A$280 - It's been a while since I started subscribing to Spotify's Premium service. Mostly, it sounds really good to me. I use USB 2.0 out from a MacBook Air to upsampling MF 192 SPDIF converter to Gungnir DAC to pre-amp. Doesn't sound compressed to me BUT I do notice not all recordings in the Spotify library are of equal sound quality. Some are definitely better than others SQ-wise (might be Spotify, might just be audio quality of the original music). Would you mind posting tracks or albums that sound bad/compressed? I and others could check them out too..."see" what you are hearing (or not). Maybe include a couple that sound good to you. Just a thought. You can copy and paste the Spotify URL by right clicking on a track or album. An album that sounded exceptional to me was Fabiano Araujo's "Rheomusi". Here is the Spotify URL (from a Mac) to it: spotify:album:3sGE91vWhQC1xKJQkOb4eh
Spotify sounds compressed
So now that I have more time to mess around with things like this, I started using Spotify and went premium right away. But it sounds compressed. I looked in the settings and the high quality streaming switch is on. When I switch it off, there is no change in sound.
I have my Samsung tablet hooked up to the preamp using it as the source while using my Asus notebook to manage things. The settings on the tablet are set to receive extreme quality signals. When I listen to Radio Tunes the signal sounds much better with extended highs and very deep lows. It just seems to me that the Spotify highs are compressed, not very extended. Is this the norm? I think Spotify is excellent for finding new music, but it doesn't sound the best.
I have my Samsung tablet hooked up to the preamp using it as the source while using my Asus notebook to manage things. The settings on the tablet are set to receive extreme quality signals. When I listen to Radio Tunes the signal sounds much better with extended highs and very deep lows. It just seems to me that the Spotify highs are compressed, not very extended. Is this the norm? I think Spotify is excellent for finding new music, but it doesn't sound the best.