Why does spotify sound better then my hifi setup through headphones?

[antcollinet]

A little rolled off in the treble. It's subtle, but if you know what to listen for it's pretty clearly there.

I'd be really interested in how far down the bitrate options you have to go to in this blind test, in order to hear the difference between lossless, and well compressed MP3.

You'd need to score close to perfect on the 320kb/s to demonstrate you can hear the difference between spotify and lossless.

list.lame.html

Personally - even on 96kb/s I only scored as shown (Basically on 3 out of 5 tracks no better than a coin toss)...



(Listening on speakers)

 

[dasdoing]

It's highly unlikely, almost impossible actually, to hear obvious diferençes with good quality compressed audio.
most likely the PC jack can't drive those heaphones properly

 

[dfuller]

I

I'd be really interested in how far down the bitrate options you have to go to in this blind test, in order to hear the difference between lossless, and well compressed MP3.

You'd need to score close to perfect on the 320kb/s to demonstrate you can hear the difference between spotify and lossless.

list.lame.html

Personally - even on 96kb/s I only scored as shown (Basically on 3 out of 5 tracks no better than a coin toss)...

View attachment 297182

(Listening on speakers)

I was able to tell a difference at 320. It didn't sound like lossy artifacts to me, just like the highs were shelved down a little bit. Most noticeable with cymbals.

 

[antcollinet]

I

I was able to tell a difference at 320. It didn't sound like lossy artifacts to me, just like the highs were shelved down a little bit. Most noticeable with cymbals.

What were your scores across the full suit of tests?

 

[dasdoing]

the test is from 2020, and uses MP3
it is probable not even valid for the Lame encoder anymore, let alone superior algorythms like AAC which SPotify uses

 

[dasdoing]

this is AAC, but also outdated, but better than doing the Lame test https://abx.digitalfeed.net/spotify-hq.html

 

[antcollinet]

the test is from 2020, and uses MP3
it is probable not even valid for the Lame encoder anymore, let alone superior algorythms like AAC which SPotify uses

Well I doubt LAME has changed significantly in the last 3 years. However you are correct that AAC is superior to MP3, so if you are able to tell the difference with AAC - you should be able to score very well with the test linked above. Why don't you try it?

Sorry if I sound skeptical, but every large scale test demonstrates that people can't tell the difference even with relatively low bit rate MP3 when tested blind.

 

[dasdoing]

this is AAC, but also outdated, but better than doing the Lame test https://abx.digitalfeed.net/spotify-hq.html

oops, I actually could hear a diference in the first high hat hit of the second song. pulled the rest out of laziness, so I only show the first two. the first one I gave up hearing a diference and picked out of chance

not a valid teest I know,
was just curious about that high hat hit if I was imagining things

will probably do a valid test, because now I got curious

 

[PHD]

For most people, at least by blind tests, lossy formats like MP3 or AAC @ 320kbps will sound more appealing and "warmer". This is because of the psychoacoustic phenomena of masking, where nearby frequencies to a dominant frequency are absent (masked) by the lossy encoder. This makes the listener's brain pay more attention and focus easily on the dominant sound/instruments with less background distraction from nearby frequencies. Dynamic compression and limited stereo image width of lossy format also contribute to this positive psychoacoustic effect. Stereo lossy formats will often use joint stereo encoding in which some left-right channel crossover may occur, further contributing to a more focused and natural stereo image, especially when listening with headphones.

 

[antcollinet]

For most people, at least by blind tests, lossy formats like MP3 or AAC @ 320kbps will sound more appealing and "warmer".

Not if they can't tell the difference it won't. And for the vast majority - if not all - they can't.

spotify quality vs "hi-fi" lossless options, i cant tell a difference.

I have used spotify for years now and was wondering if going above mp3 spotify quality would make a difference, and have tested to see if i can hear a difference every now and then I have tried apple lossless and tidal and that abx blind test online i cannot tell a single difference, i have...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[dfuller]

Not if they can't tell the difference it won't. And for the vast majority - if not all - they can't.

spotify quality vs "hi-fi" lossless options, i cant tell a difference.

I have used spotify for years now and was wondering if going above mp3 spotify quality would make a difference, and have tested to see if i can hear a difference every now and then I have tried apple lossless and tidal and that abx blind test online i cannot tell a single difference, i have...

audiosciencereview.com

That's why I was so surprised I heard a difference - I usually can't tell. I had initially switched over to Tidal because of the frustrating change to Spotify's UI, and then, later, while not paying particularly close attention albeit on a song I knew well, I noticed that Tidal was a little brighter! I thought it was Tidal being a little tilted up at first, and not Spotify.

To investigate it further, I ripped the same track from a CD and did a digital loopback to record from Tidal (at lossless, not "master") and Spotify (at max quality) into Pro Tools so I could rapidly switch between them.

Tidal and CD sounded the same, and nulled 60+dB down (anything left I attribute to not being perfectly sample aligned). Hence, it was Spotify that was different.

 

[jmillar]

Spotify uses Ogg Vorbis (and not MP3, AAC or Opus) probably because it works well and is public domain.

 

[b7676]

Exactly and that's what I tend to prefer it seems

So I guess i need darker speakers

Sennheiser models in particular are spoken of as usually being dark or veiled for having a brand-characteristic teble crash as voicing. Generally cutting down on presentation of reflections into mics and the room setup.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

For most people, at least by blind tests, lossy formats like MP3 or AAC @ 320kbps will sound more appealing and "warmer". This is because of the psychoacoustic phenomena of masking, where nearby frequencies to a dominant frequency are absent (masked) by the lossy encoder. This makes the listener's brain pay more attention and focus easily on the dominant sound/instruments with less background distraction from nearby frequencies. Dynamic compression and limited stereo image width of lossy format also contribute to this positive psychoacoustic effect. Stereo lossy formats will often use joint stereo encoding in which some left-right channel crossover may occur, further contributing to a more focused and natural stereo image, especially when listening with headphones.

um, for most people, by blind tests...they can't tell any difference at all. There might (although I really doubt it ftmp) be a few people who can reliably identify a difference blind between 320kb lossy and lossless - probably people like Amir who have done some training to identify specific nearly imperceptible artifacts, but by no means can "most" people identify any difference at all. (or were you referring to comparisons between 320kb lossy and lower bitrate lossy?)

 

[bodhi]

um, for most people, by blind tests...they can't tell any difference at all. There might (although I really doubt it ftmp) be a few people who can reliably identify a difference blind between 320kb lossy and lossless - probably people like Amir who have done some training to identify specific nearly imperceptible artifacts, but by no means can "most" people identify any difference at all. (or were you referring to comparisons between 320kb lossy and lower bitrate lossy?)

I think this isn't getting anywhere. In the internet all kinds of people are hearing all kinds of things and no way they can be proven wrong.

My guess is that majority of people can't ace the 96kbps test from earlier and talk about 320kbps is just laughable.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

I think this isn't getting anywhere. In the internet all kinds of people are hearing all kinds of things and no way they can be proven wrong.

My guess is that majority of people can't ace the 96kbps test from earlier and talk about 320kbps is just laughable.

...especially when words such as "most" and "easily" enter the equation.

 

[teched58]

I will offer a suggestion which might or might not be of any use, but it's a different thing to try from the above discussion (unless I missed it), so it might be worth a shot:

Take your headphones and a CD and go to a friends house -- a friend with a non-Denon stereo -- and have a listen. See if you still think it's not as good as Spotify, and/or if you perceive a difference between their setup and yours. (And of course you could also have a listen to Spotify while there, too.)

I can't believe I'm saying this, since I'm an objectivist and an EE. However, it is my gut feeling that the issue is the Denon amplifier. Yes, Denon is a fine brand and the PMA-600NE is consider a good amp. However, I restore vintage audio and have played around with a bunch of Denon stuff from the 1990s and 2000s. The Denon headphone outputs always IMHO suck. I've never noticed anything w the speaker outs, but at the same time I haven't been looking for anything.

Anyway, it's worth a shot cause you will be changing a variable in the path of the problem that you're seeing.

 

[dasdoing]

wtf?

I can't be guessing here even though I chose only 5
there is some degredation in the treble

and I did this listening to my TV speakers

 

[dasdoing]

It is very very subtle, but subtleness adds up.

 

[antcollinet]

wtf?

View attachment 298042

I can't be guessing here even though I chose only 5
there is some degredation in the treble

and I did this listening to my TV speakers

Well you can - with only 5, there is a 1 in 32 chance of getting all correct just by guessing. Still more likely though that you were hearing a difference, like my attempt with the killers above. It was easier to detect a difference with that track, but still not easy.

And how did you perform with the others?

And with it being that difficult to detect the difference (let alone preference), the important question is: Should we care?

Which bit rate were you testing?