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Apple vs Amazon

I'm not fully committed to streaming yet. DAC is low end. Finishing a 3 month free Apple Music trial. In truth, it doesn't sound that bad to me but tonight I started a 3 month Amazon Music trial and just after spending about an hour with it, it seems to sound better than Apple Music running through the exact same system. Fuller. Richer. More precise bass. No A/B testing, just a general impression. It might even be the music selection. I don't know. Is there any actual reason for this to be true? Or is it just me?
n80
stevecham
3,298 posts
 
I’ve been subscribing to Apple Music for several years (started with Beats which Apple bought) now and really enjoy it. I noticed they have bumped the sample rate up to 96 for some recordings. Haven’t tried any of the other services so can’t comment.
n80 OP
1,227 posts
 
As mentioned, Apple Music sounds okay to me. Not as bad as I was expecting from the things I've read about iTunes and Apple Music. Amazon just seems to sound a little better.

Also, Apple Music is super buggy on my system. Frequent cut outs, frequent navigation issues, slow loading pages. Apple Remote is great but Amazon's app is better and Amazon's interface seems better to me too. 

Not sure if there is a cost difference. I'm sure Apple has a larger selection but I've found new and obscure stuff on Amazon.

Will be weighing all this with Tidal hi res.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Apple uses ALAC encoding I believe whereas Amazon Prime uses MP3 256K. I prefer the MP3 also.

There is a lot of "free" music on Amazon Prime, but no Led Zeppelin for instance.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

n80 OP
1,227 posts
 
Amazon has a streaming service now. It is a paid service above what you pay for prime. I'm doing the free trial now.
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