topic Re: Sound quality? in Archived content

Sound quality?

rich01 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:32:10 GMT

I read that 99% of all material is encoded in 320kpbs. But why is the sound quality of a lot of songs so terrible? Just one example: Emeli Sandé – My Kind of Love

It sounds destroyed, especially after 45s! Where do they get their material from before they encode it? What is going on here?

Re: Sound quality?

David — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:57:13 GMT

Hey!

I've just taken a listen to that track, and it seems to be fine to us. Are you playing this on a Windows computer? If so, head over to the Preferences menu and ensure that "Enable Hardware Acceleration" is turned off. If you are on Premium, make sure that "High Quality Streaming" is turned on to get the full 320kbps (or q9, to be more precise) streaming quality.

Re: Sound quality?

rich01 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:40:56 GMT

Thanks for listening. But how can it be "Hardware Acceleration" if other music plays completeley fine. I turned it off, restarted Spotify, but of course there was no difference. Also I have Premium and enabled high quality a long time ago. So that is not the problem. I listened to the same track on my Android, and it is the same problem as on my desktop (and I also chose high/extreme quality there).

So...I am sorry but I find it hard to believe that you can't hear that crackling noise. I'm really not that demanding because other songs play fine for my ears. Can I ask how you listen to the music? With headphones? The problems I hear in other songs are either crackling noises, clipping or overcompression. And the latter has nothing to do with the encoding process. Therefore my question: Where do you get the music from before you encode it? I am not trying to be too clever or too demanding, it just find the quality so annoying that I have to turn it off or listen to another album. And that is a bit disappointing for me as a paying customer.

Re: Sound quality?

Sam — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:40:18 GMT

Rich01 - I've just had a listen, and I can hear some crackling. I've just sent this off to the content department, who'll then contact the label.

The music is originally passed onto us direct from the label for us to upload. It's in the lossless Ogg Vorbis format, so the quality doesn't change throughout the encoding process. If there's an issue with the a song, there would have been an issue with the original file. We just need to request a new one.

Re: Sound quality?

rich01 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:45:44 GMT

Thank you very much. So the problem is the original file from the label. I hope they have a good look at how they process their material and what they send to you in the future. Or maybe they just want us to buy the CD to have "ultimate" quality? 😉

Anyway, thanks again for your time.

Re: Sound quality?

SteveBrammer — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:54:01 GMT

Sam,

Sorry to be a pedant, but Ogg Vorbis is not a lossless format. I think what you mean is that the labels send you tracks in a lossless format like FLAC and you then re-encode it to Ogg Vorbis at several different quality levels.

I thought I better clear that up before the real audiofile nutjobs turn up and start spouting pages worth of scientific formulae just to prove a point 😉

Re: Sound quality?

Sam — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 08:35:31 GMT

Thank you, Steve. Apologies.

Re: Sound quality?

Kelv76 — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:42:34 GMT

What sound quality am I getting as an unlimted subscirber? It is noticeably poorer than the music I download. Most of my music is Flac, VO or 320

I'd personally expect to be getting a lossless sound quality from a music service that I'm subscribing too.

Re: Sound quality?

Stupify — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 20:49:49 GMT

You need Premium to get 320kbps sound. Free and Unlimited get 160kbps.

Re: Sound quality?

pcoventry76 — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:52:47 GMT

Yes that song is horrible to listen to - luckily i dont care much for the artist either!

My problem is that songs I have keep getting changed and I know that's not your fault but most have been ruinied by being " remastered"

Re: Sound quality?

rich01 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:42:34 GMT

A long time ago somebody promised a solution. It is really disappointing that nothing happened and the music is still distorted!

A big problem also is that complaints regarding the sound quality are played down as if we would make this up. The first answer to my initial post is ridiculous. You would have to listen to this with a 50 year old radio to not hear the distortion.

So obviously I don't "accept this as solution" anymore. The solution for me will be more likely a change in the near future....to Kim Schmitz or one of the other music services that offer the same for less money (or more quality).

You can't promise people solutions and then not deliver.

Re: Sound quality?

anyonebrum — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 11:43:20 GMT

Did this ever get solved as i just had a listen and can not make my mind up lol

Re: Sound quality?

HughWard — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:52:44 GMT

Don't know if this is the right place to report it and sorry if is is not, but all my music sounds nice especially with the premium quality 😄 I have only come across one problem which is the new modestep song - another day. The quality seems wayy worse than that of the youtube video and was wondering if it could be fixed as I love this song.

Thanks for the great service!

Re: Sound quality?

stts — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:49:45 GMT

Isn't the "distortion" you are referring to part of the production (recording) on this particular track? I don't have the CD to compare it to, but it sounds like they were going for that aggressive bass drum sound in the studio. I could be wrong.

My music sounds great through quality headphones. At least 320.

Re: Sound quality?

HughWard — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:15:48 GMT

If you listen to the song compared to the version uploaded to the UKFdubstep YouTube Chanel you will be able to tell within the first 5 seconds

Re: Sound quality?

Stupify — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 10:58:36 GMT

I know what track you are referring to, and it has been removed from Spotify as the new album was released. Another Day sounds fine in the album.

Re: Sound quality?

HughWard — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:05:08 GMT

Very sorry. I mean the xKore remix (the one that is on the video on YouTube)

Re: Sound quality?

rich01 — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:13:18 GMT

I don't mean to interrupt but: Still no solution here!

And I think it is sad that some people are not able to hear the distortion. I don't have the best ears but I can tell 100% that what I'm talking about is unwanted distortion. Absolutely no doubt! I'm a (hobby) computer musician so I know a lot about wanted AND unwanted noise. So believe me or throw away your 50 year old radio and test it with some decent headphones.

Re: Sound quality?

Nitwon — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:42:51 GMT

Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I haven't seen anyone mention equiliser or bass boost settings. Sorry if it seems too obvious but could it be that you have bass or treble turned up, and that particular song has parts which cause distortion as a result? Try listening to it with the equiliser and bass boost off.

Re: Sound quality?

wibin — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:19:41 GMT

This is a real issue that is not fixed.

Really sad. Because we use Spotify to listen music, not for idle talk on forums.

Quality control people of Spotify should be ashamed of themselves... why accept such junk when fixing and hunting for these issues afterwards will be a pain.

FIX THESE BEFORE RELEASE