As someone who likes to rock, I confess I was excited because my streaming service of choice – Spotify – announced that it is launching a new level of service for lossless audio streaming. Sure, it will cost more than what I’m paying now, but throwing away an expected $ 20 a month for perfect audio sounds great, doesn’t it? My future trips were ten times better.
It might be.
Here’s the thing. I wouldn’t pay a penny more for “enhanced audio” on any streaming service simply because the opportunity exists. At least, not without seeing if I could tell the difference between the existing high quality streaming service offers and their lossless offers. I will argue that most people would probably not be able to tell the difference in most cases – and I am not the only one to say that.
Like Napier Lopes from Next Web he writes:
“Spotify Premium (the existing level, $ 9.99 without ads) already broadcasts to a maximum of 320 kbps (256 kbps on the web) if you enabled this in the application settings. Although at low bit rates the differences between lossy and lossless audio can be quite obvious, I am willing to bet that most people cannot distinguish a lossless file from a 256 kbps MP3 – let alone a file compressed with most modern Ogg codec that Spotify uses.
Our hearing is subject to a lot of placebo. Simply believing that a certain update or major specification will make your speakers or headphones sound better tends to “improve” than any real change. Still, many golden-eared audiophiles will swear they can hear the difference without evidence. “
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Since Spotify’s “HiFi” service will not be launched until the end of this year, you cannot directly test your streaming losslessly. However, it is very easy to see if you can tell the difference between audio files of different bit rates and compressions now. Lopes recommends ABX Digital Feed Test, which provides two audio files – a “A” and “B” sample – as well as a target sample. Your job is to tell whether A or B matches the target, and you can choose between a faster five-track “I can say lossless versus lossless” test, a ten-track test or a 20-track megaday test.
In other words, the test is checking whether you can identify a difference between a lossless version and a lossy version of a song. And if you think it’s going to be easy, well … here’s what the test setup looks like when you use it:
You click A, X or B to start playing a track and you can switch between different versions by clicking A, X or B as desired. Even so, I found it very difficult to tell the difference between files in most situations. Either my hearing sucks, or it is very, very difficult to separate 320 Kbps streaming from Spotify – its highest quality – from a lossless file.
I won’t even show my results, because, honestly, I was just guessing most of the time. It’s plausible that my home audio setup – basically, a $ 150 pair of headphones connected directly to my desktop PC’s motherboard – just isn’t good enough to let me hear the difference between a high-end file quality and a lossless file. But even in a more improved configuration, it is a difficult test, as a Reddit user describe:
I did this test with LS50W in a treated room. I got it right around 65-70%. The thing is that I REALLY had to concentrate a lot, listening critically in a completely non-organic way. And I still missed a high percentage even in that. The difference was so insignificant that I switched from Tidal to Spotify after taking this test. I haven’t looked back since.
If you would like a more basic test, NPR also published a similar study in 2015 that you can use to test your ears. In this one, I did a great job selecting the 320Kbps file. But the lossless file? Not a lot.
And if you happen to have a lossless and lossless file of the same song, you can try this old school trick to compare the differences between the two:
Regardless, I wouldn’t mind a more expensive “hi-fi” audio service if you couldn’t tell the difference between that and the “normal” streaming service offerings on everything you have at home – your headphones headphones, speakers or ears. You will spend money on a “benefit” that you will never appreciate, and that sounds silly.