The announcement of lossless audio means that Spotify is the latest streaming service to bring Hi-res audio to its subscribers. But how does it compare to its rivals?
You may have thought that Hi-res audio would be the same across every service, but that’s not the case. There are differences in the quality of those lossless files that might make a difference between which ones you end up subscribing to.
So, if you want the best lossless audio quality, which service should you opt for. We’ll compare Spotify Lossless versus the rest of the competition.
Spotify Lossless isn’t as high quality as Qobuz
Qobuz has been flying the Hi-res audio flag for not just years but well over a decade. In terms of streaming high-resolution audio files, that started in 2019, a couple years before Spotify even announced its intentions to offer lossless audio.
Spotify Lossless audio hits a bit-rate of 24-bit/44.1kHz, while Qobuz offers 24-bit/192kHz. What’s the difference? It’s in the sampling rate used.
A sample rate refers to the number of times a signal is measured per second. The more times it’s sampled, ideally the more detail that is captured, and therefore a truer representation of the music file you’re listening to.
So a higher sampling rate of the frequency range, in this case that’s the kHz figure, should result in a better reproduction of the original file. As Qobuz offers 192kHz compared to Spotify’s 44.1kHz, you can expect a higher quality recording. Though in my experience, there are other factors in play that can affect the sound quality you end up hearing.
Nor is it better than Apple, Amazon or Tidal
Apple Music, Amazon Music and Tidal all offer music up to 24-bit/192kHz like Qobuz. Technically, they all offer higher resolution files that Spotify is currently capable of.
However, just like with all these apps, you will have to jump into the settings and set the audio quality to its highest if you want to enjoy lossless audio and any of these apps.
But it is better than Deezer
Deezer, on the other hand, currently only offers 16-bit/44.kHz, which is essentially CD audio quality.
It’s still lossless sound, but of the music streaming services we’ve mentioned, it’s the lowest quality in terms of lossless audio.
And there’s no spatial audio support either
Considering most music services started offering lossless audio years ago, they’ve all moved onto the “next big thing”, which means spatial audio.
Spatial audio is the umbrella term that covers many formats, and those include Dolby Atmos Music, Sony 360 Reality Audio, and Apple Spatial Audio.
Spotify does not offer any spatial audio support, though if you ask me, this may be a good thing as spatial audio can be hit and miss.
