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If there's one thing that can readily expose the failings of compressed, lossy audio formats, it's distorted guitars and cymbals. In comparison, the version on Apple Music made the first two and the last notes of the phrase jut out like broken fence palings. The deep, deep bass travels a whole octave, and the sound was smoother on Spotify and more consistent across notes than on its competitor. The Beta Band playing on Apple Music.įrom jazz, we went to Madchester-inspired indie rock with The Beta Band's "Life." The descending bass line toward the end of the song is a test for most systems, and hence we use it a lot, but it seems it's also a test for streaming services. The Apple Music version sounded a little distant and less vibrant in comparison. There was a greater sense of space around the saxophone while it was also easier to hear the player's articulations.
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Overall we found them to be quite similar, but the Spotify version had the forward character we'd heard in the mastering studio. With this demo still fresh in our minds, we compared the versions available on both Spotify and Apple Music with each other. Recently, we were lucky enough to hear the master tapes of the classic Dave Brubeck jazz track "Take Five" at a Sony event, and one of the things that surprised us about this 60-year-old recording was how bright and clear it sounded - particularly in terms of how loud the percussion was. The tests Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" playing on Spotify.
#Spotify vs apple music popularity Pc
We weren't able to get the Tidal iOS app to output over AirPlay, so we used a PC running the Tidal desktop client over USB to the same Oppo DAC when we wanted a reference to compare Spotify and Apple against. Finally, we fed the resulting analog signal from the Oppo to an NAD C 358BEE amplifier with Pioneer SP-EBF73 floorstanding speakers. Our test setup.īox to an Oppo BDP-105 Blu-ray player via an optical cable to take advantage of the Oppo's excellent DAC (digital-to-analog converter).
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In both cases, music was streamed from the iPad to the Apple TV using Apple's AirPlay wireless protocol. To that end, we used both the Apple Music and Spotify apps running on an iPad Air 2, connected over Wi-Fi to an Apple TV box (which, in turn, was using a wired Ethernet connection to our router). New releases are easier to compare because record companies tend to supply the same version to everyone: iTunes, CD-mastering and digital-streaming services.įor this test, we wanted a mix of commonly used Apple devices and relatively high-end listening equipment. For example, in one of our earlier tests the version of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" on Spotify actually sounded better than the one offered by Tidal, even though Tidal's lossless compression should sound better. If you're listening to an older (predigital) recording, the version your individual streaming service uses could be one of dozens of different versions floating around. The setupĪs we found when we compared Spotify to lossless-audio newcomer Tidal, listening tests can be tricky, especially with older material. So, from a technical perspective, both Apple Music and Spotify are starting from a strong - albeit not identical - baseline. Suffice it to say, both formats have their own fans, and both are preferred by most enthusiasts over MP3. Right off the bat, the higher number might make Spotify look better, but in reality the two compression formats aren't directly comparable by bit rate alone. Apple Music is streamed at 256Kbps in AAC ( Advanced Audio Coding) format, while Spotify offers the Ogg Vorbis format at 320Kbps. The two services use different encoding formats and a different bit rate.
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Bit rate and encoding formatsĪs with all digital media, these two music services use file compression to maximize bandwidth - so you can stream and download music even over speed-challenged online connections, ideally without gaps or interruptions. For some sessions we turned to Tidal as a lossless reference, but further comparisons with the likes of Google Music, Amazon Music, Rdio, Rhapsody and other services are beyond the scope of this test. We decided not to include competitors like Pandora in this comparison because theseĪre preset to some degree, and the listener can only occasionally skip songs, whereas Apple Music and Spotify are on-demand music services allowing playback from an a la carte library, and are more likely to replace people's record collections.
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