[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!

[user-removed]

I tried Tidal and Amazon HD in the past but wasn't too impressed with their apps. I'm currently in the middle of a 3-month Deezer trial and from a purely user experience perspective, it's been the best out of those three.

I primarily use my phone to navigate and discover music, then cast it to various systems in my home. So the mobile app experience is really important to me. IMO, Deezer comes the closest to Spotify's, with a simple, clean design along with decent music discovery. I do miss Spotify Connect, which made it easier to send music to more endpoints, but that's not a deal-breaker as I have a Chromecast device connected to most systems.

[user-removed]

If you give Deezer (or any other platform) a try, I recommend using a service like Tune My Music to transfer your Spotify library to the new platform. It'll give you insight into how many tracks it doesn't have and be a good test if you can truly live without Spotify. For me, Deezer was missing about two dozen tracks (out ~1,000 I have on Spotify). 

I still have to give Qobuz a try, but either way, if Spotify doesn't provide an update on this soon, I'll be canceling my Spotify Premium subscription and moving to one that provides lossless. Maybe the more of us who let their money do the talking, the more chance this has of success! If that time comes, I'd be happy to come back. 

[Audioplayer]

@Samppa3

Your phone does have a limited output as far as the Dac that is built into it goes. You’ll have to look up it’s spec. as I don’t remember what it is. It will allow you at least CD quality of which Qobuz, Deezer, Tidal and Amazon can provide so you would benefit from that anyway. As for higher resolution Is where your phone limitation comes in however there is a way to get it to provide a digital output thus bypassing it’s built in Dac which you would then need to feed that signal into a Dac that can output higher resolutions. You will have to search for how or maybe someone else here can explain how. I think one way was some camera adapter Apple makes but I don’t fully remember. In the case of Tidal you would be in my opinion overpaying for it’s fake version of higher resolution by having to use it’s awful MQA scam of a product that I don’t think sounds good either and in order to even use that stupid codec or whatever you call it to it’s fullest you would have to use a Dac that has the MQA capability which limits your choice of Dac(MQA is convoluted in the way it works too with hardware and software unfolds it’s just too stupid to even bother with). Qobuz and Amazon higher resolutions however do give you true higher resolutions Flac files that are non MQA and it gives you a much wider choice of Dacs to chose from as long as that Dac can do 96/24 or 192/24 (note: if you are listening to a file that is 192/24 on a 96/24 or lower rate Dac it would work but it would be limited to whatever the highest resolution your Dac could do in this case that 192/24 signal would be down converted to 96/24 and you wouldn’t be getting the full 192/24 unless your Dac was capable of 192/24 also note if your Dac is capable of 192/24 it can handle anything below it natively so nothing to worry about there) you would be fine as that’s what the bulk of available higher resolution content is available at from Qobuz and Amazon which are also cheaper than Tidal. Amazon HD has other issues that turns me off from it currently though. Qobuz boasts the most higher than CD resolution content currently anyway so something to consider. Of course content is subjective and user interface/features/functions is another. At least they all usually have so kind of free or low cost trials so you can more easily decide which you prefer.

[Samppa3]

@Audioplayer

Thanks for the reply and this is little complicated situation for me. I like physical record collecting (vinyl mainly but also cd), so streaming is like for background listening, looking for new/old interesting releases, new artists/bands and definitely no reason to overpay as sometimes the difference between lossless and hi-res might turn out to be not that great (I think my system costs maybe around $10000) .  Anyways have to think this thing now and see what service Im going with. Spotify would be best if they had lossless quality. They definitely have the best recommendation algorithm going. Deezer is ok, but damn that frontpage of app is just so wasted on offering the same playlists etc. Tidal is more closer to Spotify and Qobuz is way back behind.

[roots123]

No answer in 3 years? Nice job.

[PaulMac]

If this idea does become a part of our plans we'll change this to 'Under Consideration'. Until then just keep leaving your feedback here so we can pass it on internally. Thank you!

That update was posted more than 3.5 years ago.

Can someone from Spotify please take a few seconds to explain the rationale behind asking people to continue leaving feedback so that it can be passed on internally?

The thread currently has 22k vokes and has consistently been in the top 2 or 3 ideas since it was started in 2014. Presumably this should already have been passed on internally, over and over again? And yet it doesn't even warrant a change to "under consideration". Which brings me back to my main point - why bother asking people to leave feedback for something you're already aware of?

[johan-sson]

Well said!

[Kirkyoung]

Yup. Well said and I think many folk shall vote with their feet and head off to better sound streaming services! You can spend and lot of money on say Sonos and yet have to put up with inferior sound reproduction from Spotify! Whom cannot find time to answer the questions from its customers!

[rastaman2000]

@Samppa3

We may try "AB-ing", but this will always be subjective only - which we "like/prefer...".

To objectively compare 'streamed copies' against the originals, we'll need to compare the (audio) data/files using appropriate analysis-capable software, instead of ears:

- https://duckduckgo.com/?q=COMPARE+AUDIO+FILES&t=ofa&ia=web

- https://duckduckgo.com/?q=COMPARE+AUDIO+FILES&t=ofa&ia=images&iax=images

This means to bit-perfectly rip a CD https://duckduckgo.com/?q=BIT-PERFECT+CD-RIP&t=ofa&ia=web and then compare the resulting file with the (16/44.1) file downloaded from the streaming service being reviewed/tested - care should be dedicated to selecting same masters/issues (of a track/song).

*

One is sure: Spotify admits not only lossy digital compression, but even audio manipulation called ReplayGain:

- https://artists.spotify.com/faq/mastering-and-loudness#how-does-spotify-process-my-audio-files

- https://artists.spotify.com/faq/mastering-and-loudness#will-spotify-play-my-track-at-the-level-it's-...

- https://artists.spotify.com/faq/mastering-and-loudness#what-is-loudness-normalization-and-why-is-it-...

- https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=ReplayGain_specification

- https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=ReplayGain

[Samppa3]

That's interesting, have you @rastaman2000 done comparisons?

I've followed things like these around the internet, talking and testing, analyzing both sound and then looking the pictures of sound waves etc.

For example pages like these:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/tidal-vs-deezer-vs-qobuz-vs-spotify-vs-ap...

I listened to couple metal-albums (that I know pretty well) last saturday and there was some really clear differences between Tidal and Spotify. For me Spotify did sound pretty good, but once I listened to the same album as lossless, the sound was wider, vocalists voice more detailed, sound had more bass, the cymbals were clearer and everything was more precise, treble and bass really different. I even had some more volume so the sound became more alive.

It's not actually too different (always), but once you know some albums well and have listened to them from own cd or lp for the umpteenth time also it's evident that if you listen to music from headphones once you listen to lossless or hi-res then there's not that easy to go back to lossy-codecs (even if they can sound so close to lossless).

Sometimes, I feel or experience that the same album in lossless sounds a bit more flat on Deezer, but the Tidal somehow feels better, more musical and alive, then again some other album might be the opposite on Deezer and Tidal then suffering from something. But it's sometimes placebo as feeling and state of mind might actually affect on how I sense this.

It's not always so obvious, as sometimes some albums sound better and some not so good..So I think Im back to testing these couple services and maybe have to really think of what will be my favorite streaming service.

Somedays I feel that I could settle with Spotify because I mostly like to listen to cd and vinyl, but then again maybe not on some other day. Decisions and decisions really..