People argue, 'just set windows to 24b/192khz and then it doesn't matter if the lower bitdeph/sampling rate tracks get upsampled.' This is not true. Now I'm going to talk briefly here about 'upsampling' not being the same as the original audio. 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). Also, 'Exclusive mode' has nothing to do with this resampling or quality of the sound file. 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). The problem is that the app (or more accurately windows) sets the output to a specific bit depth and sampling rate.

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. 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. Ultra HD is anything above HD, and up to lossless 24bit/192khz. HD is basically CD equivalent (lossless, 16bit, 44khz). To clarify what Amazon describes as 'HD and Ultra HD' is important. This includes the source, player, DAC, speaker/headphones as well as all the connections in between. Second, all the links in your audio chain need to support HD/HD Ultra.

You will only get access to lossy lower quality music with 'Amazon Music Prime' and 'Amazon Music Free'. You will need to subscribe to 'Amazon Music Unlimited.' This is their pay service. Hopefully this will clear things up a little.įirst, there are 3 tiers of Amazon Music. There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the quality of the music that you get while streaming Amazon Music. Amazon Music and how to get true lossless bitperfect HD/Ultra HD to play

Amazon ultra hd music