whitman;618759 Wrote: > Maybe you're right, Jackofall, and we should direct a discussion about > the quality of Spotify streams, or the lack of it, to Spotify's own > GetSatisfaction forum, rather than speculate here to no particular end.
I get the feeling that Spotify isn't that interested in "the few". I would imagine that the bulk of Spotify subscribers are from the mp3/ipod generation, listening with a pair of £10 buds plugged into their laptop or mobile phone. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The key thing is the volume normalisation needs to be disabled. God only knows what is going on inside the client library where they apply the normalisation, whether it is dithering or not, but something is screwy with it, from a SQ point of view. I've compared their normalisation to exactly the same Ogg/Vorbis source "normalised" with sox and the difference is obvious. It's not just a matter of volume level. It's more of a crapshoot, the bitrate, and final quality seems to depend mostly on the source material. Comparing the 96/160/320 streams (where all 3 are available) is an interesting experience. It's always possible to tell the low res content. A sharply struck snare drum gives it away every time. In a few cases it's near impossible to tell the difference between the 160, 320 streams and lossless. But in most cases it is. The 320k VBR without normalisation is really good. Although in at least one case I tried to compare, the 320k file was 3 seconds longer (music time) than the 160k, so I doubt is was generated from the same source file. Which makes comparison a bit pointless, comparing apples and oranges. It's a shame that I cannot distribute the code (without falling foul of the Spotify T&C's) that allows the streaming via SB of non-normalized content. I'm sure it would be an eye opener for many. Where available, the 320k streams without volume normalization are really good. To the point that I'd not bother to go and buy the CD. Fingers crossed that they add the option to disable normalisation via the official API sometime soon. -- JackOfAll ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JackOfAll's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3069 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=79706
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