was no issue with my cellular carrier, my iPhone 11, or any other garbage that Tidal was pointing me to. By the way, Amazon also doesn’t suffer from the same poor tech that Tidal streams with.
Another reason one might consider Amazon is that their catalog is more complete. At least, that is what I am experiencing with the artists that I listen to as compared to Qobuz.
I have absolutely no quarrel with anyone preferring Qobuz to Amazon, nor indeed with anyone moving from Tidal to Qobuz because of a preference of the Qobuz hi-res offerings over the MQA equivalents on Tidal. If it wasn’t for the fact that quite a large number of artists and albums in my Roon library are missing from the Qobuz catalogue, I would almost certainly move from Tidal to Qobuz myself.
I am personally pretty ambivalent about MQA, but I suspect I would choose Qobuz hi-res over MQA ‘hi-res’ if I were to make the comparison, although I reckon it would be close. My reference to your ‘irrational’ statement was specifically directed at your comment that you would choose Amazon over Tidal, despite the fact that you would not gain access to hi-res, but you would lose out on the use of Roon. I hope I am wrong, but I suspect that Amazon will never concede the sort of access that Roon would need for the integration of Amazon music into Roon.
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I like to not believe what you say about the Amazon integration, but I tend to think you are correct. 
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My reference to your ‘irrational’ statement was specifically directed at your comment that you would choose Amazon over Tidal, despite the fact that you would not gain access to hi-res, but you would lose out on the use of Roon.
Well you are gaining access to hi-res with Amazon now. But yes, I suspect deep down they won’t integrate with Roon either. They aren’t that kind of company.
I spent my entire working career in IT working for a large organisation. On a number occasions I had to negotiate legal contracts in respect of IT systems integration between my company and other very large multinational organisations. It was an absolute nightmare at times.
My company required me to arrange ‘IT penetration testing’ of equipment or systems with which we were potentially integrating, using 3rd party penetration testing specialists before I could consider bringing them on board. This worked very well with smaller companies, and in quite a few cases we were able to identify security deficiencies in their systems and assist them in resolving the issues.
The situation with large multinationals was often very different. Some of them had group policies that would not allow their systems to be penetration tested by 3rd parties, no matter how good their reputation. On one occasion, the lawyers of a company tried to insist that my company (and our independent 3rd party penetration testing specialists) sign a contract that would hold us responsible for open ended compensation for any financial or reputational loss in the event that we uncovered a security flaw in their systems, and news of the flaw became public for any reason. Needless to say, we didn’t sign up to that!
I hasten to add that I have never been involved in any way with Amazon, but gaining access to systems run by International giants like Amazon can be horrendously difficult.
However, the reason I am not confident about Amazon allowing Roon to integrate with their music streaming system is much more straightforward. Roon does not have a sufficient number of subscribers for its inclusion to result in any real financial gain for Amazon. As I mentioned earlier, I really hope that I am wrong.
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Thanks, your response makes complete sense. I’ve since changed my service to QOB & it seems to be much better in all aspects than Amazon.
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