Amazon Music and how to get true lossless bitperfect HD/Ultra HD to play

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the quality of the music that you get while streaming Amazon Music. Hopefully this will clear things up a little.

First, there are 4 main tiers of Amazon Music. You will need to subscribe to "Amazon Music Standard" or "Amazon Music Unlimited." This is their pay service. You will only get access to lossy lower quality music with "Amazon Music Prime" and "Amazon Music Free". (1)

Second, all the links in your audio chain need to support HD/HD Ultra. This includes the source, player, DAC, speaker/headphones as well as all the connections in between.

To clarify what Amazon describes as "HD and Ultra HD" is important. HD is basically CD equivalent (lossless, 16bit, 44khz). Ultra HD is anything above HD, and up to lossless 24bit/192khz. (2)

So the real question is, "how do I play lossless HD/Ultra HD content?" To answer this, it is easier to go through what DOES NOT play HD/Ultra HD first.

• The web player

• The Windows Desktop app - This is often confusing to people as they see the HD/Ultra HD icon next to the song, and the app will also tell you that it's playing these songs. The problem is that the app (or more accurately windows) sets the output to a specific bit depth and sampling rate. So if you set your output device in windows to say 16 bit 48khz, ALL songs playing in the Amazon desktop app will be resampled to that quality despite the fact that you are actually downloading different quality tracks (which is what the Amazon app reports). Also, "Exclusive mode" has nothing to do with this resampling or quality of the sound file. Exclusive mode simply means that other system sounds won't be allowed to play over the music (like say a chime that you received a new email).
  Now I'm going to talk briefly here about "upsampling" not being the same as the original audio. People argue, "just set windows to 24b/192khz and then it doesn't matter if the lower bitdepth/sampling rate tracks get upsampled." This is not true. The output of the upsampled audio is not only not bitperfect, but the actual sound does get changed due to factors such as interpolation. I won't dive into the technical details but you can read this article that goes into upsampling changes to audio including measurements: https://archimago.blogspot.com/2015/11/measurements-windows-10-audio-stack.html I will even go beyond Amazon Music and say that if you want good quality sound, you should stay out of the windows audio stack in general as the internal processing is rather terrible. This is explained more in the following article: https://nihtila.com/2017/01/16/bit-perfect-asio-drivers-to-solve-issues-with-windows-audio-quality/

• The Mac Desktop app - same issue as the Windows app. (4)

• Android Devices - Or at least 98% of them. Android devices by default are limited and resample everything to 24bit/48khz (some devices may a different default but still resampled). It's built in OS issue. I say 98% as there are some reports that a few devices can truly output higher via a USB to OTG cable and then fed into an external DAC but I have not seen a definite list and most likely your Android phone/tablet does not support it. Amazon Music's website specifically states that "At this time, external DACs are not supported on Android." (3) Of note, I spoke with somebody that reported that they were able to bitstream out with their Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 via USB OTG cable to both a Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M and Evo 150. But this would be an exception to the rule. Most likely Android devices won't work.

• Anything with a Bluetooth connection - Bluetooth does not have the bandwidth to support HD/Ultra HD streams. There is no getting around this. There are some compression codecs like LDAC but even these max out at 16bit/48khz (max bitrate of 990 kbs) but this requires a very good connection and you never truly know what you are getting as the quality can dynamically shift mid song based on signal strength and other factors. It's also difficult to tell whether the stream is going out lossy or lossless. Standard bluetooth connections will not support even CD quality PCM streams (16bit/44khz). In other words, wireless bluetooth headsets are out.

• (Arguable) Devices like the echo/Fire TV/Sonos/etc - Some "technically" support HD/Ultra HD but I don't think we should ever view a single speaker source as equivalent to 2 channels from a "practical" standpoint. Not to mention that the speakers in these cheap devices are of terrible quality. So I would argue that if your intent is high quality audio, your echo is not going to give you any appreciable sound improvement compared to streaming a lossless SD track on some cheap wired headphones (matter of fact, I would go with the SD on cheap headphones as at least you get 2 channels vs effectively mono). I have gotten mixed reports with amazon devices (somebody reported that their Fire TV Stick 4K Ultra can output bitperfect but another user reports that their 2nd gen fire tv cube and 4k Max stick resamples everything to 24b/192k) but since it only has an HDMI out, you will be restricted to a receiver and 98% of DACs don't have an HDMI input (note that the HDMI output is not i2s format).

Ok, so how do you actually listen to HD/Ultra HD? The easiest and most reliable way is to use a dedicated streamer. There are not too many of these devices that support Amazon Music Unlimited when compared to say something like Spotify or Tidal. But there are a number of manufacturers that do build multiple models that do support Amazon Music.

• Bluesound Node - Varying models with the lowest cost being the Node Nano at $300. It is a more robust device than the Wiim Mini and the biggest advantage over the WiiM Mini is that it also has USB and coaxial digital output. The analog outs are also full sized RCA plugs and not the small 3.5mm as on the WiiM. Other Wiim models have different output options as well so you probably want to compare the different models vs cost. The build quality is significantly better than the WiiM. It is simply a nicer device with a more premium feel than the WiiM. You are restricted to their bluOS controller app (but they do have desktop app in addition to mobile devices).

• NAD - There are some other devices on the market (like the Streamers from NAD) that also support HD/Ultra HD output but I am not going to discuss them here in detail as they are in the 4 figure range. They are quality products and also use the BluOS controller apps.

• WiiM- (updated 12/18/22, put back on bitperfect list) This costs $100 (often on sale at Amazon and have seen it as low as $71), which is the cheapest dedicated option by far. It is small, inexpensive, and has a toslink output that you can feed into high quality external DAC if you would prefer. It also has analog outs but if you are looking for the best sound, I always recommend an external DAC. It also supports casting via the Amazon Music app so you don't have to use their software interface if you don't want. Personal opinion on the WiiM: After owning this device for months and first putting it on the bitperfect list, only to remove it when they introduced a EQ bug with a firmware update that broke the output, and now with another firmware fix it appears to be solved, it's back. For those considering the WiiM vs another option, frankly I would go with another option. The developers do very little testing and push firmware out on an almost weekly basis. The end user is their testing environment. Often they will introduce bugs that will then need to be corrected a firmware releases later. These "bugs" are probably the reason why the BluOS app has a rating of 4.6 and the Wiim app of 4.1 in the google play app store (as of me writing this). Keep in mind that essentially all your interactions with these devices are going to be through their controller apps so that is something to consider beyond the hardware. Despite having both the WiiM and Bluesound Node in my system, I rarely play anything on the WiiM Mini. So this is an unbiased opinion from somebody that has bought both. YMMV.

• Apple products (iphone/ipad) - You can get 24bit/192khz from iOS products if you attach it to an external DAC via USB OTG cable. If played native you will only have access to 24bit/48khz max. (3)

• HEOS (Denon and Marantz) - Denon/Marantz has many of their receivers capable of Amazon Ultra HD access. These are often geared more toward home theater products and not so much two channel but they do have dedicated 2 channel units. Also, if you are looking for a combination home theater receiver as well as 2 channel listening, then this may be a good option.

• Yamaha - Yamaha supports Amazon Music via their Musiccast controller software on many of their models. Musiccast can also be controlled via Amazon Alexa.

• Dali - Their sound hubs with the optional BluOS sound modules installed. This runs on the BluOS software that Bluesound and NAD use. However, the devices only offer analog output (ie no output to an external DAC).

• Auralic - These high end streamers support Amazon but their lightening DS controller app only works on iOS.

• Bluesound Professional - They have multiple streamers and streaming amplifiers but are typically more for business use than personal audio. They run BluOS.

• Eversolo - I don't know too much about them other than they are a Chinese made streamer DAC. Their controller app has fair reviews on the google play website and Eversolo's website seems to link directly to an apk download which is rather unusual.

• Cyrus Audio - Never tried their products but they produce streamers that function off of the BluOS streamer app so it should support Amazon music.

• Roksan - Also utilizes the BluOS streaming interface.

• Shanling - Via their Eddict Controller App. Their website says it is Amazon Music compatible but I've not heard anybody personally confirm this.

• (Possibly) Cambridge Audio - According to their website, some of their streamers (such as the CXN100) is compatible with Amazon Music. However, when I actually read the unit's manual, it does not list Amazon as a compatible service.

So there is a quick rundown which I hope is helpful for people. Keep in mind that the only sure way to confirm what you are getting at the end of the day is to use a DAC that reports the actual bitdepth and sampling rate at the last analog step (and that means no further digital conversions like bluetooth). The reporting at the source (like the player or Windows app) is NOT a reliable predictor of what quality you are getting from your speakers/headphones.

(1) https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GW3PHAUCZM8L7W9L

(2) https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ref_=hp_left_v4_sib&nodeId=G8X4YJYLED87FSH2

(3) https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=3022219031

(4) https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/amazon-music-hd-with-ios-macos-windows-10-bluos-and-a-sonos-port-r848/

Last Update: 3/1/26