Thaddeus Smith Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 I didn't want to believe it, but I was slapped in the face last night. My hi-res playback was out of commission for a bit while I synced the library, so I fired up spotify and decided to test it using Mike Oldfield's tubular bells. It's a great test album, simply because there is great dynamic range a wonderful variety of instruments with which to sample, most especially the tubular bells. they are the crescendo of track 1 and they punch you in the face with clarity and mid/upper frequencies. it gives me goosebumps every time and it's the moment i wait for whenever i do a gear change. unless you're listening via spotify, in which case the bells are barely audible above the rest of the complimentary music and there's absolutely no punch whatsoever. it was like ratcheting to the top of a giant rollercoaster, hanging on at the apex, only to find out that you will be coasting along flat for the next 300yds. i had to go back and re-listen to the album once my library sync was complete just to make sure there wasn't something wrong with my setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 I know what you mean... presentation is "flat", lacking depth and dimension. My current issue with jRiver, but I will figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjimbo Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Are you using Premium or Free Spotify? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 premium and at max res, but rarely do I use it in that system. and if I do it's to sample the latest greatest pop that I don't want to bother acquiring in hi-res.. so nothing is really lost. i've listened to Tubular Bells A LOT over the last 18 months or so and the difference was just staggering in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Have you been using Fidelify? It is a definite improvement to be able to send audio directly to the DAC via ASIO or WASAPI. I'll have to check this for myself later. I still find that I buy music that I like instead of listening to it on Spotify or any other streaming service. I use Spotify and Pandora both but in the end streaming usually doesn't quite cut it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 (edited) ...unless you're listening via spotify, in which case the bells are barely audible above the rest of the complimentary music and there's absolutely no punch whatsoever. See http://www.head-fi.org/t/747818/spotify-normalization-vs-dynamic-range-compression Chris Edited June 17, 2015 by Chris A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 I'm no digital music luddite. That option was removed at one point, and then recently re-added, much to my pleasure. This was hard core compression in spite of that being disabled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Thad this is why I feel like any / all the streaming services are background noise at best, I have yet to find one I can stomach for anything more 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted June 17, 2015 Moderators Share Posted June 17, 2015 They need to get past this loudness whoever does it with a music service first with real quality sound is going to be very successful, what is the whole holdup ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 I'll come back to this, as I noticed in my car it sounds fine(however not that great of a system). But on my system downstairs, I noticed things just don't sound right. But I will be trying some different things. Anyways, this sounds like it is worth the read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 I will say, for cleaning, or driving it works great for me. I typically don't stream music, unless I am not really listening, for the most part I only use Spotify for the convenience and its quality seems better than Pandora. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 BTW, this is the version of Tubular bells that I have and prefer.. excellent DR. http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/82914 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 I take that back.. I haven't listened to either of these, which also have very high DR ratings. Downloading now to test drive. http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/12365 http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/63813 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HeresyHBR Posted June 27, 2015 Share Posted June 27, 2015 By the way ... Has anyone tried Tidal? It is almost twice the price of Spotify. After the specs it is better than Spotify. On my stereo Tidal sounds a margin better than Spotify. Streaming from Tidal ; more open and natural sound and less background noise than Spotify. I have compared high-res files ( driven from an external drive through an older macbook pro with enough RAM and an installed SSD ) ; FLAC played through itunes with puremusic and the streaming service from Spotify. There is a big difference in sound ( at least in my setup ) when doing so. Currently using a NOS metrum octave MkI DAC and Audiophilleo 2. Vintage speakers: Altec 604 coaxial drivers. Amp: Bottlehead Stereomour 2a3 It would be interesting to hear other peoples opinion on Tidal vs. Spotify.... As people has stated before me; Two different things that is ; listening to music when streaming vs. vinyl/ high-res files I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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