How to change sound quality to 320 kbps ?

[nico2504]

Hello,

i just upgraded my spotify unlimited account to spotify premium because i want to use the better sound quality with 320 kpbs.

but where can i change the soundquality ? in the options i just found the button for high sound quality, but there stands nothing with 320 kpbs or 160 kpbs ?

i hope you can help me 😉

[Josh]

Hello!

The sound quality is explained here 🙂 High Quality is 320 kbps.

Enjoy your music! 🙂 

[nico2504]

but how do i know that i now use 320 kpbs ?

with my unlimited account for half the prize there was also the button stream with high quality.

now i use premium and its the same.

a year ago i also used premium and there i could change between 160kpbs and 320kpbs as a premium user.

did that change ?

[Josh]

Hello again!

I don't think high quality listening is available to Unlimited subscribers, i think it is only a Premium feature, if you select the option it will play in 320 kbps for songs that allow that (which is basically all of them, as described here). Right now, all Spotify has is the "High Quality" option on desktop and the normal, high, and extreme quality on mobile that you can choose from. 

EDIT: If you want to see the bitrate used exactly try this guide 🙂 

[Joe]

Hey, what device and platform are you using? 

[nico2504]

i use windows 7 on my pc and the normal desktop player

the last 6 months i used spotify unlimited and i definitely had the high quality option on.

i thought that means that i use 160kpbs and not 96 kpbs. 

and now i upgraded to premium because i thought then i could have the option between 160 and 320

but there is still just the high quality option button, but how do i know that this high quality option is now better then the high quality button at unlimited ? 

1 year ago there was a button between 320 and 160 kpbs on the normal desktop player...

[Joe]

@Josh is right. There has only been the "high quality" checkbox in the desktop client options since I joined a year ago. On an unlimited subscription that gave you 160kbps but on Premium it gives 320 kbps.

[nico2504]

but why do we have to think about a plausibe answer that "could" fit on ourself ?

maybe its just a placebo effect..

i want spotify to show me that i now use 320 kpbs and not 160 kpbs 

because the high quality option is and looks exactly the same like in the unlimited version

[Peter__]

That option should not have even been selectable if you are logged into an unlimited account. Interestingly, I just logged out of my Premium account and into free and the option was selected, but upon unticking it and then attempting to reselect it I was told that it is a premium feature. 

Can anyone else with premium (and a free account) confirm that if you have high quality selected when logged into Premium and then log into free the option remains selected? 

That is more likely to be a GUI bug than a streaming bug however. As mentioned above, the desktop client only has two quality streaming rates:

- Normal Quality (for free and unlimited) at 160kbps.

- High Quality (for premium only) at 320kbps. 

Unfortunately apart from listening there is no way to check the quality of the stream I am aware off. 

[Josh]

Yep i can confirm it remained checked @Peter__ (OS X) 

[Peter__]

Delightful - will raise it as a bug.

[Peter__]

Raised as a bug here. 

[nico2504]

so when the desktop client only has two quality streaming rates:

- Normal Quality (for free and unlimited) at 160kbps.

- High Quality (for premium only) at 320kbps. 

and i checked the high quality button the last 6 month even though i only had unlimited.. 

does that mean that i now have the same soundquality but i pay the double price  ?

( i thought high quality in unlimited is the choice between 96 and 160..  but when there is just the choice between 160 and 320 then must high quality in unlimited mean 320 kpbs ?! because normally you can't choose high quality in unlimited right ? )

[Josh]

The bug report says we are unsure if it really played in high quality or not, but 320 kbps is only for premium, normally i think all Unlimited does is take away the ads and in some countries the time limit, no sound quality difference. 

[Peter__]

Unlimited and free stream at the same 160kbps in the desktop client and on those subscriptions you can't alter the quality in the desktop client at all.

I would assume that even though you had the option checked with Unlimited (which shouldn't be possible), it was really only streaming at 160kbps but its hard to tell. With that option selected with premium you will definitely get 320kbps where available.

[Zsro]

Do not 'assume'  :: Spotify is very unclear about qualty, streaming and 'torrenting/datasharing'

I had hoped someone had checked the actual data-stream.

'Does anyone hear the difference' ?

I am trying Premium now. I played 'Body & Soul by Joe Jackson - but it certainly is less quality than how i am used to have it on CD.

I would want FLAC.

I would not me surprised if 'Premium' is MAX 320. When available. - But others then 160 kbs.

Less than that is not even  'music' Haha

[user-removed]

Spotify is about cheap convenience, not quality.

I have a fairly meagre setup of Xonar D1 and Creative T40II but I can clearly hear the quality is lacking compared to CD/Flac on a lot of music.

Spotify is great for finding new music but if you really love an album you probably should buy it on CD. Unfortuanately I can't do this because of cost but I do realise I am missing out to some degree.

It's only the same as Bluray versus Netflix.

Edit: this is not a diss towards Spotify just being realistic. You can't expect to spend a tenner and have bit perfect lossless audio.

Edit2: Obviously you can and do expect that but you don't live in the real world.

[salehmetallica]

hi...

i need 320kbps quality. Please help me.

Thanks.

[Zsro]

Obviously for critical listeners 320 kbps is not enough.

BUT i expect Spotify to give total clarity about rates, promises and ACTUAL quality.

(Source 160 kbps stream at 320 does not improve sound)

I suppose Spotify does not have everything at "360".  And there will be bugs here and there, or you need to empty cache.

Cheap convenience is elsewhere too  🙂

[Zsro]

ave you tried and compared Gr**veshark?