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1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps

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Posted on October 7, 2016 at 10:07:03
Kody
Audiophile

Posts: 62
Joined: September 14, 2016
Happy Friday all,

Hope I'm posting this in the right section. So being a newbie, I just came to the realization last night that my Spotify premium membership's 320 Kbps "extreme" quality is nothing more than high-quality MP3. As such, when I get home tonight I'm going to sign up for the free 30-day trial of Tidal's HiFi Flac streaming service.

I've had my Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus and Dynaudio Excite X14A speakers set up for about a week now, and have yet to hear a high-quality lossless file played on them (just realized this last night too). I realize that some here will likely tell me to try both when I get home tonight and decide for myself, however, I'm curious as to what you all think, and have experienced between the two (I've read all of the opinions I can find online - what a confusing mess).

Given that I have a pretty decent system, do you guys think that a significant quality increase will be had using Tidal's 1411 Kbps service vs Spotify's 320 Kbps service?

 

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RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 10:12:22
Cut-Throat
Audiophile

Posts: 18251
Location: Minneapolis - St.Paul Area
Joined: September 2, 2000
Contributor
  Since:
May 16, 2021
I had them both and I had trouble telling the difference between the two. I found that Spotify had a Better Catalog, so I dropped Tidal.



 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 10:41:15
Kody
Audiophile

Posts: 62
Joined: September 14, 2016
Cut-Throat,

I'm predicting that I'll have the same outcome. I do very much like Spotify, and I'm extremely impressed with their catalog. I have yet to not find a song I've searched out. Also, I like that they gave me the premium membership for $5 because I'm enrolled in school.

Anyway, Tidal has 30-days to knock my socks off or I'll drop them. Even if I decide to stay with Tidal, for $5 I'll keep Spotify as well.

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 13:04:10
ejk
Audiophile

Posts: 195
Location: NYC
Joined: January 14, 2009
I just finished comparing the two. I have had Tidal since it first became available. I decided to try Spotify premium last week and Tidal won hands down for me. Tidal had better tone and detail to me.

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 14:35:14
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46196
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since:
February 2, 2002
Even w/o trying Tidal you should be able to experiment by playing a CD or lossless FLAC 'rip' from CD on your computer. Most can easily hear the difference between a CD and 320 Kbps MP3. Is Spotify truly streaming MP3 or is it AAC? Among lossy formats AAC is generally known to sound better than MP3 at the same bit-rate, but CD should still sound better.

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 17:52:51
Kody
Audiophile

Posts: 62
Joined: September 14, 2016
Hi all,

So I had a listen to Tidal when I got home today and I'm impressed with the quality. However, haven't had a chance to compare side by side vs Spotify yet.

I do have one MAJOR sticking point with Tidal, however. Unlike Spotify, I can't use my iPad to control the music selection and volume on my Windows 10 PC. This is HUGE, and a deal breaker for me. Is anyone aware of a third-party program that can do this?

AbeCollins,

According to Spotify's FAQ, they use 3 quality ratings for streaming, all in the Ogg Vorbis format. However, some claim that they use MP3 depending on the platform used.

~96 kbps
Normal quality on mobile.
~160 kbps
Desktop and web player standard quality.
High quality on mobile.
~320 kbps (only available to Premium subscribers)
Desktop high quality.
Extreme quality on mobile.

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 18:43:49
ahendler
Audiophile

Posts: 5151
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Joined: January 24, 2003
I use VNC from my Ipad
Alan

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 19:18:47
Kody
Audiophile

Posts: 62
Joined: September 14, 2016
Thanks Alan! Checking it out now.

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 7, 2016 at 20:13:12
Kody
Audiophile

Posts: 62
Joined: September 14, 2016
This works. Thanks again!

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 8, 2016 at 06:36:00
PAR
" I use VNC from my Ipad".

Does anyone know of an equivalent for Android?

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 8, 2016 at 07:31:21
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46196
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since:
February 2, 2002
VNC is available for pretty much all platforms.

 

RE: 1411 Kbps vs 320 Kbps, posted on October 10, 2016 at 15:47:53
Duster
Manufacturer

Posts: 17117
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: August 25, 2002
I never choose less than 320 kbps when I encode AIFF files to AAC MP4 soundtrack files for desktop and web player standard quality.

 

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