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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.

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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.

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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.

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...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 by Chris A
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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.

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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.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest HeresyHBR

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.

 

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