Auralic have today announced Amazon support through the Lightning ds software for their devices.
Time to start looking for a g2.1 or wait for Naim to integrate Amazon for the ndx2?
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Planning to take out a trial sub and compare with Qobuz on my Vega G2 when I have time. Probably early in New Year.
Roger
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Indeed I have been thinking about their streaming transports for a while. I also have a preference, perhaps even a love for Naim though, and can just see the ndx2 sitting in the space on my rack. Streaming is important for me as the future lies with this I feel. It would be good to have Naim on board with Amazon, my preferred stream subscription service.
Interested to hear your feedback on Amazon music @PeakMan
Currently paying for Prime (not using the streaming), Spotify (for the family) and Qobuz (for hi-res), so looking to streamline. Feels like it’s a race between Prime (now on Auralic - so might have a listen through LDS), Spotify (to deliver CD quality) and Qoubz (to launch a Connect app). In 12 months time it looks like all of the offerings from these companies will look very similar - “the great convergence” 
When you open a booklet in the Naim app it has links to Amazon, Wikipedia etc. I presume this is just telling it regional Amazon website to use.
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If your an iOS user then it’s fine. They don’t support Android at all, which is ridiculous. One of the reasons I have avoided there hardware. I am not keen on being forced to limit usage to one make of phone or tablet none of which I use nor want to.
Yes that does seem strange. I already run ipads so no problem here.
I won’t have time to compare seriously until early 2022, but then I plan to take out a free trial subscription and do some serious comparisons. TBH Qobuz does nearly all I want as I don’t have long playlists or vast numbers of favourites and I’ve learnt to cope with its idiosyncrasies. But I do wonder about the future of Qobuz now the big boys are muscling in to the sector and it would be good to have an alternative streaming source should Qobuz go under.
I’ll try to remember to report back on what I hear.
Roger
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It doesn’t seem ridiculous to me - in fact it makes a lot of sense under the circumstances. Auralic is a small business with limited resources. They have one of the best software platforms I have used, which is largely due to them focusing on one OS. It is much more difficult and expensive to support the myriad of Android hardware and software systems out there with the risk that you end up with a flaky experience for customers.
So perhaps this is one the key reasons why you have avoided their hardware, but the quality of their software is one of the key attractions of their platform. The SQ ain’t bad either.
I understand that some people won’t consider an Auralic because of this, which is understandable and fine. No one is forcing anyone to do anything. If you don’t like it there are plenty of other options out there, but calling it out as ridiculous, just seems, well ridiculous.
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Hi guys,
Bit of mis-information in this thread. May I lay some facts down:
Amazon have slowly been exposing different ways for third party devices to access Amazon Music.
API to Amazon Music.
- manufacturer has to recreate the user experience of Amazon Music app.
- Very limited API, so UI that can be implemented is very ‘yesterday’ and doesn’t match expectations of a modern streamer.
- Easy to gain access to this API
- some smaller manufacturers do this via the Airable radio service which abstracts the api onto an even more abstract api.
So technically it gives a tick in the box that it supports Amazon Music, but it’s pretty poor to use.
Amazon MRM stack
- Manufacturers integrates the Amazon atreaming eco-system into their products.
- Streamer is then a native Amazon device on the network
- Can cast direct from Amazon app, multiroom sessions, works with Alexa (properly - not limited hard coded skills).
- it’s like having an echo-dot built into your streamer
However, Amazon have been very slow to release code that supports Amazon HD to third parties using this method. Also certification is really tough.
If Naim go for it we will go for the MRM solution as we are big enough manufacturer to do it. and technically it’s the right way to go.
On a public forum we can’t comment our future plans, but just wanted to clarify that not all Amazon integrations are the same, and spending good money on a poor implementation is not the way to go.
Best wishes
Steve Harris
Software Director
Naim Audio Ltd.
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Useful Steve, thanks. I would really, really like to see Naim with Amazon in 2022 ( just in case I hadn’t mentioned it)
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Thanks for filling in the blanks Steve. I have had first hand experience of the first option with BluOs and it was awful.
That’s an interesting comment. I am looking to move in to hi quality streaming, away from my current Nodes. Can you say what you are comparing to the bluesound implementation and what you eventually decided on?
I use Uniti Atom for main rig and Roon I never really was enamoured by Amazon and it had/has too many hurdles to get over. I had the Node 2i for Roon primarily but tried it out for Amazon and others just found it frustrating and disparate for each service nothing tyng it all together. For other areaa I use a mixture of raspberry pi to DACs , Squeezebox and Chromecast speakers for other zones. I use Qobuz mainly and have Tidal again to fill in some gapa. No desire to return to Amazon, hate their app and I just prefer to support services that better care for the creative people that make the music than some large corporate overlord.
Ok. Thanks.
Same here. While the Amazon Music HD sound quality is excellent on the Bluesound streamer, the traditional API implementation and play queue is a bit of work to operate. However once I discovered you can search any artist without having to add them to your library it becomes much better.
Having said that, since TIDAL has dropped their price to 9.99 for HiFi and all my streamers support some form of TIDAL Connect, I am losing interest in Amazon Music HD.
Well that pretty much ensures we won’t be seeing Amazon Music HD on a Naim product any time soon. The API would have been better than nothing, but I am not surprised someone at Naim wants perfection 
Are we certain that the MRM solution will support HiRes music? When I cast from the iOS app to my Echo Dot it says “Streaming quality is not available while casting.” My concern would be that casting protocols are not bit-perfect.
A real shame it seems to be at an impasse with Naim, as others have mentioned the OS on BluOS is poor to say the least, but listening via that app, I can honestly say that I find the SQ for Amazon Music to be superior to that of both Tidal and Qobuz.
I’d bin Qobuz tomorrow if it Amazon Ultra HD came to Naim.
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I stream Amazon Music via my ND5X2. I use a laptop via USB into a digital bridge (Topping) and then into the USB on the Naim. Works fine for Ultra HD as a stop gap until Amazon and Naim integrate the service. Cost me £90 for the bridge but I can use it again for something else later down the road.
This was the simplest solution I found what with Phones and Tablets limiting the USB output for audio. Well on Android not sure about Apple.
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