Spotify to launch 'Hi-Fi' CD Quality Tier.

[Sukie]

I thoght Roon ppl wete not interested in this, they want to provide full experience.

We'll have to wait and see. At present, they are not interested. But the status quo depends on Tidal and Qobuz staying in business.

Don't get me wrong, I use Roon with Qobuz and am more than happy. However it is clear that Spotify's announcement indicates that they are keen to wipe out the competition. Roon may have their hand forced as the future unfold!

 

[jhaider]

Lossless is a lot less interesting than multichannel. I want one of the others to compete with Tidal in offering immersive and surround music.

 

[gvl]

However it is clear that Spotify's announcement indicates that they are keen to wipe out the competition.

I suspect most people couldn't care less if Spotify offers lossless or not. While some will migrate over from other services to Spotify because of it I doubt it will make a serious dent to their subscription stats.

 

[Zensō]

My guess is that this is in response to Amazon HD. Tidal, Qobuz, and Roon are hardly even rounding errors on Spotify’s books.

I have to admit to preferring Spotify’s discovery algorithms over all the others, including Roon’s. Considering what I pay for Roon + Tidal HiFi, plus my growing disdain for MQA, this very well could entice me away from Roon. It’ll be interesting to see the details.

 

[Chrispy]

My guess is that this is in response to Amazon HD. Tidal, Qobuz, and Roon are hardly even rounding errors on Spotify’s books.

I have to admit to preferring Spotify’s discovery algorithms over all the others, including Roon’s. Considering what I pay for Roon + Tidal HiFi, plus my growing disdain for MQA, this very well could entice me away from Roon. It’ll be interesting to see the details.

We'll see about pricing, what markets, etc. but agree Amazon is likely the biggest influence. I like Spotify, and after trialing Tidal and Qobuz (preferring Qobuz, f**k that MQA bullshit) I kept Spotify. I doubt I'll pay more for "cd quality" but I'll test it out if and when it actually happens (this is something that just comes up periodically, even with supposedly beta testers, but probably Spotify never found a really good reason outside of what the competition does....kinda like bi-wiring terminals on speakers and such "features" in avrs).

 

[soundwave76]

Good news! I used Tidal hifi for a few years but then switched back to Spotify because a) their algorithms for new music suggestions is superior, at least for me, and b) I can’t really hear the difference with Tidal

 

[bluefuzz]

I don't remember the last time something want on tidal, but was on Spotify, so it's coverage seems good to me.

Maybe Tidal has got better but when I tried Tidal a year or so ago it had barely 30% or thereabouts of what Spotify had of the music I searched for ...

 

[Sal1950]

Lossless is a lot less interesting than multichannel. I want one of the others to compete with Tidal in offering immersive and surround music.

Amen. I hope they get on the Atmos and Sony 3D bandwagon.

 

[ThatM1key]

There lossless audio is gonna suck just like Deezer, Qobuz, and Tidal. "Walmart" sources with terrible DR. I understand there lossy versions do have terrible DR but its very cheap every month. These companies always say that they care about audio quality and yet they rip there flacs from junky $5 walmart cds but its also the fact that there charging double for these lazy effects. People say we say finally have lossless and convenience but they forget that there giving up actual good flacs for that convenience. You all can bitter about prices and argue about whos better but there all equally sh-itty.

Edit: I would like to add that MQA and 24/96 on these steaming services suffer from terrible DR too. Don't deny the facts.

 

[abdo123]

There lossless audio is gonna suck just like Deezer, Qobuz, and Tidal. "Walmart" sources with terrible DR. I understand there lossy versions do have terrible DR but its very cheap every month. These companies always say that they care about audio quality and yet they rip there flacs from junky $5 walmart cds but its also the fact that there charging double for these lazy effects. People say we say finally have lossless and convenience but they forget that there giving up actual good flacs for that convenience. You all can bitter about prices and argue about whos better but there all equally sh-itty.

The streaming platform can only offer what the record label provides, they don't and can't pull shit out of their ass. And there are few threads on this forum showing (apples to apples) that the tracks are pretty identical across platform.

320kbps vorbis (current spotify quality) is pretty much identical to lossless. The only reason we're excited about this is to get rid off some lossy compression artifacts (clipping .etc) and get on that sweet sweet algorithims and sell our data to our corporate overlords.

 

[ThatM1key]

The streaming platform can only offer what the record label provides, they don't and can't pull shit out of their ass. And there are few threads on this forum showing (apples to apples) that the tracks are pretty identical across platform.

320kbps vorbis (current spotify quality) is pretty much identical to lossless. The only reason we're excited about this is to get rid off some lossy compression artifacts (clipping .etc) and get on that sweet sweet algorithims and sell our data to our corporate overlords.

Jumping from a junky ogg copy to a junky flac copy isn't gonna sound any better. The record companies provide these sh-itty copies because they think everybody is a blind sheep. Its not that hard for that record companies to give out good copies of songs.

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Lossless is a lot less interesting than multichannel. I want one of the others to compete with Tidal in offering immersive and surround music.

A streaming service for multichannel music?
Yes please.

 

[ThatM1key]

A streaming service for multichannel music?
Yes please.

It would be terrible like Tidal. Tidal uses Dolby digital + for its dolby atmos.

 

[cany89]

I’m not using spotify but I guess 320 vorbis will probably sound the same as their 16/44 offering.
What I do know however, is 16/44 on Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz are exactly same files. And they are not exact copies of 16/44 CDs. 24/96s on Qobuz are actually more like CD, because in most albums, that extra 8 bit is empty. And 24/96 is what label send to press on CD which converted to 16/44 in the process.

 

[Sukie]

I suspect most people couldn't care less if Spotify offers lossless or not. While some will migrate over from other services to Spotify because of it I doubt it will make a serious dent to their subscription stats.

Then why are they making the move to lossless?

They've either spotted a gap in the market, or (more likely) see it as an opportunity to nullify the potential threat of rivals. It's true that Amazon is likely to be at the top of that list, but the likes of Tidal and Qobuz are not on a particularly secure financial footing to start with.

Having said this, Qobuz previously reported that the launch of Amazon HD was actually good for their business, so who knows?

 

[Sukie]

What I do know however, is 16/44 on Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz are exactly same files. And they are not exact copies of 16/44 CDs.

Have you got a citation for this?

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

It would be terrible like Tidal. Tidal uses Dolby digital + for its dolby atmos.

I know you have a personal vendetta with all the "DR" stuff but to be perfectly frank: I always found excessively high dynamic range annoying as heck.

I don't want to flinch when a drum is hit just because I have to pump up the volume to be able to hear the subtle stuff.
DR is even more annoying in movies where dialogue (even humans screaming at the top of their lungs) is retardedly quiet compared to the boom boom effects.

I think a streaming service is great in order to discover the music, once you have found the candidates you like you can then proceed to buy physical media to get the best sonic quality. I doubt we will see multichannel FLAC streaming anytime soon.

 

[voodooless]

I’m not using spotify but I guess 320 vorbis will probably sound the same as their 16/44 offering.
What I do know however, is 16/44 on Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz are exactly same files. And they are not exact copies of 16/44 CDs. 24/96s on Qobuz are actually more like CD, because in most albums, that extra 8 bit is empty. And 24/96 is what label send to press on CD which converted to 16/44 in the process.

Actually, there is no reason for Spotify to use 16/44 as their base. Vorbis has no bit-depth. They could actually use 24/44 as source material and decode that to 24 bits as well.. Usually, a Vorbis decoder poops out only 16-bit audio though.

 

[abdo123]

Actually, there is no reason for Spotify to use 16/44 as their base. Vorbis has no bit-depth. They could actually use 24/44 as source material and decode that to 24 bits as well.. Usually, a Vorbis decoder poops out only 16-bit audio though.

I think you mean variable bit-depth. I think only DSD doesn't have an actual bit-depth.

 

[voodooless]

I think you mean variable bit-depth. I think only DSD doesn't have an actual bit-depth.

Well, internally it's floating-point, but those are not audio samples, so you cannot compare to the 16/24 bits of samples.