[PS4] poor audio quality

[PJ_humbug]

I'm trialling Spotify premium but I'm finding the audio quality on the ps4 app has a very tinny muffled sound. I have a fibre connection and other apps like YouTube \iPlayer\Amazon which also have video have significantly better audio. I'm not expecting CD quality but it is now where neat what I think is worth paying for.

Is this something that will be improved?

[PJ_humbug]

Hi spotify-user,

I`m a high-end-freak and will try to answer a few questions. I use Accuphase equipment with large B&W speakers and an special Digital/Analog converter from Accuphase.

The best way to enjoy music with ps4:

1. HDMI is no good way to hear music with ps4 - the best way is to connect your audio devices with an optical cable (please use good quality)

2. the best audio setting for ps4 and spotify is PCM and optical out (this has no effect and changes on your HDMI connect !!!) on the audio output settings. Either your amp has an "good" internal D/A-converter or you use an external one.

3. the ps4 is in the same home network like your phone - so use the spotify-phone/tab-app to navigate through your own music, playlists/albums etc. (some user crab about the ps4 navigation)

In this case the sound is almost like a CD. Not only pop-music, also jazz and classic sounds very well. No equalizer necessary. As well i play my games with this setting and is`s a awesome sound.

[T4n2004]

Noticed this as well. Sounds horrible. Swapped over to my gramofone and it sounded fine. Something weird is going on with the stream.

[Ken-W]

I did some testing on this.  It seems to have something to do with your audio output settings on the PS4.

Dolby = Good bass, meh sound quality, rather muffled.

DTS = Great bass, compressed sound, quiet.

Linear PCM = Amazing sound, crisp, loud - and no bass at all.  My sub sits there idle.  So this sounds kind of thin and lightweight but much better mids and highs.

[Piricho]

Audio quality is like OP says, poor. Iv'e tried with a Plantronics Gamecom 777 headset trough the gamepad and also using my amp with fairly good speakers. The tinny sound consists. 

I thought it at first was my Spotify Free and upgraded to Premium but i will go back to Free after this month is up since it made no difference. Looking forward to at least an acknowledgement from Spotify so that i can stop thinking i'm the picky/sensetive dude that hears things. 

[melican]

Just tried the Spotify app on my PS4.  Sounds bad (and the output level seems low).  I have a premium Spotify account.

[616jsb75]

It sounds like complete garbage. Music unlimited , with all it's short comings at least had decent audio quality. I preferred m.u. to spotify through air play to my receiver. Now I much prefer airplay from the ipad to the receiver using spotify. Spotify on the ps4 is horrible. Tinny, harsh and overall a general let down. Seems to be a recurring theme with the ps4

[JaCe88]

Just upgraded to Spotify Premium as I realised I could listen to music in background when gaming but the music quality is a shocker - sounds horrible as I have this connected via HDMI to my receiver/amplifier and surround sound setup. I have a 300Mbit connection (up/down) in Singapore so it's definitely not that and the bandwidth detection should pick up my fibre connection.

[JaCe88]

Also would add I have my PS4 on linear PCM audio output.

[Michaelcawcutt]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I've done some testing on my high-end system. Spotify Bluetooth to my Onkyo, Spotify app on the Onkyo receiver and line out (1/8") to Onkyo all sound amazing regardless of listening mode.

Spotify premium on my ps4 is dreadful. No low's high's are capped and the entire experience sounds like a speaker playing into a blanket.

It's a bummer as I've been a premium member since its release in the States. Please update us!

[MMakerMx]

at least some ppl can hear* the difference between good and regular/poor quality music... i listening my loved electro songs a lot of time on youtube, but when i hear them on spotify through ps4 i clearly can detect the diference... of course, i am spotify premium maximum* quality is on, im thinking not to renovate next month

[Flacorobin]

Is there any way to fix this? I'm comparing with my Apple TV and the difference is huge, I don't want to use spotify on the ps4 anymore until there is a fix

[tchoonyong]

for your infor. To get good quality sound output for your audio i will recommend you to use optical audio cable instead of analog L/R Cable as they produce much better sound output since PS4 now is a purely digital game console so using optical audio cable provide u with full digital musics that fit into the quality of getting the best out of spotify musics.

I had tried using playstation pulse headsets and it produced good output of the sound from spotify and feel the same comparison with Apple TV.

Only issue i think u might be facing is a bug staying still within PS4 Firmware that may results to such an issue of poor quality.

[Joumater]

Ps4 spotify sounds pretty "thin". Connected with optical cable to AMP.

BT connection from spotify playing android or pc to amp sounds a lot better.

[tchoonyong]

You are right about that. In my opinion, it is more on both sony and spotify issue. For spotify they should allow us to do some settings customization. For sony it is the sound setting issues that occurs too when you play Blu-ray Disc. The bitstream setting not good when you choose it. Hope sony resolve it.

[Flacorobin]

I have been running some tests and I believe this is a spotify problem not streamin 320 Kbps to the PS4 app. Nothing to do with Sony this time.

I have a marantz NR1504 receiver and have my PS4 and Apple TV connected via HDMI. the PS4 audio output is set to PCM and the ATV is Dolby Digital.

If I stream spotify from my ipad to my ATV via airplay (using Extreme quality in the ipad) it sounds perfect, good bass level, well balanced sound, firm mediums and clear trebles.

Now if I change sources to my PS4, and start using the spotify app, sound is muddy, no bass, cricky treble and no sound preassure at all. It is like spotify is streaming really low quality mp3 but only to the PS4 spotify app.

Games and movies play just fine on my PS4 which leds me to believe spotify must be doing something dodgy with the streaming to the PS4. just FYI I'm a premium spotify user.

I really hope they fix this, I really do. I love spotify but since I do most of my listening in my living room through my AV receiver, and Apple TV seems to be doing far better work on streaming music I'm seriously considering moving to Beats streaming service. It's a shame that spotify does not have a nice solution for AV receivers (gramofon only does analog and streaming spotify through my ipad kills my battery life)

[Flacorobin]

I have found a way to get the exact same colorful rich sound I get from my Apple TV. If I select "digital out (optical)" on the audio output settings (even though I do not have a an optical cable connected to my av receiver) I get the same fantastic sounding input. Now here is the trade off,, the ps4 will output everything in stereo instead of 5.1, even games; I checked this on my av receiver. My receiver will mix the stereo track to 5.1, but this is a fake 5.1 since the original output from the ps4 is only stereo

So I see this as a slip of the Spotify app; if you select HDMI as your preferred audio output And you are not playing any 5.1 sources, just spotify, then the app should be sending stereo signal; instead of sending 5.1 signal but only 2 channel with data, thus allowing my receiver to do the mixing work. As soon as a 5.1 source kicks in, it should change to 5.1 pcm.
I checked on my ATV and this is exactly what the little box is doing; sends stereo until something 5.1 kicks in.

This thing is kind of driving me crazy; I want to be able to listen to music properly and play games in real 5.1 without having to modify audio settings back and forth!!
If anyone with a ps4 and a receiver is kind enough to try the above and confirm it would be wonderful so we can make Spotify fix this

[tchoonyong]

For me, I used optical audio cable connected directly to my Harmon Kardon Speaker in pcm stereo output it sound decent but if directly L/R Analog not so good but if go thru my analog mixer it works fine since I can manipulate the sound from my mixer. But the strange thing came, when u send sound from your spotify tablet app it tends to be slightly better than what the PS4 app.

[TheSubliminal1]

I'm trying to also figure out why the ps4 Spotify is so muffled being especially a premium subscriber! I'm using vodka' 1m Audio Quest hdmi cables on a HiFi Audio Vidoe system! It is very dissapointing to finally get the top of the line video gaming system and receive such horrible quality on it for the Spotify music! The in game sound is so realistic it'll make you nervous and sweat captivating the reality of the moment! PLEASE Help improve the Spotify music processing up to a 320kbps to complete the amazing experience that we all can enjoy!

[Looukas]

I agree, it actually sounds inferior to desktop free quality. Also there seems to be no quality difference between free and premium on the PS4, yet they mention better premium quality in [PlayStation specific] ads.

[kozzmozz14]

Hi spotify-user,

I`m a high-end-freak and will try to answer a few questions. I use Accuphase equipment with large B&W speakers and an special Digital/Analog converter from Accuphase.

The best way to enjoy music with ps4:

1. HDMI is no good way to hear music with ps4 - the best way is to connect your audio devices with an optical cable (please use good quality)

2. the best audio setting for ps4 and spotify is PCM and optical out (this has no effect and changes on your HDMI connect !!!) on the audio output settings. Either your amp has an "good" internal D/A-converter or you use an external one.

3. the ps4 is in the same home network like your phone - so use the spotify-phone/tab-app to navigate through your own music, playlists/albums etc. (some user crab about the ps4 navigation)

In this case the sound is almost like a CD. Not only pop-music, also jazz and classic sounds very well. No equalizer necessary. As well i play my games with this setting and is`s a awesome sound.