How does Spotify's Premium streaming at 320 kbps compare to hi-rez and CD?

[Mike Gillespie]

I'm ignorant about this. But how does Spotify premium streaming at 320 kbps compare to listening to hi-rez files or what I can get at 16/44 off a CD? Thanks.

 

[johsti]

You may or may not be able to tell a difference. I prefer mog over spotify, but they are similar services except all of mog's music is in 320 compared to spotify who is supposed to be updating everything in their catalog to 320. For casual listening I find 320 to be very good quality and enjoyable.

 

Hi-res and cd is better, but 320 is high enough quality to determine if you want to buy the album.

 

[slowdown5646]

Is Spotify going to be offering 320 with all of its services? Right now the interruptions and low quality music isn't worth it for the free service, and all I really want from the $10 service is the high quality music, but I would definitely drop $5 a month on 320 ad-free music.

 

To me, the differences of 320 from CD quality are relatively subtle, but I have cheaper equipment than most of the users here I think. The difference between high-rez and CD however are far less subtle to me. Like I said, if Spotify offers 320 with the $5 service, I will purchase it in a heartbeat.

 

[realhifi]

If you don't hear much difference from 320 to cd's then it would seem like $10 a month is one hell of a bargain. I would strongly doubt they will offer 320 in their $5 a month service because they are probably at their tipping point of giving that away as well. I am on Rhapsodyand Pandora's premium services but am real close to pulling the trigger on Spotify too. To me for less than the cost of a cd a month to have all that music at my fingertips? No brainer.

 

[slowdown5646]

$10 is still a good price, but it's a little harder to justify when there are free alternatives to streaming music including the free version of Spotify, and I would only use it for discovering new music so it's kinda like I'm spending money to save money lol. The $5 difference is enough for "maybe" instead of "definitely". But I'll definitely wait until they have nearly everything available in 320 before I pull that trigger.

 

[AudioDoctor]

but you are forgetting two things...

 

1) no more ads..

 

and

 

2) you can stream albums of your choice to a Sonos or Squeezebox, etc...

 

[slowdown5646]

2) would be a deal-breaker if I had a streaming device for sure!

 

[Paul R]

And I am ferocious about not paying monthly recurring fees. This $10 is worth it.

 

Despite the irritations I have having finding something that will stream it correctly. Even using Airfoil on a hardwired Mac I get some dropouts. Annoying.

 

-Paul

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

but I am having zero problems streaming it to a Logitech Squeezebox, I also think we had this conversation before.

 

[Paul R]

Eh? I have no memory of having a conversation with you about Spotify, but perhaps we did.

 

You have no problems streaming to a Squeezbox, I have problems using Airfoil, and streaming to existing endpoints.

 

What is your point, exactly? Was that supposed to be some kind of superior or chastising comment?

 

-Paul

 

 

 

[Mike Gillespie]

Here's what they said:

 

Question from me: Just curious re sound quality difference between free and premium? Thanks.

 

Answer:

 

Hi!

 

All music streamed through Spotify is of high quality (96/160 kbps for mobile and 160 kbps for desktop) and we have a broad catalogue of over 15 million tracks. For Premium users however, we offer songs in 320 kbps! All tracks are not currently available in high bitrate (320 kbps) for our Premium users yet, but we are working very hard to transcode the remaining tracks, as quickly as possible. As our catalogue is increasing at an average of 10,000 new tracks each day, you can imagine this is an ongoing task, but a high priority for us at Spotify.

 

Hope this was helpful!

 

Kind Regards

 

John

Customer Relations Agent

Spotify Support team

http://www.spotify.com/help

 

===========================

 

Does any one know of a hi-rez streaming service?

 

Thanks.

 

Mike

 

[johsti]

If you place social networking above sound quality then spotify in sweden is the clear winner. Otherwise I would give my $5 a month to mog in berkeley and have everything in 320 plus a radio function like pandora. Tried both and I enjoy mog more. No affiliation, just not sure what the hype is about spotify after comparing the two services.

 

[AudioDoctor]

IIRC, we have had a discussion re: the streaming of Spotify before where you spoke of your efforts to use Airfoil to stream it to whatever you are streaming it to. No big deal, just thought I would let you know that using the Squeezebox I have no problems. The end point of the stream for me is my Peachtree Nova I have in my office.

 

[Paul R]

Had a very long day yesterday, still plagued by allergies, and now my better half is down with a hurt foot.

 

Swiss cheese brain too.

 

I am working with Rogue Amoeba to try and figure out what is going on with Spotify, but no real joy so far. Gathering some more debug information for them as well.

 

I'm about [] that far away from going and buying one of those Squeebox thingamajigs, but I'm not really sure what is what with them.

 

Just as an aside, could the Squuezebox thingie find and play my iTunes library, including hi-res material in there? Or would I have to load everything onto a Squeezebox server on a separate machine?

 

-Paul

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

Yes, it can find and play your iTunes up to and including 24/96 files.

 

You can run squeezebox server on any computer, it does not require a dedicated machine.

 

[johsti]

You could download squeezeplay to your computer which is a software version of a squeezebox and get a feel for the interface before making the purchase.

 

[realhifi]

Pretty much THE affordable way to get things from your computer (including FLAC) to your hifi. All the usual suspects are available through it too: Rhapsody, Pandora, Sirius, Spotify, internet radio, etc, etc, etc. All wireless, all decent sounding when fed from Squeezebox to a dac.

 

As far as playing your iTunes, just point the Squeezebox server to the library and it will play it.