Tim Woodward's dashboard

Ok - I suppose I could just cancel the next month if I couldn't perceive much of a difference :-)

That's really interesting, well let's hope Spotify can sort this soon as it must be the player 

If I remember correctly, the historical problem with playing digital media (and why the iPod took so long to get gapless playback) was down to the fact that each 'track' is actually a separate file - the operating system software couldn't load the next file for playing until the last one had been closed (basic i/o procedure) - and in the process there was an audible gap.

Anyone who has ripped audio with EAC will also know it talks about gaps and even offers up a choice of where you want them - at the start of a track or at the end - it doesn't invent these gaps, as far as I am aware they are encoded into the CD format at the time of recording.

As this all gets set in stone at the time of encoding/ripping it sorts of explains why Spotify might be having a problem with gapless playback. This must be a nightmare for a service that can deliver both individual tracks in any order and complete albums as they were intended!

Having said all that, I wonder - has anyone here bought tracks on a one by one basis from say iTunes that they know are gapless on the album (something like Faithless?) if so when they play them back to back as intended in iTunes is there a gap? Is there a gap when they are played back to back with 'gapped' tracks? If the player knows what it is doing with gaps then the gap (or lack of it) must be hardwired into the track surely? I have tried it with my Faithless album tracks that I know are gapless and they are gapless whatever you play them up against - start and ending. Other tracks meanwhile seem to have there gaps at the end - can't say if this is normal as they are all ripped by EAC so it might have gapped or not gapped!! :-)

Although having your own library available to Spotify would be very useful, Spotify isn't the worlds greatest media player sadly. I couldn't do without iTunes DJ or Genius features or full screen cover flow whilst playing etc. etc. I am sure there are many folk who would say the same about Foobar or whatever. I worry a little about the future of Spotify when Apple launch a similar service, as it will no doubt be delivered through iTunes - so those people who want their own library next to their streamed music will naturally migrate - unless Apple are clever and just licence the Spotify engine... ooh now that would be good :-)

Hi Stefan - So if Spotify sounds better on your friends laptop than yours, yet an MP3 at 320kbps sounds better on yours - that could be your copy of iTunes is configured differently to your friend's (make sure you both have equaliser off, sound enhancer off and sound check is off - all these tools are in software and require re-sampling the waveform which will alter the sound) - plus of course the same goes for Windows sound enhancements - even with Vista your Windows volume should be set to max. 100% and use speaker amp to control sound level (digital volume controls affect sound quality by stealing digits, it's bugger all unless yo have a really good system or headphones but just to be sure!). Check that Spotify is also configured the same on both - check sound normalisation is off and if you have it make sure High Bitrate is on (but like I say I don't have this yet and anyway you can't tell which tracks are at high bitrate and which aren't yet). Have you tried other streaming comparisons? Have a listen to Radio Paradise at 192kbps on both PC's - in my opinion that doesn't sound as good as Spotify at 160kbps.

Getting the most accurate sound from a PC can be a big pain! Most people who listen seriously will bypass the internal sound card with a USB external version - this not only gets you a better DAC and avoids Windows OS mixing but also stops the internal sound card up and down sampling as it sees fit to suit it's internal processing which seriously messes up the sound (most external sound cards can be set for sample rates to avoid this). I used to be right into this stuff, but since I went Mac I have literally forgot all about it - Macs have an optical digital out so I get unadulterated digits without any OS processing (unless I ask for it that is!). I would spend some time over at www.computeraudiophile.com and check out the forum as well, it is worth spending a bit of time getting it right as once yo have nailed it you can sit back and plug any speakers/DAC/system into your PC and know you are getting unadulterated audio out :-)

Tim

PPS. I am really looking forward to comparing ALAC from iTunes and 320kbps from Spotify - when there is a way of telling you are listening to 320kbps that is... hint... hint... :-) – Tim Woodward, on August 26, 2009 14:29

Hi Stefan,

Not sure why this should be, even at 160kbs I find Spotify sound quality through my hi-fi system highly listenable - and I am a fully signed up lunatic audiophile! :-)

Obviously any form of lossy compression will take away some of the 'air' and subtlety of the sound when compared directly to say iTunes ALAC or uncompressed WAV/AIF direct to your DAC from a MAC digital out - but not so noticeable when not making comparisons that you would find it objectionable.

What were you listening to before? Are you Mac or PC? What's your audio chain?

And PS. forget the equaliser route, that the quickest way to completely ruin the sound - in fact most complaints aimed at iTunes sound quality are solved by making sure the equaliser is switched off! :-) – Tim Woodward, on August 26, 2009 14:26

Absobloodylutely!

Thanks Andres - will look forward to the new home page (don't make it look too much like iTunes though otherwise I could get very confused :-)

The shuffle feature does need a little work - would be good to see the results of your shuffle on the playlist as you do it. You could then shuffle a playlist occasionally to reorder tracks for a change :-)

Yep!! Just thought of this myself and glad somebody else also had the idea. Listening to Raising Sand and I have load of Led Zep and Robert Plant tracks on iTunes - it would be great to mix them up in a playlist!! All you need do is to read my iTunes library file and list my own library as well as the Spotify's - simple - so in a week or two will be all done yes.. :-)

Like syturvy says, most players automatically support gapless playback now. When I rip an album in EAC the gap situation is dealt with by the software, usually by appending the gap as seen on the CD with a silent lead-in to the track - if there isn't a gap then the tracks blend seamlessly.