Audio quality keeps changing mid-song despite settings

[TomboTW]

Plan

Premium

Country

Taiwan

Device

Lenovo Thinkpad

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

I recently bought proper headphones (Audio Technica M40x) and noticed how Spotify audio quality changes within the same song; it usually starts off crisp but then suddenly sounds muffled/muted (as if I had tissue in my ears, which of course I don't!). It can switch forth and back within seconds. When I listen to a lossless file of the same song on the same PC via VLC player, there is no such quality change.

I have already tried everything in the settings (see attached screenshot), have re-installed Spotify via Microsoft App Store, even downloaded the song within Spotify to rule out connection issues (but same result).
Internet speed is generally high and stable; usually over 300 Mbps.

I'm really at a loss and hope to find an answer or hint here!

[OscarDC]

Hey @TomboTW,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

We appreciate all the info you've included in your post and the troubleshooting done so far. Just to be on the same page, did you follow the steps for a clean reinstall mentioned in this article?

If so and the issue persists, since the previous post didn't contain the screenshot mentioned, would you mind changing the Streaming quality from Automatic to Very high to see if it makes any difference?

Also, could you turn on and off the compatibility option to enable hardware acceleration in your settings as well? This will give us a better look at the issue.

We'll be on the lookout.

[TomboTW]

Hi OscarDC

Thank you for your reply.

I confirm that I had done a clean install already, as shown in the linked instructions.

Sorry for forgetting the screenshot. I'm attaching it again. 
Basically, the settings have all been set to very high.
I haven't noticed any change with Hardware acceleration enabled/disabled, either.

Let me know if there is anything else I could try.
Thank you.

[Vasil]

Hey @TomboTW,

Thank you for the additional info!

As you've already done a clean reinstall, removing your local cache in the process, what I'd suggest is taking a look at the cached data, saved on Spotify's end.
It can directly affect downloaded songs as well.

This can be easily checked in your account settings but we don't have access to your accounts from the forum.
Because of this, I'd like to ask you to contact our support folks. They will take a look at your account for possible issues and will be able to fix them on the spot 🙂

Hope that helps.
Let us know how it goes!