To these ears the difference between lossless and Spotify is night and day,even on a modest system. I am baffled that Spotify can to appeal to anyone using something better than cheap ear buds through a phone.
I have to disagree. Having done some testing of Qobuz HiRes, Spotify MP3 along with locally held CD quality FLAC and 320mbps MP3s I (and a friend) came to the conclusion that Spotify are doing something that messes up the sound. Could be watermarking, could be poor choice of which mastering is in the catalogue, or something else. But listen to a few things back to back and I think you’ll find this. As it happens we were mostly listening to older titles as that’s my friend’s preference, so if it’s mastering it might be less of an issue with newer releases that are likely to have just the one mastering. But if, as my gut feeling suspects, it’s watermarking it’ll apply more broadly.
Slightly off topic but how did the flac/mp3 files sound compared to Qobuz?
I’m not convinced other streaming services sound better.
Spotify is what you listen to in the car (vs Radio propaganda) or when you're like 12 years old and can't afford to buy anything for real.
Spotify is what you listen to in the car (vs Radio propaganda) or when you're like 12 years old and can't afford to buy anything for real.
Yes, any streaming service would have been a dream come true... I remember using a dual tape recorder!*When I was 12 years old and couldn't afford anything for real, spotify would have been a dream come true.
That being said, why settle for a lossy service to play at home if better is available?