You do know that all that Amazon HD offers is CD quality streams, right?

No this is incorrect, an Amazon HD subscription includes UltraHD (their term) although some is not playable through Sonos hardware.

“HD tracks have a bit depth of 16-bits, a minimum sample rate of 44.1 kHz (also referred to as CD-quality), and an average bitrate of 850 kbps. Ultra HD tracks have a bit depth of 24 bits, sample rates ranging from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, and an average bitrate of 3730 kbps.”

Sure. But that is called Ultra HD. Amazon has on their own redefined HD to include CD quality streams is my point, and it would be fun to find people that find it to be superior, being HD. Even when and where it works, as it must on even Sonos S1.

@attacama40, Have you tried it yourself? Whether others can or can’t hear a difference, they don’t have your setup, your unique room acoustics or your ears. It’s what you hear, or think you hear, that matters. Then decide if the extra cost is worth it. 

For sure but was wandering if anyone out there had the before and after and could make a judgement.

It struck me as the sort of the variable that folks may have a strong opinion on .. good or bad.

I read a lot that says Hi Res Audio is an interesting notion but practically not noticable and wandered if people really can tell the difference and if it was worthwhile….within the Sonos infrastructure.

For sure take your point that it will depend on room etc.

And to be honest Kumar this is where I get bogged down … in the technical nomenclature etc. I just want to know is it any thing that can be really heard? Or come to that Tidal or any other ‘better quality’ offering.

If it really can be heard then I will take it. I just want to know if it's that defined and also I guess, which service to buy to add onto my now S2 system that will make sound better.

While it would be amusing to sit back and read comments extolling the “night and day” differences between Amazon Music HD’s performance on S2 vs S1 there aren’t any, at least in terms of the supported bit depth and sampling rate. It was 16/44 before, and it’s still 16/44.

(That said, Sonos continues to tweak the acoustic performance of speakers if there’s an improvement to be made, one of the benefits of software-driven equipment. Such enhancements would be expected in S2 only.)

As for which service to subscribe to, well, try them and see which you prefer. Amazon HD, Deezer HiFi, Qobuz and Tidal all stream to Sonos in CD quality. Many would argue that Tidal’s MQA actually degrades the sound so personally I would steer clear of that at all costs.

So you see no or limited difference Ratty? That’s what I’m looking for … some guidance without the numbers to be honest.

So not really worth the time or cost? 

Can I ask what sources and formats you use for your music listening? 

Of what? You’ve already updated to S2, which is fine. I’m happy to pay for a lossless music service because, for the kind of ‘critical’ listening I do in some situations -- Fives+Sub in a quiet room, or on premium headphones -- I believe it makes sense.

Deezer HiFi (16/44 FLAC), and of course a 13+ year old local FLAC library. Oh, and Radio Paradise FLAC. 

I’m happy to pay as well but I want to get some subjective opinion is all. 

FLAC I also have on my NAS. And Deezer gives you better audio source than say … Spotify? 

I guess it’s like working out if a pair jeans from Hugo Boss is worth the extra over Tesco is all I’m looking for direction on. Understand of course that you have to ‘try them on’ to totally understand if it’s for you or not but asking those who went through the process surely has merit?

Deezer HiFi is lossless CD quality FLAC. Spotify is lossy 320kbps Ogg Vorbis.

In many situations listeners might not notice the difference, and Vorbis is up there with AAC in terms of its codec quality. 

While the vast majority of content on Deezer HiFi is in FLAC it occasionally streams old music in 320kbps MP3. I can usually tell that something doesn’t sound quite right.

super stuff, thanks for explaining.

The marketing intent IS to confuse you with numbers and fancy labels to con you into paying more for what is a commodity at the end of the day. 

Almost all the audible SQ is based on mastering quality, speaker quality/placement and room acoustics. None of which is influenced by the bits and bytes in the stream.

IMO the way to pick streaming services is to forget about the premium HD offerings that are high priced and choose between the regular Amazon/Apple/Spotify kind of services based on whose UI best suits you. Keeping also in mind what interfaces well with Sonos - for instance, Apple Music cannot be used via its native app.

Thanks for the input Kumar. Yes it’s a weird one this. I was sort of hoping for a night and day, before and after push to go buy some higher end music sources.

I did test a Tidal account for a while and there were a couple of tracks that I listened to that I convinced myself that I could hear ‘new things’ in there. And it really did feel so. But I was keen to understand the experiences of others who have done the before and after. Seems it’s a more complex question with less opinions than I might have imagined.

In the old days, a master album or a SACD seemed to be measurable. Maybe it wasn’t in really. I was also one of that that bought some audio DVD’s and bought into that for a while. That actually was quite measurable.

Agree about the numbers etc. 

I have playlists on YouTube Premium of songs that I like, and the full AV experience from these is something else altogether, but that is because of the added dimension of being able to see as well as hear. Piped through a Connect, the sound is much better than from the thin TV speakers, but not any better than pure audio similarly played.

If there are any differences on the audio side, they will not be night and day. Isn’t that a good thing though - no need to spend more on sources!

Your best bet for S2 that you have moved to is for enhanced experiences for the Sonos HT/TV products, as and when Sonos invents these and releases them under the S2 environment.

And as I have pointed out today in another thread, the big improvement in audio that is there to be had - but Sonos does not offer - is effective volume normalisation. Even in a Spotify playlist playing on Sonos via either the Sonos controller or via the Spotify app, I have to keep reaching for the phone to adjust volume levels, something that can get tiresome. I have even deleted some songs that are outliers on the sound level thing, but are otherwise excellent, from my party playlists. 

Spotify claims to offer this feature, but the only way to even test to see how effective it is, is via a phone wired to the Line in jacks on a Sonos unit.

If this can be had more conveniently on Sonos in future, it will be of far more value than the HD red herring.

@attacama40 I sense that you may have a bit of a Fear Of Missing Out on some form of music nirvana. You needn’t feel that way. The numbers game is relentlessly exploited by those in the industry anxious to encourage consumers to buy more equipment and to replace their music collection with so-called ‘hi-res’ versions (some of which have been exposed as nothing more than 16/44 content in a ‘hi-res’ container). 

Here are some articles that might interest you:

What Data Compression Does To Your Music (and why lossless is worthwhile)

Researching HD-Audio: The Truth (‘Hi-Res’ has no perceptible fidelity improvement over CD Red Book)

and follow the links in 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Quality_Authenticated#Criticism

It could also be - I have spent so much money moving to S2, how do I get a return for that?!

Made me laugh Ratty …. yes that’s exactly what it is. I am the sort of bloke that if I have a new car and choosing options, that if I don’t tick every single box, it feels a missed opportunity :-)

Brilliant, thanks for the links, I will be reading those very carefully.

Have you looked at Sonos HD Radio? If you are not interested in specific songs but genre stations it is actually very good and optimized for the Sonos products. I can hear a decent difference than Sonos Radio. Try it out.