Bad sound quality with premium

[satelite]

I have premium and some tracks are in offline. I discovered that sound quality at Spotify is low at the moment. I listened first a song (320kbps MP3) and after that same song in Spotify, high and mid range sounds are so low quality or allmost missing in Spotify.

I traced my sound quality problem to Spotify (high quality streaming is on, hardware acceleration is on and same volume for all tracks is off) and i tested this with 2 different computers and 2 different accounts and same problem. So it cant be hardware.

I have listened my songs so much so i know some songs listened much better before... now they play like played from broken speaker (tracks from Spotify... not from my local files!).

So the problem must be in Spotify... Is anyone else noticed big drop in sound quality?

[Peter__]

Hey! Welcome to the community 🙂 

Is it possible those tracks where downloaded at normal quality (before you turned high qualify on) although I think it should redownload at the higher quality anyways. Does a clean reinstallation help?

Peter

[satelite]

Downloaded with high quality and reinstall has no effect... Listening a song at 320kbps is crystal clear but when i listen same song at Spotify the sound quality is much lower... It was much better before so i think some Spotify update has something to do with this.

I checked my sound settings... Problem is not in settings. Must be in Spotify!

[Choiglia]

I'm experiencing THE SAME EXACT ISSUE as described above.  I'm on the 30-day Premium trial plan, where you provide credit card information, but you aren't charged anything.  Yes, I set my preferences to High Quality Streaming.

Spotify located all of my local music from iTunes, some of which is ripped at 320kbps CBR mp3 from a CD and some of which I purchased from iTunes directly.  If I try playing ANY of those local files in the Spotify desktop player and then compare that to THE SAME SONG streaming from Spotify, the difference is HUGE.  I'm not trying to be difficult here, and I'm not being super picky.  The difference is  night and day, unmistakably worse in Spotify.  The volume is lower, but more importantly the range and richness of the recording is noticeably decreased in the Spotify streamed version.

I am not using any high end equipment.  I plan on buying a DAC and a new set of speakers, but I'm noticing all of this on my current setup, which is on-board audio connected to a pair of Klipsch Pro Media 2.1 powered speakers.  I don't have a DAC, I don't have a sound card.  I'm using the audio from the motherboard.

I encourage all of you to try the same test:  using Spotify, play a local track, then compare it to that same track streaming off Spotify.  MAKE SURE THE SPOTIFY STREAM VERSION IS NOT LINKED TO YOUR LOCAL TRACK.  If it's linked, it'll simply play your local track and there will be no difference.  You have to find an unlinked version so that you know it's truly streaming off of Spotify's servers.  For example, maybe your local track is from a greatest hits compilation.  If so, make sure the streaming version is the same song but from the original album, that way Spotify won't stream your local copy.

If any of you bother to try this comparison, please post back.  I'm very curious to hear your results.

Thanks.

[Peter__]

That is interesting, I can say I have ever noticed a big difference in quality. Although you are introducing a margin for error by not using exactly the same track for comparison. Does turning off "Set same volume level for all tracks" in the preferences sort the volume issue? 

Peter

[Choiglia]

I can try turning off the volume setting when I get home tonight and report back.

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@Peter wrote:

...Although you are introducing a margin for error by not using exactly the same track for comparison...

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Well, there's no other way I know of to do the comparison.  If I select the same track from the same album, it will simply play my local file back to me, so of course it'll sound the same.  I've read on other threads that this is simply how Spotify works.  If the track you select for streaming already exists on your local drive, Spotify simply plays your local file.  You'll even see a little icon of a musical note next to the track to tell you that the track is "linked" to the copy on your drive.

[user-removed]

I had exact same issue. Spotify's SQ is noticeably worse when compared to GPlay's music service. I was expecting better SQ from 320k OGG vs MP3, but it's not. Very disappointing. Because of this, I cancelled my subscription.

[Joe]

Hi. You can rename the track you want to compare so as to confuse spotify - just right click/edit info. If you do this in a playlist, it will be replaced by the spotify track. You can find the renamed local track in your local files and add it back

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@Choiglia wrote:

I can try turning off the volume setting when I get home tonight and report back.

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@Peter wrote:

...Although you are introducing a margin for error by not using exactly the same track for comparison...

---

Well, there's no other way I know of to do the comparison.  If I select the same track from the same album, it will simply play my local file back to me, so of course it'll sound the same.  I've read on other threads that this is simply how Spotify works.  If the track you select for streaming already exists on your local drive, Spotify simply plays your local file.  You'll even see a little icon of a musical note next to the track to tell you that the track is "linked" to the copy on your drive.

---

to your playlist and do a direct comparison that way.

[prohep]

Hi folks,

I had the same problem - my audio quality was pretty bad and I had been blaming my new laptop for a while with its Dr Beats mangling software and control panels. I then discovered an article where the author suggested turning off the 'set the same volume level for all tracks option' within the windows client options (Edit - Preferences - Playback) - this seemed to make a big difference for me so I would suggest give that a crack too ...

Hope it helps you ...

(Apologies - I see Peter has made the same suggestion)

[deltalitprof]

This made no difference for me at all. 

I'd describe the bad sound quality this way.  On high and low frequency sounds, I get a noticeable crackling. I thought this might be due to my having the volume up too high for my stereo system (a Panasonic SA -AK640), but lowering the volume and the pre-amp in my EQ add on has no effect on whether I get crackle.

Of course when I play mp3s I have acquired through other means, they sound quite good. No discernible crackling on the best of them. The worst of them do make the crackling noise.

I'm paying for the premium service, by the way and I have unchecked the volume feature everybody says I ought to.

[Amau5]

I had the same problem, I actually fixed this by turning all of my equalizers off. I don't know if you've tried thay but it solved all of my crackling problems. Hope this helps!

[atran187]

most likely cpu is being overwork when this happens, try turning hardware acceleration off in preferences this can help if not try pc reboot or another pc

[Th3F1nk]

Same issue here. I'm an audiophile and have ££££ of audio hardware and the sound quality is tripe for a "premium" service.

I'm currently in the trial period so you can be sure I wont be taking that forward when I can get better sound out of 2 cups and some string!

[Peter__]

I can get better sound out of 2 cups and some string!

I would quite like to see that! 😉 

All joking aside, Spotify streams at 320kbps ogg vorbis, which needless to say isn't anywhere near lossless quality. Is the quality you are getting from Spotify lower than what you would hear via mp3's (which would point to a Spotify issue) or is it just not up to your ears standards as a whole?

[Th3F1nk]

Couldnt help myself with the post 😉

In all seriousness, yes. I'm comparing to the MP3's I have and spotify isnt comparing at all. It doesnt take audiophile ears either to notice it, its very apparant.

The main reason I wanted to go premium was for the highest possible quality streams available. Am I just being picky? To most I probably am 😕

[Joe]

As a retired audiophile, I can only express surprise that an audiophile would even consider listening to a lossy format at all. What are you listening to spotify on and, have you checked that high or extreme quality playback is enabled in settings?

[Th3F1nk]

This is just a machine in my gaming room for casual listening. Mainly listening through Sennheiser hd 650's, nothing over the top by all means.

Checked all settings and yes, running in high quality mode (no extreme option though).

I'm prepared to sacrifice some sound quality based purely on the diversity of my music library now.

[oskars_oskars]

Setting the bass boost to zero made the glitchy twingling disappear for me.

[TerjeMaurset]

I have encountered this problem earlier. A crackling noice Is most likely releated to an encoding error. The prosess of creating the audiofile. One of two things have gone wrong. The bitrate has been set to low. However I have NEVER experienced 320 giving to little space in those 3000+ mp3 files I have encoded and checked. The second option and the most likely one is the quality of the program/tool encoding these music files. Most encoding tools are not designed to encode a music file without compromising ANY sound quality WHATSOEVER. Just look at those early Xing (something named) mp3 encoders. They used to cutt off the top frequencies of the audio file. However encoding audiofiles with excellent 100% lossless quality requires more time than reducing the settings a little bit. I bet that this is what has happened at Spotify IF Spotify is responsible for encoding their own audio files. So increasing the bitrate does NOT mean increasing the sound quality if the program is not configured or designed to do so.
BTW, if it sounds like "boubles" instead of crackling then its an issue with the program playing the music and NOT the audio file.

[BeeDub]

I was having the same problems with crackling even with premium purchased.  I finally figured out that my issue was caused by MY soundcard.  I have a Komplete Audio 6 and when I increased the sample rate to the max in my sound properties and gave apps rights to adjust it ... solved.  No more crackles and soud quality is much much better.

Hope that helps.

-Brian