Astell and Kern SR25 and Amazon music HD

[hybridauth_facebook_100002546262563]

Hi everyone,

I have recently realised that many streaming apps can be loaded to the SR25 by loading an APK file to the open source folder on the player. Having loaded Amazon music onto the SR25 I have noticed that although many music files have a quoted track quality of up to 24 bit / 192 KHz, the SR25 is only playing the files at 16 bit / 44KHz.

Does the SR25 have capability to play at a higher (24 bit / 192 KHz) rate? If so how do I ‘tell” the SR25 to play at this higher rate.

Many thanks.
David

 

[Al ears]

Are you talking Amazon Music or the HD version.
The SR25 will play the higher resolution files but not sure how you tell it to, it plays whatever is presented to it.
Are you sure that Amazon is actually streaming at the resolution you mentioned?
where do you see this quoted track quality??

 

[hybridauth_facebook_100002546262563]

Thanks for your response. I am referring to the HD version. I wondered whether it’s something to do with the version of the app I am running on the SR25. Just tried streaming a song which has a track quality of 24 bit 192 KHz. The SR25 plays it at 16 bit 44.1 KHz. My iPad Pro plays the same track at 24 bit KHz.

may try finding different version of Amazon app online to reinstall on the SR25.

 

[Al ears]

Thanks for your response. I am referring to the HD version. I wondered whether it’s something to do with the version of the app I am running on the SR25. Just tried streaming a song which has a track quality of 24 bit 192 KHz. The SR25 plays it at 16 bit 44.1 KHz. My iPad Pro plays the same track at 24 bit KHz.

may try finding different version of Amazon app online to reinstall on the SR25.

Not too sure why it would downsample a file.
I have the SR25 but don't stream with it so cannot really help here.

 

[hybridauth_facebook_100002546262563]

Thanks for your input. I have seen on a Facebook group a similar post from another user who has a KannAlpha who is experiencing similar problems where the Kann states max capability to be 24 bit 48 KHz.

 

[Tinman1952]

Thanks for your response. I am referring to the HD version. I wondered whether it’s something to do with the version of the app I am running on the SR25. Just tried streaming a song which has a track quality of 24 bit 192 KHz. The SR25 plays it at 16 bit 44.1 KHz. My iPad Pro plays the same track at 24 bit KHz.

may try finding different version of Amazon app online to reinstall on the SR25.

Hi. If you tap the HD or UHD icon while a track is playing….it should state:
1. The quality of the file you are playing
2. The maximum quality accepted by the device
3. The quality actually being played back.

Check what is says at 2. above…. It may be the Amazon app is not detecting it properly on your device as it was ‘side loaded’….

 

[hybridauth_facebook_100002546262563]

Hi thanks for the post. It states at 2 max being 24 bit 48Khz. I may contact A&K direct to see if they are aware of any issue.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Hi thanks for the post. It states at 2 max being 24 bit 48Khz. I may contact A&K direct to see if they are aware of any issue.

Maybe better ask Amazon.
I don't know much about Android audio but is works more or less like any other OS.
It runs at a fixed sample rate (otherwise you can't have multiple streams).
Many media players in Win or OSX use the OS default.
In Android you can't change this default as a user, so you are stuck.

However, it is possible to bypass the Android default. This is done by the playback app just like there are apps implementing Hogmode in OSX or WASAPI/Exclusive in Win to bypass the OS default.

If all this reasoning is correct, ask Amazon if hi-res playback is possible on Android and if so, how.

 

[Tinman1952]

Maybe better ask Amazon.
I don't know much about Android audio but is works more or less like any other OS.
It runs at a fixed sample rate (otherwise you can't have multiple streams).
Many media players in Win or OSX use the OS default.
In Android you can't change this default as a user, so you are stuck.

However, it is possible to bypass the Android default. This is done by the playback app just like there are apps implementing Hogmode in OSX or WASAPI/Exclusive in Win to bypass the OS default.

If all this reasoning is correct, ask Amazon if hi-res playback is possible on Android and if so, how.

Good luck getting any sense out of Amazon. Their employees have no clue about Amazon Music.
For Android you need USB Audio Player Pro (or something similar) and an external DAC.

 

[Vincent Kars]

you need USB Audio Player Pro

Does it play Amazon HD?

 

[Tinman1952]

Does it play Amazon HD?

Actually I’m not sure…
I gave up on Android trying to get it to work and had to use an iPad with external DAC but unfortunately that upsamples everything to the maximum your DAC will accept! Amazon really messed up the implementation…..and no Amazon device which plays it properly 😖