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Is Spotify as good of quality as the HD-Tracks?

I am interested in Spotify Premium but I am wondering about the audio quality. I have purchased many Hi- res albums from HD Tracks and I play them through Amarra on my mini Mac, Yulong amp, Schitt Bifrost Dac set up and the combo sounds great. Can you tell me if Spotify is as good or?

Would there be any way to play the Spotify tracks through Amarra? Also if Spotify isn't as good of quality as the HD-tracks, would it help to upgrade the DAC? I am very interested in having unlimited music but I want to have it sound great! Any comments are appreciated.. Thanks for your help!
128x128jb2455
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jb2455 OP
16 posts
 
Thanks for the info. That's great news.
hgeifman
2,225 posts
 
Amarra sQ will be part of the Amarra 3.0 upgrade but is a separate app that is installed as part of the process.

To use Amarra sQ after initial setup, all you really need to do is have it running, launch your browser and head to your favorite streaming audio site. The output will be routed through Amarra and get the great Amarra sound on playback.

This is great news.
loomisjohnson
1,947 posts
 
to your original question, hdtracks offers much higher resolution that spotify premium, which streams at up to 320kb and, i expect, would sound much better. however, i'm finding that even at the lower resolution spotify's sound quality is more than adequate--better than the late, lamented mog. i'm led to believe that the audio codec used by spotify (ogg orbis) preserves a wider range of frequency and sounds less compressed and more transparent at the same bitrates than comparable codecs.
onemug
784 posts
 
Loomisjohnson,

I had MOG for years and kept it til the end. I immediately signed up with Spotify Premium and was surprised that it seemed to sound better than MOG. I don't know much about the different "codecs" but I like what I hear.

Do you have any experience with Beats...what codec they use and how it sounds in general?
larrybou
130 posts
 
I agree that Spotify seems to actually sound better than MOG. Spotify also seems to have much better selection of classical music and jazz than MOG which caused me to jump ship. Strange since MOG bills itself as being for audiophiles yet skimps on the two genres audiophiles most often listen to.

Taking the digital out of my iPhone into an external DAC makes Spotify sound fantastic on my home setup.
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