

Sure enough, I found a bunch of musicians and audio professionals who were dumbfounded by the same discovery.

I went online to see if other audiophiles had this problem. Still, was I losing my hearing? I’m a musician, and I review headphones for a living, so this was a terrifying possibility. Not the best headphones on the market, but certainly an expensive, high quality model that relatively few people would be willing to dish out money for. I should preface this article by saying that the headphones I used were my Westone W40’s.

Can You Hear The Difference Between Spotify And High-Res? Well, there’s a test you can take to give you a definitive answer. So, I compared another song and got the same result was I hearing a difference, or was my brain playing tricks on me? After a few obsessive comparisons, I came to the conclusion that I could hear very little difference, if any, between the two files. Maybe I heard a difference, but I wasn’t sure. But just out of interest, I decided to compare it to the same song on Spotify. So, with excitement, I signed up for a trial subscription and listened to a song. What the hell, I can dish out $20 a month if it means uncompromised sound. A streaming service, much like Spotify, that provides FLAC files with its premium subscription. Being an audiophile, I naturally want the best sound I can get. But I’ve also listened to high resolution files, and they sounded fantastic. I’ve been a loyal Spotify subscriber for a few years now. Smaller services like Qobuz have also sought to appeal to audiophiles with lossless streaming.Can You Hear the Difference Between Spotify and High-Res? Tidal offers what it calls “ Tidal Masters” that can even exceed high-resolution 96 kHz / 24 bit audio. Tidal, which has supported high-resolution audio since its very beginning, is priced slightly higher at $19.99 monthly for the “Hi-Fi” plan. The lossless plan costs $14.99 per month (or $12.99 for Prime customers), a premium over the standard Amazon Music Unlimited service. Spotify HiFi will be available later this year and “will deliver music in CD-quality, lossless audio format to your device and Spotify Connect-enabled speakers, which means fans will be able to experience more depth and clarity while enjoying their favorite tracks.”Īmazon rolled out Amazon Music HD in 2019.

Their new lossless streaming tier will allow account owners access to extra-high quality streams. Spotify, which says its accounts surged to over 150 million late last year, is the leading subscription music service. While music streaming services like Tidal and Amazon Music already had HiFi streaming, Spotify’s announcement that it’s moving into that space is sure to catch the attention of anyone responsible for managing their own company’s music streaming.
