Whats more, the BluOS iOS app says CD or HR based on the music being streamed. When streaming high resolution music from Amazon, music that Amazon calls Ultra HD, the NAD says HD. Selecting DISP on the C 658 remote scrolls through some information including screen that says "Quality." When streaming CD quality music from Amazon, music that Amazon calls HD, the NAD says CD. I say almost because there is one screen on the main physical display of the C 658 that offers a bit of information but it's confusing. Streaming Amazon Music HD through the NAD C 658 running BluOS was a similar experience to the Pulse 2i in that almost no indication of music format was given.
The sound quality from the Pulse 2i is terrific, but that's a story for another day and review. I have no idea if the audio is bit perfect as the Pulse 2i doesn't feature a digital output for me to connect an analyzing device. Via the Amazon Music HD desktop app, I can see this album is only available at 24/192, so I can only guess that's what's streaming to the Pulse 2i. This HR logo only appears once the music has started playing. Using Neil Young's Greatest Hits as a test album, both available versions on Amazon Music HD indicated HR when played via the BluOS iOS app. Like most services, there are multiple versions of albums. Streaming music to the Pulse 2i speaker, the only indication about music format a listener has is a little logo that says either CD or HR (screenshots below). Using the BluOS app for iOS I easily added Amazon Music HD to the list of music sources. I have an NAD C 658 DAC and a Bluesound Pulse 2i speaker. Let's start with one of the few platforms to integrate Amazon Music HD into HiFi products, BluOS.
Thus, I'm going to dive deep into Amazon Music HD to show people how to get the best sound quality from the service and what platforms to steer clear of, if sound quality is critical. Many audiophiles are willing to suffer a bit with respect to usability, if the payoff is better sound quality. However, I'm not going to focus on usability in this article.
The interface, to me, is a work in progress and I hope a ton of progress will be made. I decided to gather up some devices, run some tests, and write down the current status of using Amazon Music HD. Others have expressed frustration over getting music to output to a DAC without running it through a virtual spaghetti of operating system audio paths. Some have said the sound is different than other services, possibly even louder. The results have been all over the board.
Now that Amazon Music HD has been live for about one month, many in the Audiophile Style community have had a chance to test it on numerous platforms.
0 kommentar(er)
