I cancelled Spitify Premium today. Took some doing. They don’t make it simple.
I started Amazon Music today. Right off the bat, I can tell its not user friendly like Spotify was. Another thing is it doesnt auto play the next track on an album, so i have to tell alexa to play the next track & its not even the same album. wtf?
I cancelled Spotify because it keeps failing to play songs, stopping in mid play, or not playing at all. Since Prime Video works flawlessly, I thought Amazon Music might work the same.
Weird… I have been using it (Amazon HD) for almost two years and have never had any problems whatsoever with it Play a album and it autoplays that album and then picks a similar artist and continues. I can turn it on or start a album at 3AM and 24hrs later it is still playing. Something in settings? Where are you located? Is this the desktop app? phone app? More info could not hurt.
AMHD plays next song ok for me. Maybe a setting? Sound is better than Spotify and library is large. Only downside difference for me is much poorer, fussy search function. Otherwise I’m liking it fine.
Amazon HD has been great for me. The algorithm seems to be getting better, too, because it is suggesting good stuff now. Never hangs and always sounds great.
I just have to go to album & then it plays. When i asked Alexa to play an album, it only played the 1st track. After fiddling with it a couple of minutes I figured it out.
Spitify seems more user friendly, but Im sick of the stoppage issue. No such issue with stoppage on Amazon, a couple pauses, but no stoppage, even after playing for several hours.
It would also appear Amazon somehow uses less memory & storage space. Loading Amazon & deleting Spotify has net me 6 or 7 percent more memory.
Next, I can’t say Amazon sounds better than Spotify, but I can say there is a difference in sound. Also Amazon is $1 cheaper.
Using the same songs, intial impressions, right away Amazon has more top end sparkle. The midrange on Amazon seems a bit thinner/less forward but possibly more detailed than Spotify. I havent been able to listen at reference level yet to be able to really get the low end, but my Tannoy’s don’t need to be loud to show you bass is there. At casual listening level the bass on Amazon seems to have a bit less punch, but like the mids, the bass has more detail.
What I feel like, is Spotify & Amazon are two different mixes of the exact same track. Like CLA did an ITB mix with his SSL plugins, & Bob Clearmountain did it on his Neve 8068 console. Which one is which?
Im a few days into Amazon Music now. At first everything that came up that I wanted to hear was in HD or UHD. Now Im finding a bunch of stuff says HD, but when it starts playing it says SD. So what exactly is the big deal about Amazon HD if most of the songs/albums are actually SD? Im playing Telarc’s 1812 Overture right now, but it says SD.
I have noticed that AMHD plays at a lower volume than YTM or Spotify. Seems everytime there’s an update it gets worse, not only in volume but also quality.
Less spaciousness and vocal clarity even after I adjust my amp vol. up.
Anyone else noticing this?
PS tried Qobuz before…great quality, but too many holes in my preferred catalog. May have to reconsider and just supplement with Spotify.
This is not meant to be silly - but have you checked the volume slider in the app itself? I’ve noticed the same thing randomly and it has always been that some how the slider inside the AMHD desktop app has been adjusted down.
Had to look it up as they have the vol slider hidden behind the speaker icon now.
It was down to less than 50% That took care of the problem. Big thank you for the tip!!!
I always check settings on the Amazon desktop app after any sort of system update or when there is a player update. There have been a few occasions where the volume and stream quality were set to “default” values where the volume was at 50% and quality was set to Standard. Always make sure the latter is set to “Best Available”.
The algorithm is getting better and better for me. I have spent most of the weekend listening time going with the playlist the app is serving up. It almost seems like the AI they are using is getting more precise in what it is offering. Still very happy with the service.
@Raptor168 Thanks, I intend to ck from now on…just didn’t occur to me at the time since the vol. is hidden. It was a good reminder of how attenuation in earlier parts of the chain can affect not only volume but overall quality as well. I also
spent several hours of Enjoyable listening, and do agree their suggestions seem
to be getting better. I still use Spotify as well…their search function and recommendations are the best, imo. Have a great day.
As you guys know, I have been using my LG V40 cell as a streaming device in the bedroom system and have been having great success with it. Things got even better when I recently hardwired it to the M200 DAC using an Audioquest Cinnamon USB cable and a Wyred 4 Sound USB re-clocker. Last night, things took an even more exciting turn.
I noticed that while searching for new music, Dolby Atmos selections started coming up. I didn’t really notice them before when I was streaming over BT/LDAC, but they are coming up now! Naturally I got curious so I decided to try this
Wow. The difference was actually noticeable. There was more depth, separation and “air” in the presentation, if that makes sense. Low end hits just a little better and all in all, the music just sounded better. I then decided to try another selection to see if the result was consistent. So I found this and gave it a listen
Fantastic! This Atmos stuff appears to be for real! I really like it. Makes me wonder if the Atmos format would be available if I went for something like a Bluesound streaming device. Can someone who has a Bluesound chime in and confirm or deny this?
@Raptor168 Fun. I like the Dolby sometimes as well. It’s not on the desktop version, but is avail. on android ie. phone and kindle, which works well plugged into my BF2 etc. Amazon playing Amazon, lol. I find some pieces sound great, as you described and others which seem rather artificial. Have fun!
