Integration of Amazon Music High Resolution

I am currently on a trial of Roon, Audirvana, Qobuz, and Amazon HD. Running everything on a headless mac mini with external USB DAC controlled by an iPad. I have no stored digital music whatsoever. My only interest is in HD streaming. I suspect that more people will be moving to the streaming-only approach in the future as the quality and selection keep getting better and prices keep decreasing. That’s my guess anyway.

So far I love the Roon UI and all the connected stuff it brings to the experience (lyrics, notes, etc), however US 120/year is expensive on top of already paying 14.99+ for HD streaming. I think that if Amazon provides a way to allow their music streaming software to run on a PC/mac connected to a USB DAC and releases an app to control such a “server” remotely (i.e., free Amazon UHD Remote app), they will not need to integrate with Roon or anyone else. They will quickly dominate the UHD music streaming world and Roon will be left with nothing but curating old ripped CD collections and purchased music.

I think Roon’s very survival at this point depends on them begging Amazon to permit integration of the Amazon UHD service on their SW platform.

If integration does not occur (and it will not if Amazon believes they have a path forward to corner the market), then about 1 year from now there may be a lot of very disappointed people wishing they could get their Roon lifetime subscriptions refunded. It is a shame, and cruel, but the nature of big capitalism. They will also offer all this for 12.99/mo.

I’ll probably stick with Roon + Qobuz for the next 12 mos because it seriously delivers the goods and there is no other option I can find, but I think big changes are coming in the UHD streaming world over the next year. A small streaming box (or PC/Mac) and an iPhone/iPad remote is the future says my crystal ball… :wink:

Maybe. But let me give you a counterargument.

Google just shut down its music service and you’d expect they would have done better. Audiophiles haven’t been excited by Amazon. Regular folks are on Spotify or Apple Music. Amazon’s Fire Tablets haven’t made a dent in iPad sales and Amazon’s phone is dead. Sure, we watch some Amazon Prime video, but it’s nothing like HBO, Hulu, or Netflix and they have all the money in the world to throw at it. And if you want to see how incredibly brilliant Jeff Bezos is, check out Blue Origin, they are whipping Space-X’s…oh wait. It seems like in all these cases, Bezos just wants to be a player, not dominate the market. Add to this that Amazon is TERRIBLE in the UI department and has shown little propensity for developing desktop apps.

Qobuz had 45% year over year growth and just got $11 million in cash, which being that they are a much smaller and more nimble company is going to make a difference for them. Tidal, meanwhile, is apparently going to be integrated into Teslas, which gives a tech-savvy, wealthier client base reason to explore them.

Too little too late from Amazon.

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Actually, I agree. I would have thought Apple would have been the one poised to make the “UHD for the masses” breakthrough rather than Amazon, but somehow their streaming didn’t seem to really take off and Amazon got a leg in. I’ll let these two giants fight it out.

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You do realise that you cannot get bit perfect or exclusive control of your DAC with Amazon music. The service is a sham and a land grab nothing more, to get users into Prime and sell more Alexa crap. Dont see many hifi companies queuing up to add it. Any one serious about music playback must see this for what it is. Roon does not need to partner with companies that don’t care about the basic principle of maintaining sound quality.

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Not necessarily. Being the cheapest doesn’t mean being the best. I don’t have a cheap stereo system either, but the best I can afford. And for precisely this reason, I also need a good streaming provider through whom I can also buy the albums I love. I have found the ideal pair for this: Roon and Qobuz. Jeff Bezos should hear his completely unstructured music offer himself. The few dollars less a month are (for me) no reason to change.

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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.

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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.

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I am more than happy with lifetime Roon plus annual Tidal ($99.99) and Qobuz ($149.99). I’m not sure why we need a 3rd streaming service.

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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.

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A post was split to a new topic: Qobuz giving more back to the artists than other services

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.

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That makes more sense to me than adding Amazon. Add streaming services according to geographic locations and language.

Source link?

A post was merged into an existing topic: High resolution audio from Amazon

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.

Thanks

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I disagree. Roon does not need lower end streaming services. Roon is a high-end product and should stick with high-end streaming services, IMHO.

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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.

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Isn’t Amazon $14.99 per month? I pay $12.50 for Qobuz and $8.33 for Tidal. I see no reason at all for Amazon.

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