Lossless Listening Arrives on Spotify Premium

[Multiway]

It sounds great to me. Of course their previous 320kbps also sounded great too. I prefer to use Spotify over other services because their app is the best and their connect feature works with every device I have.

I agree.

As we have a family sub, with the other members using Spotify (various features I don't personally use) and we have lots of Sonos and Alexa devices that would be reduced to being app controlled only with say Qobuz or Tidal, Spotify is going to win the overall contest there.

For ease of use and working with everything, it always has. That's why Spotify is popular!

It's only now (after years of lobbying) we get Lossless and it can complete for SQ on my hifi.

Whilst I've had Spotify for many years I've not be able to enjoy it for hifi listening until now!
Been solely on Qobuz

I've been using Spotify Lossless exclusively for the last few days.

It suggests similar things I'll like / challenge me with interesting new music far more pleasingly than Qobuz ever managed!

You pays your money...

 

[Moti]

Lossless is ramping up today in Finland. It seems that automatic bit reduction is not Optional anymore but it won´t effect Lossless, so music will stop if data speed is not enough?

 

[sigbergaudio]

Woop!

 

[pinger]

I don't stream but do folks actually hear a difference in sound quality between lossless and non lossless? Just curious

 

[Pearljam5000]

Finally got the update

 

[sergeauckland]

I don't stream but do folks actually hear a difference in sound quality between lossless and non lossless? Just curious

In a word, No. But it's nice to have anyway.

S.

 

[Multiway]

I don't stream but do folks actually hear a difference in sound quality between lossless and non lossless? Just curious

Ye Gods yes!

 

[A Surfer]

You shouldn't be hearing a difference, but Spotify might cook the books so to speak and maybe juices the lossless stream to be slightly louder. Typically louder is perceived as better, all else being equal.

 

[staticV3]

FYI, I tested Spotify Lossless on a WiiM Mini.

Signal chain: Spotify Connect->WiiM Mini->Hifime UR23->USB Audio Recorder Pro.

The recording was nulled against the same track purchased on Juno Download (FLAC).

Pkane Deltawave reports: 100% Bit Perfect



Keep in mind that if you enable Lossless in the App, then stream to an external device, you have to once again select Lossless specifically for that device.
Otherwise it will default back to 320Kbps.

 

[SKBubba]

Unscientific A/B comparison between Spotify lossless and Tidal via roon. No difference. Both sound great. May be able to save a few bucks...

 

[Joe Smith]

Question: I use Spotify Duo in the US, primarily via iPhone app and latest version of Linux Mint Desktop app. How will I know if lossless is available to me - do they just do it as a silent push?

 

[SKBubba]

Question: I use Spotify Duo in the US, primarily via iPhone app and latest version of Linux Mint Desktop app. How will I know if lossless is available to me - do they just do it as a silent push?

For me, it just showed up one morning in streaming quality settings. A few days later I got a pop-up saying I had it. It's done at the account level on their servers, so you'll get it on all devices at the same time, assuming the apps are current.

 

[mhardy6647]

I don't stream but do folks actually hear a difference in sound quality between lossless and non lossless? Just curious

In a word, No. But it's nice to have anyway.

S.

Is it? If so, why?*
Some of this stuff does just elude me.

_______________
* N.B. this is a rhetorical question/grumble -- I don't mean to be picking on either of the quoted posters!

 

[Mike_Trueman]

Still waiting for a BluOS update to get lossles on my streamer. (NAD)
Lossless works on my phone and on my PC.

 

[Tassin]

Unplug your NAD and try again. That did the trick for me.

 

[pablolie]

In a word, No. But it's nice to have anyway.
...

With very well recorded tracks that I am very familiar with, I can differentiate the two, HOWEVER:

1. It's not enough of a difference to prevent me from fully enjoying and being able to immerse myself in music, be it Spotify's 320k OggVorbis or similar great quality compression.
2. I actually have been trained to spot differences, so I can simply ask "Play the percussion solo at 4:33" and I'll be able to tell (again, with specific tracks I ask for).

In a nutshell, even though I can spot differences on occasion, I equally enjoy tracks in lossless and -say- OggVorbis 320k. And we didn't have to wait for Spotify lossless to establish that. Listening to a track from my library of flac rips and original Spotify established that forever ago for me.

 

[Mike_Trueman]

Unplug your NAD and try again. That did the trick for me.

What is your BluOS version?

NAD is still using BluOS 4.10.19. and blocking the BLUOS 4.12.4 update.

 

[masterhw]

Agree it is difficult, but under ideal conditions possible to discern the difference.
I’ve begun to suspect the master, and internal handling/processing of the audio is more important than the final codec and bitrate applied. I switched to Apple Music earlier this year after reading their Apple Digital Master whitepaper and was impressed that they seem to be the only service that actually has standards as to what gets uploaded, and how they process/convert the audio into its different distribution formats. Other services could be doing this adequately too, but the silence on the subject is not confidence inspiring.

 

[gwing]

I don't stream but do folks actually hear a difference in sound quality between lossless and non lossless? Just curious

Sure, when the compression is bad enough it is painfully noticeable. At least it was thirty years ago when available bandwidth and storage was much lower so there actually were extremely low bit rate recordings around. My ears are older now and compression is better done so maybe I couldn't hear the difference but why bother when FLAC is available?

 

[Mike_Trueman]

Unplug your NAD and try again. That did the trick for me.

Reboot did the trick also
But still not using the latest BluOS update.