Absolutely! Any successful HD music stream solution will need to produce bit perfect output. That is, the decoded digital stream we end up with must be an exact duplicate of the source material. More and more people are going to start to accept this as fact in the future and will demand it from their service. It just makes sense in a world where we value 4K TV now and suddenly 1080p is not good enough. Audio streams even at 24/192k are so much less data than these video streams require.
It seems like some players (Amazon included?) are generating bit perfect renderings internally but are having difficulty (or not valuing?) getting exclusive control of the audio output drivers (stack) to ensure this bitstream is not interrupted or resampled up/down, of otherwise messed with between the application SW output buffer and the USB port. If Amazon does not do figure out how to do this in the future, yes, they will fail with the audiophile customers. But I think they will figure this out.
From a hardware point of view it is not really that difficult to take over exclusive use of the output drivers as Roon and Audirvana do already. There is still some growth needed but it is an exciting time for digital streaming audio and I think big things are around the corner.
Out of curiosity, why do you say Amazon HD service is a sham?
StereJo, I agree cheapest doesn’t mean best. In fact, usually the opposite is true. I am certainly willing to pay more for higher quality. I also find Roon + Qobuz to be my favorite solution for now, and will not switch to Amazon unless it offers the exact same level of quality (read bit exact) at a lower price. I think this will take about a year, but of course this is just a WAG. If not, I’ll buy another year of Roon.
Then that would absolutely NOT be me (and yes we have a family prime account). I would even pay more for Qobuz then I do now for them to survive, just so they can keep giving more back to the artists. Why does everything have to be about getting more for less in this society (well in the case of Amazon HD currently less for less)? Esp in the niche world of audiophile it behooves all to see the survival of alternatives. It would be a real shame if your favorite boutique device manufacturers went out of business because the Echo plays music too so why need anything else.
As it is we are insanely spoiled by the current price of streaming. I have approx 3600 albums added to Roon from Qobuz. Lets say I replaced a 1/3rd of those with cds or downloads at approx $10 each (for easy math). That’s $10,000 or approx 58 years of streaming at $15/month. The three dollars a month saved by going to Amazon hardly puts a dent in that - about three to four titles a year.
I need Amazon HD integration (or mora qualitas, Apple Music, Spotify, KKBox, etc) badly, too.
I’m currently paying for Tidal (cause it’s one of the only 2 music service integrated with Roon), but both Tidal and Qobuz has so few Asian music (mainly Japanese and Chinese in my case) that I have to use some other music service outside Roon. But ideally I hope that i can use Roon as my only music app. (So obviously I hope the mobile function could come true soon as well.)
We have a huge number of audiophile fans here in East Asia. Actually Hi-Res is firstly introduced to this industry by a Japanese company, Sony. And Roon is also getting more and more popular here in Asia. So I’m hoping that one day Roon may pay more attention to this market here and integrate at least one platform that is friendly to us Asian people.
For Roon to be successful long term it needs to be integrated with all music services. As mentioned Roon can’t do it alone, they need the cooperation of the music services. My personal opinion is that other music services are going to come out with their own version of Roon. Wouldn’t surprise me if someone tries to buy Roon, Amazon for example. Until then enjoy Roon and all it has to offer.
Great way to support the little guys (insert facetious emoji here). I’m so tired of the corporatization of America and the world. I hope Roon never integrates Amazon or Spotify. They have enough money. What’s wrong with Tidal or Qobuz? If you can afford Roon and the equivalent gear to get the best out of it, you can afford, and should support, one of those two streaming services. Amazon, which their ‘HD’ isn’t even bit perfect, would save one a whopping a $24 a year, over Qobuz, the price of a cd and half. I hope Roon continue to do the right thing.
I think Amazon is $12.99 add on for HD if you have Prime already. Qobuz I paid for yearly so don’t recall what it worked out to but yeah probably about $12-13 now that I think about it. That’s a great deal on Tidal, but I just don’t have enough ime to listen to that much music! And yeah, with a Netflix, Hulu, and god knows what else sub it does add up.