Amazon Music rolls out a lossless streaming tier that Spotify and Apple can’t match

[mgraves]

You still have to subscribe to the service and pay them 15 dollars or pounds or euros etc per month. It would be in Amazon's interests to attract more users. It might upset their official partners though.

Note that Roon is not on the list of partners. They only want to deal with companies that will pay their ante and abide by their non-disclosure agreement.

[slartibartfast]

Note that Roon is not on the list of partners. They only want to deal with companies that will pay their ante and abide by their non-disclosure agreement.

A bit like MQA then.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[mgraves]

A bit like MQA then.

I suppose so. I'm not a believer, nor a fan. Although, I have auditioned a Meridien system in a friends home. It was outstanding.

With respect to MQA, I appreciate that's it's technically very clever. I just don't think that there's merit in extremely high sample rates for the delivery mechanism.

[Julf]

With respect to MQA, I appreciate that's it's technically very clever.

Is it?

[Wombat]

Is it?

At least it is a clever way of encrypting a bit reduced PCM signal and call it something fantastic new while creating extra incomes on several steps including licensing of capable MQA hardware.

[mgraves]

At least it is a clever way of encrypting a bit reduced PCM signal and call it something fantastic new while creating extra incomes on several steps including licensing of capable MQA hardware.

Actually, I think it is clever in the way that it presents plain vanilla Red Book 16 bit PCM to existing tech, while encoding all the supposed magic into the 8 bits from 17-24. It's a kind of steganographic encoding.

The data that makes up all the ultrasonic stuff is encoded using lossy compression. I simply don't think that all that stuff is necessary in the delivery channel. It makes no difference to my 53 year old auditory system.

[Wombat]

Actually, I think it is clever in the way that it presents plain vanilla Red Book 16 bit PCM to existing tech, while encoding all the supposed magic into the 8 bits from 17-24. It's a kind of steganographic encoding.

The data that makes up all the ultrasonic stuff is encoded using lossy compression. I simply don't think that all that stuff is necessary in the delivery channel. It makes no difference to my 53 year old auditory system.

I am also convinced no one really needs more than 16bits for playback and hearing highs above 20kHz in music is wishfull thinking even for younger people.
The encrypted ~17/96 MQA compresses worse as if you simply offer a 17/96 flac without MQA sauce. The only magic is that it forces some non-linear filter and lousy upsampling on playback in the hardware.
MQA was meant to protect and DRM ordinary music. Bandwith savings in the days of 4k is no longer a reason.

[mgraves]

I am also convinced no one really needs more than 16bits for playback and hearing highs above 20kHz in music is wishfull thinking even for younger people.
The encrypted ~17/96 MQA compresses worse as if you simply offer a 17/96 flac without MQA sauce. The only magic is that it forces some non-linear filter and lousy upsampling on playback in the hardware.
MQA was meant to protect and DRM ordinary music. Bandwith savings in the days of 4k is no longer a reason.

Yes. It's clever. Deviously so.

[amcluesent]

I see some peeps are hardware modding Echo Dots to bring out an S/PDIF feed - https://hackaday.io/project/162309-spdif-from-echo-dot The 3rd Gen Dot should be able to handle the 'HD' streams. so taking the S/PDIF into the Transporter's DAC ought to be doable.