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Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

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Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#2
Great. More internet bandwidth wasted, for their profit. They should be penalized, taxed, burdened, or forced to build "Netflix-like" own infrastructure ...

... in direct proportion to the delta in bandwidth between their "lossless" codec and state-of-the art compression with comparable sound quality.-

Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#3

Great. More internet bandwidth wasted, for their profit. They should be penalized, taxed, burdened, or forced to build "Netflix-like" own infrastructure ... ... in direct proportion to the delta in bandwidth between their "lossless" codec and state-of-the art compression with comparable sound quality.-

It’s still nothing compared to any video. They’re already paying for bandwidth… what exactly is your gripe?

Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#4
AFAIK spotify premium uses 320kb/s vorbis for audio compression. I understand why you'd want lossless for archival purposes, but does it make a difference for playback? ie. can you tell the difference between 320kb/s vorbis and lossless in a ABX test?

Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#5
post #3

Great. More internet bandwidth wasted, for their profit. They should be penalized, taxed, burdened, or forced to build "Netflix-like" own infrastructure ... ... in direct proportion to the delta in bandwidth between their "lossless" codec and state-of-the art compression with comparable sound quality.-

It’s still nothing compared to any video. They’re already paying for bandwidth… what exactly is your gripe?

I would guess this guy is still on a 1200 baud modem.

Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#6

Great. More internet bandwidth wasted, for their profit. They should be penalized, taxed, burdened, or forced to build "Netflix-like" own infrastructure ... ... in direct proportion to the delta in bandwidth between their "lossless" codec and state-of-the art compression with comparable sound quality.-

Wasted?

Defining meaningful then. Majority of the bandwidth is spent on entertainment I would assume.

Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#7
Does this support 5.1 tracks. While rare, that would be game changing for folks with hifi setups.

Good news though. Losses saves you from conversion artifacts. Compression that's not further mangled sounds fine, but what's weird is if you run something with one crompression model through other compressors (ie, to get it onto a network then airplay then etc. )

The bitrates relative to the endless youtube / netflix / twitch streaming are still very small - 4K video streaming just crushed bandwidth, I'd love to know the youtube / netflix / prime video / twitch bandwidth loads, they have to be insane.

Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#9
post #4

AFAIK spotify premium uses 320kb/s vorbis for audio compression. I understand why you'd want lossless for archival purposes, but does it make a difference for playback? ie. can you tell the difference between 320kb/s vorbis and lossless in a ABX test?

Usually it's not just the bitrate, but also the compression in mastering process that's different (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression for context). The "HiFi" versions are less compressed and on my highend audio system the difference between Tidal HiFi masters and Spotify is pretty stark and obviously noticable.

(The difference obviously has nothing to do with compression format.)

I hope Spotify will match the quality because Spotify Connect is way more reliable than the Cast broken mess.

Re: Spotify announces HiFi, a lossless streaming tier coming later this year

#10
post #4

AFAIK spotify premium uses 320kb/s vorbis for audio compression. I understand why you'd want lossless for archival purposes, but does it make a difference for playback? ie. can you tell the difference between 320kb/s vorbis and lossless in a ABX test?

On AirPods, no. With audio set ups that cost few grand, yes.
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