Old Onkyo

Old Onkyo

Audioholic General
I afraid to ask because it might cost me money.

Listening to Amazon Music through Firestick. Track says 24 bit, information says my capacity is 16 bits.

How can I listen to 24 bit?
Is there a noticeable difference in sound quality?

I did a search and read a few threads, got real confusing real fast!

Thanks for any help.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
The Firestick is a the source from Amazon. (EDIT)...
Directly from Amazon's website, it does not support ULTRA HD audio (24-bit) just HD audio (16-bit).
"Alexa-enabled Echo devices (2nd generation and later), Fire TVs and Fire Tablets all support HD quality audio. The Echo Studio, Echo Link, and Echo Amp support Ultra HD quality audio."

So, you need a device which can receive and decode their Ultra HD audio tracks.

Look at this website for some additional information...

What will you be playing it back on? Do you have a good audio system which will benefit from the increase sound quality?
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I doubt there's any significant difference that you can hear if you upgrade to gear that can handle it. You can always take one of the tests, you could see first if you can hear the difference between say a high bitrate mp3 type codec and cd-quality, which you should be able to do such a test easily enough. If you can figure out a way to have your system handle 24/96 type files, then you could add that to a test (if you search there are a few ways of going about that).

In the meantime I'd steer you towards what Archimago did:
 
Old Onkyo

Old Onkyo

Audioholic General
The Firestick is a the source from Amazon. (EDIT)...
Directly from Amazon's website, it does not support ULTRA HD audio (24-bit) just HD audio (16-bit).
"Alexa-enabled Echo devices (2nd generation and later), Fire TVs and Fire Tablets all support HD quality audio. The Echo Studio, Echo Link, and Echo Amp support Ultra HD quality audio."

So, you need a device which can receive and decode their Ultra HD audio tracks.

Look at this website for some additional information...

What will you be playing it back on? Do you have a good audio system which will benefit from the increase sound quality?
I have a 1st generation echo dot hooked up to the cd input, and a Firestick 4K connected to the media player input of a Denon 4500.
 
Old Onkyo

Old Onkyo

Audioholic General
I doubt there's any significant difference that you can hear if you upgrade to gear that can handle it. You can always take one of the tests, you could see first if you can hear the difference between say a high bitrate mp3 type codec and cd-quality, which you should be able to do such a test easily enough. If you can figure out a way to have your system handle 24/96 type files, then you could add that to a test (if you search there are a few ways of going about that).

In the meantime I'd steer you towards what Archimago did:
Great info, thanks Lovin’ now I can find something else to worry about.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Fwiw I listened to one of their 24 bit 96khz streams and it sounded worse than my tips from the original disc. May be limited to one album, but that made me cancel the service.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
I have a 1st generation echo dot hooked up to the cd input, and a Firestick 4K connected to the media player input of a Denon 4500.
So, you have nothing which supports 24-bit audio.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Fwiw I listened to one of their 24 bit 96khz streams and it sounded worse than my tips from the original disc. May be limited to one album, but that made me cancel the service.
Yup. Same here. I found it with more than one album too.

It sounds better than the basic free version but my cd rips sound very obviously better than the highest bitrate (which I can do on my pc) HD Amazon version. That's why I canceled as well.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Echoi Dot wouldn't be my go-to for high quality audio- I tried it with mine and compared it with CD, Pandora and my music server that has everything in .wav- I thought it sounded pretty bad.
 
JerryLove

JerryLove

Audioholic Samurai
Listening to Amazon Music through Firestick. Track says 24 bit, information says my capacity is 16 bits.

How can I listen to 24 bit?
Is there a noticeable difference in sound quality?
First let us address what the tech means. 16-bit sound has 96db of dynamic range (the difference in volume between the quietest sound and loudest).

So if the noise floor (the quietest sound you can hear because of ambient noise) was 40db, then 16-bit matched to the noise floor would not be able to get louder than 136db. (that's *really* loud... like, you've lost your hearing loud).

24-bit has 145db of range... so with minimum at 40db, you'd have a max sound of 185db (your speakers died as they caused you organ damage).

About the only spot this makes a real-world difference is if the person mastering didn't get the level correct. If, for example, it was mastered with a mic that send sound at +30db, then your 96db of range becomes 66db of range and you start to worry about clipping/compression.

But this is more a reason to master at 24bit. Once you are making your distribution, this is easy to avoid.

So: no. You will not hear a difference because of the bit depth unless the recording is done poorly to begin with.

Might they use different average loudness algorithms? Might there be other changes? That depends on the company making the stream.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
What supports 24 bit audio?
The Echo Studio, Echo Link, and Echo Amp support Ultra HD quality (24-bit) audio.

Those are the only two Amazon Echo products which support Ultra HD, or 24-bit, audio. Check their website for specifics of any other products which may also support ultra HD audio.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
I afraid to ask because it might cost me money.

Listening to Amazon Music through Firestick. Track says 24 bit, information says my capacity is 16 bits.

How can I listen to 24 bit?
Is there a noticeable difference in sound quality?

I did a search and read a few threads, got real confusing real fast!

Thanks for any help.
Have a look at the following article:

 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Fwiw I listened to one of their 24 bit 96khz streams and it sounded worse than my tips from the original disc. May be limited to one album, but that made me cancel the service.
I wonder if it was true 24 bit, or if it was just upsampled from 16 bit (which is pure marketing at its finest).
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
First let us address what the tech means. 16-bit sound has 96db of dynamic range (the difference in volume between the quietest sound and loudest).

So if the noise floor (the quietest sound you can hear because of ambient noise) was 40db, then 16-bit matched to the noise floor would not be able to get louder than 136db. (that's *really* loud... like, you've lost your hearing loud).

24-bit has 145db of range... so with minimum at 40db, you'd have a max sound of 185db (your speakers died as they caused you organ damage).

About the only spot this makes a real-world difference is if the person mastering didn't get the level correct. If, for example, it was mastered with a mic that send sound at +30db, then your 96db of range becomes 66db of range and you start to worry about clipping/compression.

But this is more a reason to master at 24bit. Once you are making your distribution, this is easy to avoid.

So: no. You will not hear a difference because of the bit depth unless the recording is done poorly to begin with.

Might they use different average loudness algorithms? Might there be other changes? That depends on the company making the stream.
Just to restate your point in slightly different technical terms.......At 16 bit mastering, you are more likely to "run out of bits", which would produce severe distortion and audible artifacts.
 
JerryLove

JerryLove

Audioholic Samurai
Just to restate your point in slightly different technical terms.......At 16 bit mastering, you are more likely to "run out of bits", which would produce severe distortion and audible artifacts.
It would be like a bad hot master
 
Auditor55

Auditor55

Audioholic General
I afraid to ask because it might cost me money.

Listening to Amazon Music through Firestick. Track says 24 bit, information says my capacity is 16 bits.

How can I listen to 24 bit?
Is there a noticeable difference in sound quality?

I did a search and read a few threads, got real confusing real fast!

Thanks for any help.
I don't know why Amazon offer UHD music with very little support from their own devices.
 
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