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Sound is very flat and empty
I experienced a serious sound problem with the actual Spotify client v0.3.6 (revision 28558):
When i play songs that are normally very dynamic and full of bass and drum sounds than these songs sound very very flat and empty in the actual Spotify player.
Even if i turn my notebook to full loudness level it still sounds very flat.
I tested the same songs with my Napster client player and these songs are full of bass and drum sounds there. That proofs that the described problem is not a specific problem with my notebook.
By the way: With my Napster client player i can turn the notebook loudness only to half of the possible loudness level because all songs come very loud and dynamic out of my earphones already at this level.
This flat sound is not acceptable for me as a paying Premium user, so a Spotify player update is needed soon which makes the Spotify music as dynamic and loud as it should be!!!
When i play songs that are normally very dynamic and full of bass and drum sounds than these songs sound very very flat and empty in the actual Spotify player.
Even if i turn my notebook to full loudness level it still sounds very flat.
I tested the same songs with my Napster client player and these songs are full of bass and drum sounds there. That proofs that the described problem is not a specific problem with my notebook.
By the way: With my Napster client player i can turn the notebook loudness only to half of the possible loudness level because all songs come very loud and dynamic out of my earphones already at this level.
This flat sound is not acceptable for me as a paying Premium user, so a Spotify player update is needed soon which makes the Spotify music as dynamic and loud as it should be!!!
I’m disappointed
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The best solution from the company
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As very active user, you guys know that we at Spotify is streaming the music at 160kbps Ogg Vorbis q5. We are also doing volume normalization, which right now causes Spotify to have lower volume then other applications.
We are definitely working on how we can do volume normalization better, but for now we can't comment on any details. I talking to developers and will get back here when we have more information.
The company says
this solves the problem
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Inappropriate?I won't try to discuss whether Spotify delivers good sound or not (I find it acceptable in quality, but not transparent). You might know that Spotify uses Ogg Vorbis -q5 (see the sound quality question). Napster delivers music in WMA with 128 or 192 kpbs and MP3 with 128 or 256 kbps, quite a range of formats and bitrates in other words. This leads to the obvious follow-up question: what format are you playing in your Napster client?
Also, skip the loudness settings for your own sake - it just destroys music :)
I’m amused
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Inappropriate?I tested it with the streaming Napster music and i think then it is 128 kbps WMA.
The difference in sound quality (loudness and bass) when playing the same music in Napster or in Spotify is so obvious that i could tell you wether the music is played in Napster or in Spotify with closed eyes.
Perhaps Spotify is normalizing all available tracks to the same loudness level which lead to this flat sound experience???
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?I must agree the quality is not good at all. There is more to quality than what codec used. There quality is empty compared even to radio. Is the quality to be improved? Othervise I will cancel my account!
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Inappropriate?Same here, I connected the computer to my HK reciver, the sound is not good and I use the Creative SB X-Fi Elite Pro soundcard, so I can't blame the soundcard here. :(
It's not ok to pay for this sound quality. FIX!!!!
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?I tested Spotify with high-quality headphones (AKG 271 Studio) and the flat Spotify sound is very obvious (compared to e.g. Napster) even with such high-quality sound equipment!
I’m still disappointed
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Inappropriate?Could you give some examples of tracks where this is particularly noticeable?1 Comment Add a comment
This solves the problem
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Two examples:
spotify:track:0atqtaVfMSPikcFpfXIHlF
spotify:track:2FX5fbgWjL3mVLYDexQqeC -
Inappropriate?It is nothing wrong with the base...
Bass Speaker Test - DJ Bass Alliance
http://open.spotify.com/track/2XS7cDc... -
Inappropriate?I can only agree, the sound quality is much to low to be acceptable for me as a paying customer. It would be a great service if it wasn't for the low sound quality. Will this be fixed? When?
I’m disappointed
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Inappropriate?Hi! I agree with pellefisk, the sound must be much loader before I can pay for this. Hope it will be fixed soon...
I’m disapointed
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Inappropriate?wow you really use the words sound quality, notebook and loudness in the same sentence... if anything destyroys sound quality it would be to use loudness on a pair of notebook speakers.... I do agree that the quality could be better but it's good enough for now as far as i am concerned and what i pay for it. Better to add features and expand the music library3 Comments Add a comment
This solves the problem
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I am using the Napster music flatrate on the same notebook with the same audio settings and Napster's sound quality in this environment really beats the pants off Spotify!!!
By the way: I don't listen music with the notebook speakers, i am using my AKG 271 Studio high quality headphones! Others are using high-quality audio equipment too and they have reported the same bad sound quality in Spotify compared to other streaming or non-streaming music players! -
well i might have been overly bitter in my comment late last night, i appologise for that unprovoked sarcasm. Still, loudness feature does kill all claims to sound quality since it makes sound sound (?) horrible, i guess that was my main and only point...
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Ok, no problem! May main concern is not the loudness only, but more the missing bass in many rock songs. Try this playlist (spotify:user:akrde:playlist:5RfYmy39cIlqHXyfduTpIs) and tell me if you are satisfied with the bass in these rock songs...
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Inappropriate?Here is the proof that there is something wrong with the sound since version 0.3.0, which was the first Ogg Vorbis version of the Spotify client:
http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/...
The user mathiaswiberg describes the sound in version 0.3.0 "more hollow now" and he noticed "a big difference" to other music services (iTunes in his case) too!!!
It would be great if the Spotify staff could clarify this problem for us now:
- Why there is so little loudness?
- Why there is so little bass (in rock songs for example)?
- Do you use some kind of loudness normalization and if yes, how is it implemented?
- Do you use a loudness restriction in the Spotify player like some mp3 players have it implemented and if yes, why?
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?Re: The high quality sound equipment thing, as a rule of thumb, the better your sound equipment, the more the limitations of compressed, lossy formats are exposed.
I'm a bit of an audio quality freak myself, but you know what, for the most part I find Spotify's quality perfectly acceptable for casual listening. Obviously it'd be nice to have the entire catalogue streamed in MP3 V0 but we need to think about what we can reasonably expect in these early stages, no?
I’m just fine tbh
5 Comments Add a comment
This solves the problem
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Well said! I'm not using Spotiy to hear a needle drop to the floor in a song :)
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@Squizzle:
"Re: The high quality sound equipment thing, as a rule of thumb, the better your sound equipment, the more the limitations of compressed, lossy formats are exposed"
Ok, i just bought 2 Euro headphones from our local vendor intended only for use with Spotify. Thank you for the tip! ;-) -
@yin_yang2k:
Me neither! But as a PREMIUM USER i want a rock song sound like a rock song in Spotify, full of bass, drums and loud and not flat, empty, hollow and muted... -
"Ok, i just bought 2 Euro headphones from our local vendor intended only for use with Spotify. Thank you for the tip! ;-) "
Heh, no need for that, I was just pointing out that "high quality sound equipment" doesn't do favours for compressed audio formats. Your gripes with the service are your own, count me out. -
Heh, it was just a joke, i would never buy such cheap 2 € headphones, because i love my AKG 271 Studio headphones!
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Inappropriate?I personally don't have much problem with the sound quality. But I have a high quality sound card in my computer and not some integrated intel sound chipset. But I guess the main problem is that there isn't an equalizer option in the application, that for one thing would probably increase the quality for the cheaper sound cards out there.
I’m unconcerned
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Inappropriate?The quality is “ok” but the level is NOT. If I play the same song in WinAmp or MP, the level is dramatically higher than in Spotify. This is a problem for me since my laptops head amp can barely push my in ear headphones (and definitely not my K240S and K601s...). Something is set wrong in some level parameter in the code of Spotify.
I’m ...low...
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Inappropriate?I agree. I just started to use Spotify and while it's an EXCELLENT service the first thing I noticed was lack of dynamics in the sound. I compared to 192kbps mp3 (same everything; same tunes, same volume level, same computer, same headphones) and the mp3s were clearly better.
So a little less compression is my number one wish. -
Inappropriate?There's nothing wrong with the "quality" or "compression (data), it's the VOLYME of the application itself that's set incorrectly somehow. Luckily, this should be easy to fix...
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Inappropriate?I agree, the quality is fine but the volume definitely needs to go up.
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