Difference between Spotify and Qobuz on 320kbps

Submitted by TheOne92 t3_11ryj0u in headphones

Hey there,

after using DT 770 Pros 250 Ohm for 6 years I just tried out DT 1770 Pro and am very happy with them! As AMP/DAC i've used the Fiio E10K since i got the 770s, which i am very happy with. I also just got the Fiio K5 Pro to test out, but I'm not sure i'll keep it since i 100% couldn't hear a difference between these DACs on my 770s and i'm honestly not sure if i can hear a difference even on the DT 1770 pros, a tiny/small difference maybe, if any.

Now since i got a better pair of headphones i thought i'd have to try out lossless audio and got a free 1month Qobuz membership.

For starters, i personally can't hear a difference on Qobuz between MP3 320kbps, CD 44,1 kHz or Hi-Res 24 Bit / up to 96 kHz. But i think that's normal and most people have the same experience comparing those quality settings.

Anyways, why i'm making this post is, when comparing the qobuz player to spotify i notice a significant difference in volume and or quality.

In Qobuz the quality is set to MP3 320kbps. Music quality on spotify is set to very high. (" Very high: Equivalent to approximately 320kbit/s " according to https://support.spotify.com/us/article/audio-quality/). Volume stays the same ofc when switching between them, but when listening to the exact same song on both platforms it sounds quite a bit louder, fuller and better on Qobuz compared to Spotify. Spotify sounds a lot quieter and not as rich or full compared to Qobuz. I'm not an audiophile by any means so i'm not sure how to best describe it. But Spotify sounds noticeable quieter, i'd have to turn up volume on my DAC/AMP to compensate to reach the same volume level as qobuz and it overall sounds better, richer, clearer, fuller on Qobuz. Don't understand how that's possible since i set the same quality setting on both.

Audio output device is set to SPDIF as seen on the screenshots. (imgur link to settings screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/CwgB1ZR) Qobuz also has an additional setting under SPDIF to chose between DirectSound or Wasapi. I don't know what these settings mean, but difference is marginal to me. (maybe DirectSound is better, not sure)

Now i would've liked to stick to spotify since i've been using it for the past 10 years and it's got all my favorite songs on there etc. and i only wanted to test out Qobuz to see if i notice any difference on higher audio quality settings, which i dont.

Anyone know what's going on here?

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Comments

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Simeras t1_jcasx7i wrote

Check if Spotify does not do normalizing and auto quality adjusting. Normalize on Spotify does weird things to audio. WASAPI bypasses Windows mixer and in theory is bit-perfect. But it might cause unwanted behavior with other audio streams (them not playing properly).

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TheOne92 OP t1_jcatb4q wrote

Omg yes!!! That must be it! Normalize volume was enabled on spotify, after disabling it the volume is pretty much on par with Qobuz. Thank you lol!

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Simeras t1_jcauc5j wrote

You're in for a new experience. :) The last time I tried Normalize on Spotify - it totally messed up dynamic range and made everything sound awful.

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TheOne92 OP t1_jcaveed wrote

I must‘ve used Spotify with that setting for all those years… damnit lol!

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Overall_Ease_8838 t1_jccl9wa wrote

I feel like I hear a clear different in sound quality when I use Apple Music vs Qobuz. I'm not sure about Spotify though. The bass sounds "softer" and less prominent, the mids sounds less clear and the highs are less prominent on Apple Music. I know they are both lossless but I can't figure out why there is a clear difference. Just my 2 cents

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ultra_prescriptivist t1_jcctlyi wrote

If you hear a difference in EQ balance, then you could either be listening to different master recordings of that specific album or there's a disparity in volume between the apps that is making you perceive the music differently.

Streaming music services don't have inherently different sound signatures, though - if all variables are equal, they sound the same.

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DryRaspberry4114 t1_jcfljlq wrote

Did you really listen to the High res files in Wasapi Exclusive mode on Qobuz to the K5?

Because that would explain why you couldn't hear the difference between spotify and Highres.

I don't have Qobuz but listening to Tidal in exclusive mode and spotify is like night and day. My DAC (Topping e50) even shows the bit rate on the screen with exclusive mode.

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TheOne92 OP t1_jck16ve wrote

I compared the different sound qualities on Qobuz's Webplayer, which doesn't have the output device options as the desktop app does, so idk about Wasapi Exclusive mode. Though i switched between MP3 320kbps, CD and High Res quality a lot and i simply couldn't hear a noticeable difference, and that's normal. When you read up stuff online on this topic, the vast majority of people won't be able to tell a difference. After that i just compared 320kbps Qobuz/Spotify and after having disabled the "normalize volume" setting on spotify it was pretty much the same on both platforms. I'm talking about casual listeners here. If you're in a studio environment, mixing/mastering, using the most high-end quality equipment etc. ofc you will hear a difference and it will be worth it. I didn't though, so i personally won't bother with Qobuz anymore and just stick to Spotify.

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DryRaspberry4114 t1_jcl39bx wrote

The thing is you didn’t actually hear the difference because windows converted everything to the same bit resolution and therefore it’s accurate that you couldn’t hear the different qualities because there were none! I’m positive anyone including you can hear the difference between a highres file in exclusive mode running every decoder from a dac and the typical 44hz from windows

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