[All Platforms][Music] HiFi Quality - Lossless Streaming 16bit 44.1khz

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

** please don't lump this suggestion with the main one on lossless downloads, that's a different idea entirely guys!

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

[timiambeing]

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

[timiambeing]

Good news!

Lossless audio quality is finally starting to roll out to Spotify Premium users! 🔊

Check out this post for more info:

➜ Spotify Premium: Now Streaming in Lossless Quality

[i3eyond]

Can't wait! 

[El0h1m]

i3eyond , it's not going to happen any time soon.

You better run and pick an alternative like Qobuz or Deezer (if you are happy with CD quality only).

[LirikaSanta]

Espero puedan horientarne en este proyecto social

[walp]

Just came back here to check how 2005 looks like.

[LawLee]

If you see my earlier post a PhD audio expert made the case that hi-res audio is overhyped. I’ll post it here again

Ecoustics Podcast Interview with Dr. Mark Waldrep: Is Hi-Res Audio More Hype Than Reality? - ecousti...

He makes some good points. And my anecdotal experience supports that premise. Just because something is processed 24bit, 192kps does not mean that it’s going to be superior sounding. FLAC is just a container. And if there isn’t much data in the container it can still spit out 24bit, 192kps processed output with not much information in it.

Many people are using Bluetooth headphones because Apple in their infinite wisdom eliminated the headphone jack. Apple has been leading the industry away from high performance audio for a long time. I owned Apple phones and iPods. I also owned high performance MP3 players by SanDisk, iRiver, Creative Labs, and Archos. The worst fidelity MP3 players were Apple. And the original apple buds were poor fidelity wired headphones. Since they weren’t sealed many people listen to audio at levels high enough to drown out background noise and damage their hearing.

In pursuit of battery life Apple’s headphone amplifiers were weak. It actually it caused the headphone industry to develop earbuds that would sound reasonably well on Apple devices, skewing the earbuds fidelity industry. That’s why the whole portable DAC industry got started. Buying a phone for hundreds of dollars and then having to spend another 100 or more dollars for a DAC. Thanks Apple! The whole phone industry followed lockstep in eliminating headphone jacks from phones, which are the principal way people listen to music today.

But when Bluetooth came around Apple drove the industry that way. Bluetooth is inherently lossy. Your music which was encoded in MP3 or AAC is reencoded to be transmitted from your phone in either SBC, AAC, LDAC, Samsung Scalable Codec or others. Most of these are limited in terms of their data rate below bit rate received on your phone.

So Apple wants the lead the way in hi-res music now? How ironic. Keep in mind most of their streaming devices top out at 24bit, 48kHz.

Still Bluetooth is the limiting factor. And it’s true that upstream in your phone you’d like the best possible transmission quality, you then have to squeeze it through the Bluetooth pipe, or I should say straw. So I agree that 320kbs to CD quality is more than good enough for people who are consuming audio using Bluetooth.

Since my Yamaha Aventage Receiver has a Bluetooth input I decided to try to transmit music from my Galaxy phone to my receiver using Bluetooth. It sounded horrible. I have what are arguably accurate and well reviewed Bluetooth headphones. I've done critical listening on Galaxy buds, AKG and Sony top of the line Bluetooth headphones. Meh! I'll stick with wired when I'm not working in the yard or exercising.

Because my receiver is trying to process that signal to synthesize 5.1 channels of information using DTS it had nothing to work with. Spotify Connect directly to my receiver substantially sounded better.

But what sounded best by far was high data rate the lossless files of any type. Spotify connect today here's a convenience factor like Bluetooth. But either because of their data rate or the inherent limitations of Spotify Connect that convenience comes at a cost. A cost I'm not willing to pay.

I'm interested in quality. Home theater systems that can do DSP processesing on a stereo or Dolby Atmos stream are like a microscope. It's going to uncover the inherent problems in the source material. So yes, all things being equal. you can hear every step between 320kps Ogg-Vorbis to 16bit, 44.1kHz though 24bit 192kHz.

[demo_sphere]

I've cancelled my Spotify subscription and used Soundizz to transfer all my playlists and albums to Tidal (I'm aware of the MQA issue, I'm happy with CD quality).

Anyway, Spotify dragged me along for too long, I was promised HiFi so long ago that I feel some what skrewed over here. As such I will not be returning to Spotify until HiFi is implemented, and will also now be advising people to leave the platform as well.

The lack of transparency here is disappointing, as a long time supporter of Spotify, it's a real shame that they couldn't keep us updated with what's happening with the feature.

[robigouk]

Well I've read the next version of Bluetooth "Bluetooth LE" is about to start rolling out in the near future and this supports lossless audio over Bluetooth.  If Spotify haven't got HiFi released when these new earbuds start appearing on the market that will be the point they start losing a lot more subscribers.

[Dismiss]

Most definitely. Even though Apple Music is the only service that can match
Spotify's catalogue, and they do offer everything at a very reasonable cost,
they still discriminate against Windows and Android TV, which essentially
excludes hundreds of possible devices. which I happen to use. I'm never
going to get an AM sub as long as this continues.

[Gromushka]

Here we see global misunderstanding between Spotify management and users requirements. 

The simple to see today - mobile listeners are coming home to continue listen on some devices. Simple way to continue listen is  use wireless active acoustic systems. 

Sharing music with google or apple devices currently is very simple. 

Also not a secret, but in case user are from more related to music quality like hi-fi etc. the user put at home some stereo system with internal media system. 

The center of this media was usually some device (like a media streamer) but today we could see transfer users to use custom devices Like Raspberry Pi and similar to play music. 

The reason is finance crisis and price of currently available solutions for sale. 

From here we should pay attention to next point - what is a next steps for Spotify? Support OEM's with new functionality to disable possible custom way todo similar solution t home. This point should be good because number of sales of OEM devices has been related to Spotify gross margin. 

Second way is to provide more functionality to users, and lost margin from OEM's. As we could see here only features with additional payment could be provided from Spotify, but I think amount of features to provide for additional payments is not enough. 

So guy's we can ask for Hi-Fi, for some Spotify connect available for all family in subscription, and more and more usable function for us but not, because is not a part of real plan how to do business in Spotify. 

The one way as written above - go to others for required functionality to make Spotify money lost. This only single way to do. 

[El0h1m]

@demo_sphere 

Remember that all Tidal's tracks labeled as a 'Master' have no longer true CD Quality available.

All Tidal's 'Master' tracks stream in FOLDED MQA when streaming 'Lossless'. Which is even worse than fully unfolded MQA.

Only tracks without 'Master' are really Lossless.

Qobuz is the only service with true HI-Res and CD quality.
If want to CD Quality only then Deezer as well.