jdjaye

Hi All- i see the trend that all IOS devices iPhones/iPads will be USB-C and no longer support 3.5mm audio connections. My preference is for a wired headphone connection to my mobile devices. i currently use the v-moda speakeasy lightning to 3.5mm male cable for my iPhone Does anyone have a recommendation for a similar, inexpensive, USB-C to 3.5mm dac/cable? thx!

Hi all- Im excited about the upcoming Sonos S2 release, which I read somewhere is coming in May. i gather it will work on one of my Sonos Connects, so that’s a plus- I won’t need to buy a Sonos port to try it out. Although airplay on a Sonos would be convenient to me sometimes. The only high-res content, which for me means anything greater than 16/48, I have access to is in the Amazon Music HD streaming service. im looking forward to doing some comparative listening to determine if I can hear the difference between cd quality and HighRes, or find that I enjoy one more verses the other. It wouldn’t surprise me if I could not hear the difference, but it will be fun figuring that out. Anyone have recommendations for classical or jazz pieces that I can find in both “HD” and “Ultra HD” on Amazon Music?

for me, I only use wired networks in for audio distribution, but your poiny is well taken.

I read somewhere today that the new Sonos OS, which will only be supported by the newer Sonos devices, will have support for hi-res audio > 16/44. I’m please to hear that, and I plan to trade up my Sonos connect for the new Sonos Port once that is available. https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21182164/sonos-s2-announced-app-operating-system-high-res-audio-dolby-atmos

Admittedly it's Chris's website - but can you please take the debate on suffering and art into another thread and keep this thread on topic?

can you download the HD files and play them back from another application, or are they locked to Amazon’s player?

Well said, Chris! Make Art for the sake of the Art itself. (Regardless of the medium of the Art) If you can make a living at it all, the better, but do it because you love it, not to make money. In the former Soviet Union, there were state saleried artists, but they did not make much great art. Perhaps excepting the writers, who tended to end up in the gulag.

I respectfully disagree— but let’s discuss why in a different forum topic please. I don’t want to derail the main thread here which is: “what is the scope and quality of the new Amazon Music HD service and to integrate it into people’s audio systems.” And I’ll ask the folks want to discuss the value and cost and their judgements of Amazon as a corporate entity to also discuss that in another topic in the forums. Folks please let’s keep this topic, on topic- it provides valuable objective information to those who are using or considering using Amazon Music HD.

Also - from my ipad (2018), either from the internal speakers or the 3.5 mm headphone jack, the same 24/192 track is reported as playing out at 24/48

In my Philly apt for the work week I have a Yamaha RN-303 with a Marantz Cd Player and Focal 716 speakers - I also have a Gen 1 Amazon Fire TV box. The Yamaha has integrated pandora and Spotify but alas no Amazon music app. WRT the Amazon music Ultra HD= hi res- I have 2 data points to share in case they are helpful to someone in the forum: Content that Amazon says is 24/196 is transmitted via toslink from the fireTV to the Yamaha at 16/44. The same content transmitted via airplay from an iPad using the Amazon music IOS app to the Yamaha plays at 16/44. 16/44 still sounds pretty good, to me, though it seems to drain the batter of my iPad about 4X.

So far, I’m pleased with the new Amazon music service. I had the old Amazon music service for a while, but dropped it because the SQ to me didn’t seem nearly as good as my Pandora subscription. So for a radio and music discovery application, Pandora seemed better. For library listening, there was no comparison between the old Amazon music and my server based system. But now, with the new Amazon Music HD, the streamed music seems pretty comparable to my music library via the Sonos network configuration. Sonos does not support the Ultra HD Amazon music (nothing above 16/44k) but when I listened to a Ultra HD recording of a classic piece from my PC with a usb dac and headphones, I was very impressed. I haven’t done a scientific ceteris paribus A-B test yet, but I see that Amazon music has sever albums in ULtra HD - what we usually call High-Res on this site, - and am looking forward to exploring it more. PM me if you want more information about my setup or experience.

Anyone had any success in Pandora to run in “Native mode” on a RaspberryPi? By “native mode” I mean pulling the streams directly into the RaspberryPi, as opposed to streaming via WiFi or BT from another device/phone/tablet/computer?

Hi there, Mr EoT and others RPi fans! I am please to report Pi Server Success! Final config: RPi 3B+ $35 Good power supply gifted from a geek buddy $8? Rune Audio on a 16 gm Micro sdxc drive $8 500+ albums apple lossless on a 256 GB San disk usb flash drive $40 @ Costco Output via nuforce U-Dac3 usb dac $65 @ mass drop 3.5mm to RCA Y connector - $6 Amazon basics so roughly $160 cost to build Playback via Yamaha N303 receiver and old paradigm monitor 9 speakers Im just using it as a music server with web browser UI. The Yamaha has Pandora and Spotify built in plus airplay, so the only thing missing was a decent server interface. i still have not solved for good playlist Mgmt on the RPi, but for now I’m pretty happy. thanks again to Mr EoT for his guidance!

Mr EoT- Thank you so much! This is very helpful indeed, and exactly the kind of information I was hoping for! What i2s hat do you use? Thanks again, and Happy Holidays!

Hi Folks- I’m a Newbie to RaspberryPi, but having read a bunch of online faqs, I think I’m ready to try to build a RaspberryPi music server. RaspberryPi music server requirements: 1. Inputs: ALAC library on USB flash drive or external USD SSD Drive 2. Outputs: SPDIF on Coax or Toslinq 3. Control: Ipad draft architecture : 1. Main board: RaspberryPi 3-B+ 2. AudioOutput: HiFi Berry Digi+ Pro 3. Software: RuneAudio Questions for those who have done a RaspberryPi audio server before: 1. Is the RuneAudioPlayer compatible with the RaspberryPi 3-B+? 2. If not, is there another headless RaspberryPi audioplayer I should use? 3. Is there a better RaspberryPi version to use for this than the 3-B+? 4. Do I need an OS to run Runeaudio on top of? 5. Is there any advantage to buying a 400GB Sdxc card and storing my music library on the same card as the OS? 6. What else can go wrong with my plan? 7. Is there a better way to build a low cost (<$100) RaspberryPi music server that meets my requirements. Thanks all for your help and advice!