Lumin Amazon HiRes Audio Streaming

W9TR said:
Hey Peter, what’s under that big heat sink? Inquiring minds want to know. It’s sure not an Atmega 169. :)
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We use a brand of processor that is very little known nowadays. We also use a FPGA on most models.
 
nicoff said:
Not sure if that is supposed good or bad.
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For SQ - this is usually a good thing for users because of the lower noise and power requirements which also translate to power supply noise. Some computer audio users, and some manufacturers as well, need to underclock their x86 CPU (and got into a debate with Roon Labs COO which you can still read on Roon forum) to improve SQ.

For functionality - this presents as a challenge for development as Neko Audio correctly pointed out. Some requested features like DSP are impossible to do on current Lumin hardware - we can only leave that to Roon Core. I agree with the Roon philosophy that it's best to leave heavy processing out of audio devices anyway.
 
They sure love Qobuz. They hate MQA and dismiss Tidal out of hand. They do not understand how Windows audio works and are spreading misinformation about it. They sound like owners of an independent bookstore circa 10 years ago predicting Amazon’s demise because of lack of customer service.
 
W9TR said:
They sure love Qobuz. They hate MQA and dismiss Tidal out of hand. They do not understand how Windows audio works and are spreading misinformation about it. They sound like owners of an independent bookstore circa 10 years ago predicting Amazon’s demise because of lack of customer service.
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As I understand it, there seems to be a lot of hoop jumping to get Amazon Ultra HD to play through a high-end rig unless you attach a laptop or desktop directly to your DAC via USB. Even then, you have to use Windows’ upsampler, which does not automatically rate switch, meaning you don’t get bit perfect unless you are playing a file that matches the rate already set. Is this correct?
 
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asindc said:
Unless I missed it (quite possible), I didn't see on that page where Windows allows for auto-rate switching.
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Perhaps I misunderstood your question. Are you talking about Windows upsampling? What is "auto-rate switching"? Maintaining native sample rates?
 
For playing music on Windows, when the software in Exclusive Mode, WASAPI / ASIO driver, and configuration are done correctly it is usually possible to bypass the OS mixer (which degrade sound quality) and have auto rate switching. I think this is what AJ is talking about.

For Amazon Music, however, according to some forum discussions people found that its Windows software currently lacks the required Exclusive Mode - which is standard on the Tidal and Qobuz desktop apps and Roon. Without this feature SQ is affected. To workaround this limitation the current forum recommendation seems to be to configure Windows to upsample everything to the highest rate a DAC accepts. I think this is the problem Anthony is saying. This is such a fundamental mandatory feature for high quality music playback I expect Amazon to add it sooner or later. After all if people are not demanding the highest quality they're better off using Spotify which is less expensive.
 
wklie said:
For playing music on Windows, when the software in Exclusive Mode, WASAPI / ASIO driver, and configuration are done correctly it is usually possible to bypass the OS mixer (which degrade sound quality) and have auto rate switching. I think this is what AJ is talking about.

For Amazon Music, however, according to some forum discussions people found that its Windows software currently lacks the required Exclusive Mode - which is standard on the Tidal and Qobuz desktop apps and Roon. Without this feature SQ is affected. To workaround this limitation the current forum recommendation seems to be to configure Windows to upsample everything to the highest rate a DAC accepts. I think this is the problem Anthony is saying. This is such a fundamental mandatory feature for high quality music playback I expect Amazon to add it sooner or later. After all if people are not demanding the highest quality they're better off using Spotify which is less expensive.
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Yes, this is what I’m referring to.
 
Well, regarding W10 resampling "audio" SQ, this sort of evidence is suffcient for me https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=114138.msg940216#msg940216. Obviously YMMV.

Peter, thanks and good luck, hopefully Amazon can be incorporated by Lumin at some point, for ease of use by audiophiles. They (Amazon) are the 900 pound gorilla in the streaming market and it would make sense for all avalable options to be accessible by users.

cheers,

AJ
 
Since the only current viable means to play Amazon Music HD to Lumin is via AirPlay, Firmware 11.7 improves AirPlay playback by significantly reducing audio dropout in less-than-perfect WiFi network.
 
Here's what a user said about using AirPlay of Amazon Music to Lumin:
Worked perfect as you know music through the Lumin player sounds really good!!

Yeah a proper solution would be good as Amazon music is only going to get bigger. I’ve just cancelled my Tidal family subscription for Amazon and saved myself almost £200.
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Audiophile Style (formerly Computer Audiophile) does an initial review of Amazon Music HD: https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits...macos-windows-10-bluos-and-a-sonos-port-r848/

The initial takeaway: "Given that these are early days for Amazon Music HD, I expect things will improve. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. Communication with Amazon has been nearly impossible and the company has shown zero interest in the consumers of its HD tier. There isn't a platform I know of that works perfect with Amazon Music HD, although BluOS likely has the best shot at getting things right. I need to get a Bluesound Node 2i for further Bluesound testing. For now, all other platforms are severely limited in either capability or usability with Amazon Music HD."
 
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