topic Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz in Desktop (Windows)

Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

NoIDontWantto1 — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 15:07:27 GMT

Plan - Premium

United States

Device - Custom PC

Sound Card - Creative Sound Blaster AE-5

Operating System - Windows 10 (1903)

Issue/bug (?)

More wanted to bring this up as not sure if anyone else has this issue or a work around. I noticed when I did 32bit 384000 Hz audio quality that the spotify application would not play anything. You could select a song and it would look like it was trying to start a song and it wouldnt play and skip to the next song, wait a second like it was trying to play and then skip to the next song, and simply repeat these steps. Lowering audio quality on my sound card to 32bit 192000 Hz resolves the issue. Then increasing back up to 384000 Hz breaks it again so it was repeatable. I'm no audiophile and loweirng to 192000 Hz would be fine a solution but maybe I'm being stubborn as I don't want to do that just for one application. I realize this is probably more a spotify limitation since the max output might be lower like 320000 Hz but would be nice if it was possible to add some logic that could be added to the application to fix this issue.

I noticed and tested all this about a month ago and already uninstall the spotify application so not sure what version this was on. I've just simply just been using the webplayer as an alternative to the desktop application. Just curious if this affected anyone else as a small inconvenience.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

Sebasty — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 19:06:16 GMT

Hey @NoIDontWantto1

It has been confirmed by other users that any sample rate above 192kHz breaks Spotify's audio playback. Here you can see an Issue thread created by a Soundblaster user who can use similar output options, and Spotify's answer to it.

Spotify works with 16/24/32bit and up to 192kHz audio stream. My guess is pretty much all music brought to Spotify is definitely under 192kHz. I'm not sure why higher sample rates break Spotify itself though.

I also read about having huge sample rates, apparently there is no much reason to set your sample rate much higher than 192 (or even less), since ad/da converters already operate at elevated sample rates and almost no-one (in commercial music at least) makes use of making music at such high sample rates. Creating, yes, but it's very likely down to 44.1 or 48 after mastering.
Classical music could be an exception (in some cases), when it comes to recording it.

I also found this Tonestack article that's quite an interesting read. It's about why 16bit 44.1 / 48kHz is more than enough for audio playback.
(...still buying 24bit music, lol)

Have a nice day 🙂

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

zuperlemonhazze — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 13:00:55 GMT

Hi, it's been a while since you pointed out this issue but Spotify's answer to it in the linked thread ("we don't support it so it's a non-issue", okay den) not being very helpful I raise you a solution that I found, maybe It'll help some other users as well.

I run on Windows 10 w/ a ProJect S2 DAC.

After having openend Spotify I start playing a song at a low sample rate (any lower than 192k, eg 88k). While it is playing I go in the sound settings of my DAC through the Windows control panel and change the sampling rate up to 384k. For me, it doesn't crash and I get the expected result but ymmv.

Anyway, I have to do this every time I start Spotify (not a big deal since it's virtually always running on my PC). But more annoying, If I start playing a song towards another device and then I switch back to the PC it crashes and I have to do the 'trick' all over again. It doesn't take time but it's not convenient..

Hope this helps

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

Skorrn_ — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 17:46:19 GMT

Hello - Following up later in 2020 here. Still a massive issue that doesn't look like Spotify is going to fix (3 years later and still considered a "non-issue"). I use a Khadas Tone Board DAC and ran into the same problems as apparently everyone else.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

Jeremy — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 08:15:53 GMT

Hey there folks,

Thank you for your posts and feedback in this thread.

We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall and constantly aiming to improve our features. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use Spotify like you wish to do at the moment.

We suggest that you have a look at this idea. You can leave a +VOTE and Subscribe to the thread for any updates.

Once again - thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help with anything else. We're always one reply away.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

Skorrn_ — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 15:09:55 GMT

Hi, Jeremy.

While I appreciate you reaching out with an option to upvote an old request for lossless music, I would like to say that this is more of a functional issue for Spotify rather than a feature request. The heart of this issue lies within how Spotify handles devices that can handle higher sampling rates. While I would love lossless audio from Spotify, I originally chose Spotify because of the convenience (family plan), easy-to-use UI, plethora of podcasts, etc. However, I had to cancel services because it just will not work with my setup and it is an absolute pain to have to constantly go into my device settings prior to starting Spotify up. I'm certain I could just automate a workaround that could adjust the settings automatically each time I start up Spotify, but why wouldn't Spotify just fix the issue itself? We're not asking for higher sampling rate here, we're just asking to let us use what we have.

Thanks - hope to hear back from you soon,

Skorrn_

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

karandeshmukh — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 14:56:07 GMT

FiiO K5 Pro user here. It's unbelievable that this issue was diagnosed by NoIDontWantto1 in 2019 and it still hasn't been fixed, in 2021.

I came here from another community post which flagged this issue as "Solved". After reading the aforementioned posts, it could hardly be defined as "Solved". The two solutions that worked for me are:
(1) The one that zuperlemonhazze cited.

(2) Using Spotify's Web Player.

I'd classify both of them as "Hacks" and not actual "Solutions", as Team Spotify dubs it.

Question for Team Spotify: What's taking you this long to fix this issue? I mean it has been 3 years since it was diagnosed, for God's sake!

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

Fredipedia — Mon, 16 May 2022 00:20:26 GMT

SoundblasterX G6 user here. Issue is still not fixed. Spotify still won't play at 384kHz except when changing the bitrate during playback.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

tmrxddd — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 05:46:03 GMT

Issue is still not fixed. Spotify still won't play at 384kHz except when changing the bitrate during playback. #unacceptable #notsolved

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

JellyJasper — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 17:33:31 GMT

Just got my Fiio K3 and spent over an hour trying to find out why won't Spotify work. So yeah 384kHz still not supported. I wonder if they will ever do anything about this issue, especially when or if they ever release the Spotify HiFi...

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

Zacharot — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:15:10 GMT

2023 is upon us. Still not fixed. Fiio BTR7, unable to use hardware I paid good money for properly because Spotify chooses to be obstinate.

Let me reiterate. Your solved solution is incorrect. The problem: Spotify will not play when DAC set to 384khz. That's it. Spotify does not work properly with certain Completely Valid hardware settings. Since I can't change the setting for just Spotify, and Spotify wants to be the contrarian, it's a bug, and it's not fixed. This is not solved. Please escalate. This isn't a feature request, it's a bug report.

It also highlights the absolutely abhorrent way you treat your customers. You should be ashamed.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

izebag — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 23:44:50 GMT

Yes noticed that today. Used my FiiO K3 on maximum bit and sample rates and spotify app went absolutely n*ts. Interesting tho is that audio playback went on after switching between outputs (laptop speakers) and back to DAC in windows without changing any sample rates (above 192khz). But as soon as you close spotify app or restart computer, issue returns. Found the solution by trying back and forth and 192kHz is indeed the limit. Now I at least know that nothing is wrong with my hardware. Well, 32bit 192khz should be more than enought for Spotify. At least until they release Hifi. Thanks for your informative post.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

dduff21 — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 19:13:40 GMT

Another FiiO K5 Pro user here, 12/07/23 Issue still going

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

jdbs87 — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 23:29:47 GMT

@Spotify this is still a thing @ 14-08-2023.

Please update your Windows application to handle this properly in-application in stead of breaking with a generic and wrong error message.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

Zygosaur — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:23:19 GMT

2024 and this is still an issue.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

StarzSpirit — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 15:20:41 GMT

SMSL SU-1 and Creative AE-9 user, and I can confirm that a sample rate of 384KHz is still unusable on the Windows Spotify application.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

plyth — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 09:08:26 GMT

2024 and this is still an issue. the easiest solution (more like a bandage :|) that i have found is to start playback, switch to a different audio device which uses a bitrate that spotify accepts via your operating system's audio device switcher, then switch back and you should be able to hear it. ridiculous that this still hasn't been fixed though, as it surely can't be that hard. it's not like we are asking them to supply 384khz versions of all their music, their negligence would be understandable if that were the case. we are simply asking them to fix this bug so users don't have to use wack workarounds.

Erro ao reproduzir (Spotify não consegue reproduzir isso no momento)

RiderV — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 15:23:39 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Brazil

Device

Computer

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Estou com um problema ao tentar reproduzir músicas se o meu dispositivo de audio esta configurado no desempenho máximo 32 bit(s) - 384000 Hz. Porém se eu abaixo a qualidade consigo dar player, e aumentar a qualidade posteriormente. Mas toda vez que abro preciso alterar essas configurações

Re: Erro ao reproduzir (Spotify não consegue reproduzir isso no momento)

walksonlegos — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 06:05:32 GMT

It is October 2024 and I get the error "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it." if I set the sample rate anything above 192 kHz and restart Spotify Windows application. Sound device is Hiby FC3.

If I use e.g. 32 bit, 192 kHz then there are no issues. This seems to be a problem only with Spotify since other applications are working fine.

Re: Songs won't play with sound settings at 384000 Hz

VglntzrX — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 11:17:19 GMT

This issue is quite annoying, and it seems the Spotify team isn't making any efforts to fix this. I primarily use foobar2k and have my DAC set-up in 32b/384kHz. I think the problem lies in the way Spotify sees the bitrate/bit depth of the WDM Audio device upon launch of the desktop client, as if the bitrate/bit depth was changed after launching Spotify, Spotify works as supposedly.

Here's a clue for the Spotify dev team below, please let's make things better. You don't want to infuriate your users by having to repeatedly change settings for things to work, do you?

I think the problem lies in the way Spotify sees the bitrate/bit depth of the WDM Audio device upon launch of the desktop client.