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NJRonbo
Avid Contributor I
February 6, 2020
Answered

How do you know from app what songs are Amazon HD?

  • February 6, 2020
  • 32 replies
  • 2295 views

So, allegedly, Amazon HD is supported on Sonos.

How does one know what songs are in HD and what are not?  I don’t see any of this indicated on the Sonos app.   Is every song in the upgraded HD format and we should just presume we are getting that quality?

Thanks in advance

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Best answer by ratty

Not every track is in HD, and unfortunately there’s no way in the Sonos controller to tell which is and which is not. 

32 replies

ratty
rattyAnswer
February 6, 2020

Not every track is in HD, and unfortunately there’s no way in the Sonos controller to tell which is and which is not. 

    NJRonboAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    February 6, 2020

    Not every track is in HD, and unfortunately, there’s no way in the Sonos controller to tell which is and which is not. 

     

    Thank you so much for the response.

    This is the hesitation I have in subscribing to the HD option.  You just don’t know.  

    ratty
    ratty
    February 6, 2020

    You’ll tend to find this with most lossless services. The bulk of the tracks are in the advertised format, but there are some which for historical reasons have been left in the catalog at a lower quality.

    I don't believe Amazon is any better or worse than the others. However right now you’d have to inspect the track in the native Amazon Music app to view its format.

    Deezer HiFi does display the format within the Sonos controller.

    jgatie
    jgatie
    February 6, 2020

    Just to add, since Amazon is responsible for the UI in the Sonos app (Sonos just supplies the API), you may want to let Amazon know you would like the HD to be displayed for HD tracks.

    NJRonboAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    February 6, 2020

    You’ll tend to find this with most lossless services. The bulk of the tracks are in the advertised format, but there are some which for historical reasons have been left in the catalog at a lower quality.

    I don't believe Amazon is any better or worse than the others. However right now you’d have to inspect the track in the native Amazon Music app to view its format.

    Deezer HiFi can display the format within the Sonos controller.

     

     

    ...and of course TIDAL is lossless across the board as well.

    Looks like if I truly want lossless music on Sonos it is either going to be Deezer or Tidal.  Need to see which is better.

    Again, thanks for your assistance.

    NJRonboAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    February 6, 2020

    Just to add, since Amazon is responsible for the UI in the Sonos app (Sonos just supplies the API), you may want to let Amazon know you would like the HD to be displayed for HD tracks.

     

    I am going to contact customer support.

     

    Thanks

    NJRonboAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    February 6, 2020

    Read from bottom up…

     

     

     

    Hello Ronald,

    I'm Luis A. of Amazon's Tech Support Executive Customer Relations team. Jeff Bezos received your email and I'm responding on his behalf.

    We appreciate the time you took to provide us with your feedback about Amazon Music. We welcome the opinions and suggestions of our customers. I've forwarded your feedback to the team involved in the future development of Amazon Music. Please feel free to continue to send us any suggestions for improvement as your opinion and participation is valuable to us.

    Thanks for making sure we're aware of your experience, and we look forward to see you again.


    Regards,

    Luis A.
    Tech Support Executive Customer Relations
    Amazon.com
    http://www.amazon.com
    ==========================

    ---- Original message: ----

    Dear Amazon,


    I am hoping you can put me in touch with someone who heads your Amazon music subscription program.

    You have recently begun offering an HD music service plan.

    However, you have not updated the interface on Sonos so users know what songs are actually in HD and are not.

    For this reason, there are many, many potential subscribers posting across the Internet balking at committing to this new service.

    If you would update the interface so those who want to buy into the HD plan have an idea of exactly what they are getting, your subscription numbers would dramatically increase.

    Please pass this on.  This is a very important issue to you guys.

    Thanks


    Ron 

      ratty
      ratty
      February 6, 2020

      ...and of course TIDAL is lossless across the board as well.

      And, when I last checked it -- which admittedly was 5 years ago -- it also delivered some tracks in lossy format.

       

      BrianJ
      Enthusiast I
      February 6, 2020

      You’ll tend to find this with most lossless services. The bulk of the tracks are in the advertised format, but there are some which for historical reasons have been left in the catalog at a lower quality.

      I don't believe Amazon is any better or worse than the others. However right now you’d have to inspect the track in the native Amazon Music app to view its format.

      Deezer HiFi does display the format within the Sonos controller.

      As  does Qobuz, I think: at least it adds '(FLAC)' after song names in the Sonos queue and Now Playing displays.  I assume this display tells me I am getting my 16/44 I've paid for...  There does remain the issue on my version of the Sonos controller (7.3) that when a whole album (or the remainder of the album is dumped in the queue when a track is tapped  - thanks Sonos), the FLAC info is not displayed.  Started to take this up with Qobuz but decided my controller version was too dated to be representative.  CR100 shows FLAC too; ho-hum.

       

      chickentender
      chickentender
      February 7, 2020

      You’ll tend to find this with most lossless services. The bulk of the tracks are in the advertised format, but there are some which for historical reasons have been left in the catalog at a lower quality.

      I don't believe Amazon is any better or worse than the others. However right now you’d have to inspect the track in the native Amazon Music app to view its format.

      Deezer HiFi does display the format within the Sonos controller.

      As  does Qobuz, I think: at least it adds '(FLAC)' after song names in the Sonos queue and Now Playing displays.  I assume this display tells me I am getting my 16/44 I've paid for...  There does remain the issue on my version of the Sonos controller (7.3) that when a whole album (or the remainder of the album is dumped in the queue when a track is tapped  - thanks Sonos), the FLAC info is not displayed.  Started to take this up with Qobuz but decided my controller version was too dated to be representative.  CR100 shows FLAC too; ho-hum.

       

      The entire Qobuz catalog is available in FLAC at 16/44 so it doesn’t terribly matter in this case, particularly since that’s the most Sonos can render. If you’re streaming from Qobuz on a Sonos system, that’s what you’ll be getting.

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