Spotify running on Yamaha AVR

[SadMike]

Plan

Premium

Country

 USA

Device

Galaxy 5s, Yamaha TRS-7790 and Yamaha AV-A770)

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

I am a new user and just discovered something I did not know.  I was shuting down my system for the night and the music wouldn't stop even after I turned off my phone. I assumed that since I started Spotify from my phone it was streaming the content to the receiver through my phone. Since my phone is now turned off and the album I was listening to is still playing I guess the music is coming via my Internet connection. That would have been nice to know.  The question is, does anyone know what the bit rate is when playing like this. Pandora tells you the quality of their streams over various connections. I can't find that information for Spotify. The system I'm listening to now is about $10000.00 of high end audio gear. When I thought it was streaming throught my phone I assumed it was MP3 quality. I know what I'm listening to now is not as good as the original source material which I own and am very familiar with. I use Spotify and Pandora for background music when I'm working so it doesn't have to be the greatest. I'm a retired EE and just like to understand the tech.

[Alfredo · Accepted solution]

Hey @SadMike.

The quality of the music played on your Yamaha AVR depends on the quality settings you select on your phone.

The quality settings for streaming are the following:

• Low - Equivalent to approximately 24 kbit/s (HE-AACv2 format).
• Normal – Equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s (Ogg Vorbis format).
• High – Equivalent to approximately 160kbit/s (Ogg Vorbis format).
• Very high – Equivalent to approximately 320kbit/s (Ogg Vorbis format).
• Automatic – Dependent on your network connection. 

I hope this helps.

[SadMike]

Thanks for the information.

I still have questions.

I am listening to my Yamaha AVR right now. I selected the music I am listening to on my Galaxy S5 phone. I went to "Your Library" and clicked on the sprocket in the upper right hand corner. Under "Music Quality" it says (Unavailable now). This is the only place that I can find that lets me set music quality. Am I in the right place?

I think I asked this the first time . Once I select an album on my phone is it streaming to my AVR through my WiFi and not through my phone? Seems to be because I can shut off my phone and the album will finish playing.

The other night something really weird happened. My phone was off, an album was playing and as I was shutting down my PC Spotify was open with the same music I was listening to. I did not launch Spotify on my PC because I can't listen to the music through my AVR. Any ideas?

[Alfredo]

You're welcome!

Right now, the quality settings can only be updated before you start casting, once Connect takes over, the settings are locked down.

About the way the broadcast works, once you start the playback, you could even turn the phone off and it won't stop. However, once the album or playlist you chose is over, you'll need the app to play something else.

If your Spotify desktop app oppened automatically it could have the option to automatically open when Windows starts up. In this case, it could Connect to your current session on the AVR.

Right now, if you choose the speaker as a Connect device on your phone, you can continue managing the music from your desktop app without any problem, this also works for Chromecasts.

All the best.

[VitosX]

---

@Alfredo

The quality of the music played on your Yamaha AVR depends on the quality settings you select on your phone.

Are sure of that? I was always convinced the stream quality in Spotify Connect mode is non-configurable and depends on audio device manufacturer (usually should be the best quality for HiFi network receivers / AVRs). 

[SadMike]

Thanks for helping so far. I had to stop working on this for a couple of days. 

So to recap, the app on my phone, tablet, or PC is just a control panel unless I am specifically using them as listening device. If I Bluetooth to my car or to a bluetooth speaker or headphones the music will then come through the device. If I am listening to the AVR's, the app establishes a connection between the AVR and my network and the music never goes through the PC or whatever protable device I use to control it.

So far I have managed to get both of my Yamaha AVR's to work with Spotify. 

I was able to change the audio quality to High on my Galaxy S5. It worked as you said. I had to make the adjustment before I connected. My phone needs to be free so this afternoon I successfully got my PC to connect to the AVR in my music room.  That leaves my phone free for incoming calls and emails. Howerever I could not find a menu to allow me to adjust quality. Can you tell me where it is?

I noticed that one of the things Spotify does that Pandora doesn't. It can sync accross devices. I launched Spotify on my PC to explore the setting I described above. For the heck of it I launched Spotify on my phone and it sync'd to my computer screen.  There is one drawback to this feature. Some day I'm going to forget to turn off the other AVR in the house and it will sync to the one in my music room, start playing really loud, and scare the S**t out of my wife upstairs!!!