With the recent announcement of Amazon HD music support I was wondering if your playback source effects if music is HD or not. I stream my music via wi-fi from my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and am not sure if playback is in true HD or do I need an external converter. Thanks for your help.
Answered
HD Music Playback Help
+1Best answer by Ken_Griffiths
With the recent announcement of Amazon HD music support I was wondering if your playback source effects if music is HD or not. I stream my music via wi-fi from my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and am not sure if playback is in true HD or do I need an external converter. Thanks for your help.
It will of course depend if the audio source is 16-bit (HD) or 24-bit (UltraHD) but as/if you are playing the audio via the Sonos App, the controller device (Samsung Galaxy in your case) is not relevant as the Sonos App is just a ‘remote’ - music is streamed direct to your chosen speaker(s)/room(s) direct from the Amazon servers…the Sonos devices that support 24-bit audio are:
- Roam
- Arc
- Beam (both generations),
- Five
- Sub (all generations),
- Move
- One
- One SL
- Port
- Amp
- SYMFONISK Bookshelf
- SYMFONISK Table Lamp
- Play:5 (Gen 2)
- Connect (Gen 2) (Summer 2017–> onwards)
- Connect:Amp (Gen 2)
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With the recent announcement of Amazon HD music support I was wondering if your playback source effects if music is HD or not. I stream my music via wi-fi from my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and am not sure if playback is in true HD or do I need an external converter. Thanks for your help.
It will of course depend if the audio source is 16-bit (HD) or 24-bit (UltraHD) but as/if you are playing the audio via the Sonos App, the controller device (Samsung Galaxy in your case) is not relevant as the Sonos App is just a ‘remote’ - music is streamed direct to your chosen speaker(s)/room(s) direct from the Amazon servers…the Sonos devices that support 24-bit audio are:
- Roam
- Arc
- Beam (both generations),
- Five
- Sub (all generations),
- Move
- One
- One SL
- Port
- Amp
- SYMFONISK Bookshelf
- SYMFONISK Table Lamp
- Play:5 (Gen 2)
- Connect (Gen 2) (Summer 2017–> onwards)
- Connect:Amp (Gen 2)
+1One more question. Has the update for Amazon HD been released yet? I just subscribed to it and when playing through the Sonos app I do not see any HD or Ultra HD tracks available. Yet when I go through the Amazon music app I do see them.
One more question. Has the update for Amazon HD been released yet? I just subscribed to it and when playing through the Sonos app I do not see any HD or Ultra HD tracks available. Yet when I go through the Amazon music app I do see them.
Perhaps try the Ed Sheeran ‘Equals’ album, that shows here as UltraHD on a Sonos One stereo pair and it shows as Atmos playback on the Sonos Arc.
Note: it may take a short time to switch between 16-bit (HD) to 24-bit (UltraHD) and I believe Network conditions can (may) play a part in the format delivered too.
One more question. Has the update for Amazon HD been released yet? I just subscribed to it and when playing through the Sonos app I do not see any HD or Ultra HD tracks available. Yet when I go through the Amazon music app I do see them.
Within the Sonos app you will not see tracks labelled as HD or Ultra HD when searching for music.
To see the HD or Ultra HD badge go to the “Now Playing” screen after you have initiated Amazon Music playback from within the Sonos app.
One more question. Has the update for Amazon HD been released yet? I just subscribed to it and when playing through the Sonos app I do not see any HD or Ultra HD tracks available. Yet when I go through the Amazon music app I do see them.
Perhaps try the Ed Sheeran ‘Equals’ album, that shows here as UltraHD on a Sonos One stereo pair and it shows as Atmos playback on the Sonos Arc.
Note: it may take a short time to switch between 16-bit (HD) to 24-bit (UltraHD) and I believe Network conditions can (may) play a part in the format delivered too.
All of my Sonos equipment is compatible for UHD and I have an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. When I play the Ed Sheeran Equals album it displays in the Now Playing window from within the Sonos app as only “HD”. I have yet to get an UHD icon for any Amazon Music Unlimited tracks played via my Move and Play:5s (Gen 2). But I can confirm my home theater setup with my Arc/sub/One SLs will show “Atmos” in Now Playing when I play Atmos tracks from my Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Just talked with Sonos support while they did a diagnostic and they confirmed I am actually getting UHD from my Move and Play:5s (Gen 2) but there are apparently display issues with Now Playing that need to be worked out…
+1Same here Jimmy. I only see Dolby Atmos and no HD indicators. Also, when using the Sonos app I cannot find Senjitsu by Iron Maiden. But with the Amazon Music app it comes right up.
Same here Jimmy. I only see Dolby Atmos and no HD indicators. Also, when using the Sonos app I cannot find Senjitsu by Iron Maiden. But with the Amazon Music app it comes right up.
Have you tried playing tracks that are just available in HD or Ultra HD?
The spelling for the album looks to be “Senjutsu” ?!
One more question. Has the update for Amazon HD been released yet? I just subscribed to it and when playing through the Sonos app I do not see any HD or Ultra HD tracks available. Yet when I go through the Amazon music app I do see them.
Perhaps try the Ed Sheeran ‘Equals’ album, that shows here as UltraHD on a Sonos One stereo pair and it shows as Atmos playback on the Sonos Arc.
Note: it may take a short time to switch between 16-bit (HD) to 24-bit (UltraHD) and I believe Network conditions can (may) play a part in the format delivered too.
All of my Sonos equipment is compatible for UHD and I have an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. When I play the Ed Sheeran Equals album it displays in the Now Playing window from within the Sonos app as only “HD”. I have yet to get an UHD icon for any Amazon Music Unlimited tracks played via my Move and Play:5s (Gen 2). But I can confirm my home theater setup with my Arc/sub/One SLs will show “Atmos” in Now Playing when I play Atmos tracks from my Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Just talked with Sonos support while they did a diagnostic and they confirmed I am actually getting UHD from my Move and Play:5s (Gen 2) but there are apparently display issues with Now Playing that need to be worked out…
That’s interesting about the possible display issues, although looking at the respective bandwidth being used they appear correct for myself at least.
I guess there might possibly be some ‘teething’ issues with the ‘badge’ display on the ‘Now Playing’ screen, with certain Sonos setups - I don’t have a Play:5 (gen 2) to help test some of the things mentioned here, but I presume they will get sorted in the not too distant future.
I’m still wondering aswell, if network conditions LAN/WAN (for some) might also prove to be an issue with the streaming services? I’m sure I read somewhere something about that online. I just can’t find where I read it, but rather than have higher quality audio dropout, I would personally prefer to receive standard/HD audio in its place that continues without interruption. (My ears 
cannot tell the difference in most cases anyway).
I guess there might possibly be some ‘teething’ issues with the ‘badge’ display on the ‘Now Playing’ screen, with certain Sonos setups - I don’t have a Play:5 (gen 2) to help test some of the things mentioned here, but I presume they will get sorted in the not too distant future.
I’m still wondering aswell, if network conditions LAN/WAN (for some) might also prove to be an issue with the streaming services? I’m sure I read somewhere something about that online. I just can’t find where I read it, but rather than have higher quality audio dropout, I would personally prefer to receive standard/HD audio in its place that continues without interruption. (My ears cannot tell the difference in most cases anyway).
I vaguely recall reading something similar Ken as I troubleshooted my issue.
Personally, I would like it if the User was able to select different audio qualities within the Sonos app, rather than it being defaulted to the best available. Some songs sound terrible in Dolby Atmos and I’d rather have the HD/Ultra HD equivalent, or as you mention Ken, if people are experiencing audio dropouts at higher quality, they could lower the quality themselves to see if that stabilises their stream.
In a blind test, I doubt I could tell the difference between SD/HD/Ultra HD, but if it’s available in the latter then that’s what I want lol.
In a blind test, I doubt I could tell the difference between SD/HD/Ultra HD, but if it’s available in the latter then that’s what I want lol.
😂 That’s pretty much what I told Sonos when I spoke to them earlier today and we were doing a diagnostic over the phone whole I was playing a track from Ed Sheeran’s Equals album. Since I am already paying for it, I would like to get UHD since my equipment supports it. Btw, moments before the call i tested my download speed and it was just over 84 mbps. Like I stated earlier, Sonos confirmed I was actually receing UHD. I was basically told they are aware of some display issues and are looking into it.
Btw, moments before the call i tested my download speed and it was just over 84 mbps. Like I stated earlier, Sonos confirmed I was actually receing UHD. I was basically told they are aware of some display issues and are looking into it.
I’ve sent Sonos a couple of diagnostics so will see what they come back with, if it is a display issue or something else, as I can’t get UHD on a One stereo pair with Sub (gen2), but it’s fine without the Sub.
My internet connection is 700Mbps+ but whilst your internet connection can be great, the Sonos speakers can still have a hard time talking to each other. I’m on SonosNet and they all appear Green in the network matrix, so WiFi interference shouldn’t be an issue here but we will see.
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