Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsAudio Issues when configured as home theater
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2019
This journey got started when Amazon recently announced their newly upgraded music service, Amazon Music HD.
For an audiophile, musician and music lover such as myself, this announcement was the holy grail of music. Amazon claimed you can now access millions of tracks in lossless hi resolution audio quality. But let m clear on what this really means to avoid confusion. Typical streaming services such as Spotify stream with audio quality that is sub-par to audio CD's. Amazon's new service boasts both HD audio and Ultra HD audio. When you pull up a track on the service, it designates whether it is an HD audio track, or an Ultra HD audio track. An HD audio track is CD quality, with a bit rate of 16 bits and a sampling rate from 44.1khz to 48kkhz. While many marketers tout this as lossless, it's not really lossless, but it is a big improvement over standard streaming. On the other hand, true lossless is what Ultra HD audio is all about. True lossless Ultra Audio tracks must have a bit rate of 24 bits, and a sample rate that can go as high as 192k. These are true hi-resolution audio tracks that are much better sounding than HD tracks. I was an early adopter of the now defunct DVD-Audio/SACD formats, which were true 24 bit hi-res audio, so I immediately upgraded to the new Amazon Music HD service, excited to have such a vast library of hi-res audio tracks now at my disposal.
I had recently downsized my home, so didn't have the room anymore for a true 5.1 discreet surround system anymore. I'v been using a soundbar and wasn't happy. So when Amazon introduced the Echo Studio, I took notice. After researching, I learned that the Echo Studio supports 24 bit audio, meaning it has the ability to play Ultra HD tracks. So it was time to update my audio system. I went to Best Buy the first day the Studios went on sale there, and invested in 2 Echo Studios and an Echo Sub.
In the Alexa app, you can configure these components for a home theater environment and that was my plan. I had also already owned a Fire TV Cube, which was great for streaming my content and controlling my home theater devices using voice commands. I upgraded my Fire TV Cube to gen 2 in anticipation of integrating it with my Echo Studios and Sub.
If you want Dolby Atmos soundtracks when watching movies, you need to have the Fire TV/Fire TV Cube in the mix, as the Fire TV performs the audio decoding for these surround modes. Through the Alexa app, it was relatively easy to configure the Fire TV Cube, configure each Echo Studio for left and right channel, and the sub. That is my Home Theater Group.
Now this is where things begin to derail. I said to Alexa "Play Jack Ryan", and I was immediately impressed with the sound emanating from the 2 Studios and the Sub. It did a great job decoding the Dolby Atmos soundtrack, and short of a true discreet surround setup, I was quite impressed. Center dialog came through nicely, soundtrack effects were presented on a nice wide soundstage, giving a nice surround illusion without actual rear speakers.
Next up, the moment I've been waiting for. Time to listen to some 24 bit hi res audio. Through the Amazon Music HD app in the Fire TV Cube, I searched for some Ultra HD tracks. Again the tracks are designated as HD or Ultra HD. I decided to play The Sound of Silence by Disturbed, which was marked as Ultra HD. "Alexa, play the Sound of Silence by Disturbed". Oddly, the song started playing, but it took about 5 seconds for the audio to actually kick in, cutting of the beginning of the song. The other thing I noticed was when I used the voice command, it pulled up the standard HD version of the track. I knew there was an Ultra HD version, as I had just looked for it. So I did a manual search, found the Ultra HD version and started playing it. Oddly, it sounded no different from the other version to me. The label on the screen said Ultra HD now, so this was odd. I clicked on the track information, and was surprised to learn that even though the screen label for the track is Ultra HD, the song was actually streaming at 16 bit, 44.1k audio. This is not hi-res Ultra HD at all. Any laymen would look at the screen and think they're streaming in Ultra HD because it says it's an Ultra HD track, but the track information was telling a different story.
This is where the call to tech support happened. Tech support sent some logs to the development team and them got back to me. What he tried to tell me at first, was that I was indeed listening to 24 bit audio through the Studios. How can that be possible when I'm actively streaming and it clearly says 16 bit, 44.1k. It didn't make any sense to me. Once you have the Cube integrated with the Studios, the voice interaction is between you and the Cube, not you and the Studios. Further, if you need the Cube to decode the Dolby Atmos soundtrack, then it stands to reason that the audio decoding is taking place in the Cube, not the Studios. That was my argument to the tech support guy, and he agreed that made sense. So...I've come to find out that the Cube is only capable of 16 bit audio output, not 24 bit. So the Cube is sending the audio to the Studios in lower resolution, not taking advantage of either the Ultra HD tracks in Amazon Music, or the capabilities of the Studio's hi-res audio capabilities.
So I cannot natively, in my home theater setup, issue a voice command and have Alexa play back an Ultra HD music file through the Echo Studio speakers. This was a huge let down, especially after making all this investment. But I still had one more test. If I bypass the Cube, and use the Amazon Music app in my iPhone to cast directly to the Studios, then this should give me Ultra HD audio in all its glory. I'm doing this for testing purposes only. I should have to, nor would I want to, whip out my phone in my home theater to play Ultra HD tracks. I should simply be able to issue a voice command to my home theater components, and the Amazon Music app in my home theater system should be doing it for me.
The cool thing about the mobile app version though, is when you click on the HD or Ultra HD icon, it displays the full resolution of the track, the bit and sample rates of the equipment it's connected to, and the actual resolution being played. SO now I can validate the bit rate and sampling rate going from my iPhone Amazon Music app directly to the Echo Studios. Only I can't. When I press the Ultra HD icon I get a message that says "Information not available when casting"! What?? So I can see this info on all my other playback devices such as my car entertainment system, my headphones, but not the Studios? So I still have no idea what the actual nit and sampling rates are bypassing the Cube.
Amazon: You are touting the benefits of Ultra HD hi-res audio. You have created an audiophile speaker with the Echo Studio (supposedly) capable of playing 24 bit Ultra HD tracks. But there is no way for me to stream these Ultra HD tracks natively in my home theater, and no way for me to even validate the audio resolution from my phone direct to the Studios. So here I am with all this new equipment and still can't natively enjoy hi res audio through a simple voice command to either my Echo Studios or the Cube. Seems to me the fix would be a software update to make the Cube 24 bit. Please don't make me buy a third 24 bit Cube!
