In other words, Apple may hoard spatial audio to Apple device, but it’s still the only way either of these music apps can get 360-degree sound on your headphones. However, both are even more hardware-limited than Apple’s format: Dolby Atmos playback is only compatible with the Amazon Echo Studio, while 360 Reality Audio is stuck with the Echo Studio, Sony RA3000 and RA5000 speakers. The main limitation is that it only works when the source device is an Apple iPhone, iPad, Mac, MacBook or Apple TV 4K.Īmazon Music HD, and by extension Unlimited, claims to support both Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio, the latter of which is basically Sony’s answer to spatial audio. Apple Music has its spatial audio option, which is based on Dolby Atmos and can create a digital 3D effect even in headphones. When it comes to 360-degree sound, both Apple Music and Amazon Music diverge. Ultimately, it’s a dead heat for their respective sound quality output with lossless audio formats. There doesn't appear to be any way to override this in the app, and you have to resort to continually adjusting the settings of your laptop to ensure that it's outputting full-fat hi-res audio. This can effectively mean that a hi-res 24/96 audio file is down-sampled to 24/48. The sound delivery from Amazon's CD-quality content via the desktop app is glitch-free, but there are some issues when selecting hi-res content that defaults to your laptop's internal audio output settings. Our guide on how to play Hi-Res music on iPhone can help you find and set one up, and check out the best iPhone audio upgrade we've tried. Just remember that on mobile devices, you’ll likely need an external DAC for the best possible quality. The only slight downside is that hi-res output is not supported on Windows desktops.Īmazon Music HD (which, remember, is now part of Amazon Music Unlimited) offers a choice between CD-quality 16-bit/44.1kHz and Hi-Res 24-bit/192kHz formats. Apple Music's 'lossless' delivers full “CD-quality” at 16-bit/44.1kHz and up to 24-bit/192kHz for true Hi-Res Audio. Amazon Music: Sound qualityĪpple Music sound quality is top-notch and when it comes to resolution and bit rate.

Platform-exclusive releases are largely a thing of the past, too, so don’t worry about missing out on new launches you're likely to find the same songs whichever you pick. As mentioned, Amazon Music offers 100 million songs, but paying for Amazon Music Unlimited lets you play them without shuffle-mode.Īpple also offers over 100 million songs, as well as its own podcast stable.

Cost of amazon unlimited music