Spotify Premium v FREE - is it worth it?

[Inamelotone]

Hey folks
Just wondered if any of you out there were able to comment on the sound quality improvements on Spotify premium? On paper the jump from 160k to 320kbps should be worthwhile, but in practice? There are other benefits too of course, but keen to hear your thoughts...

Inamelotone

[BOONDI]

LONG TERM STORAGE

Use original wav files if you have 1TB hard drive.....1000 albums easy....
If HD is 500GB ish use Free Lossles Audio Coddec FLAC.... 1000 albums..
For media player MP3 OR MP4 for both music and video use 320K or better quality if your player can handle it.....

QUICK CONVERSION AT HIGH QUALITY

If you have Nero Express software, (The free with DVD drives version.) you will have a BRILLIANT free mp3, mp4, and other formats converter built in. To access the converter you simply open Nero express. Then click the little black triangular Black button exactly half way down on the left hand side of the screen. Click it to go into the advanced tools menu. It will appear on the left as a list menu. Click copy audio CD tracks to get access to its menu and you should be able to convert between one format and another.....You must have a music CD in your drive the first time you use it. Also remember to save your settings.....

If you don't have it, PM me and I can send for postage.....

The best things in life are FREE.....
Try FLAC
Try Exact Audio copy software free....
Theres lots of goodies over at the sourceforge type sites......
Copyleft licencing...

ONE LOVE

[BOONDI]

A new member has raised some issues to this post through PM so I will paste here and all can see my reply....

Originally Posted by Laz Baz

Hi,
I was trying to reply by"Quote" but not able to. How do I get permission to do so?
Wiil be grateful if you can help.
I wanted to say that all CD are 16bit/44.1Khz and ripping to a higher resolution will add nothing- so I've been told elaswhere.
regards

Hi there....

Post a message with the heading....
Greetings to all from wherever you are.....

Say a quick hello of introduction and you should be able to post replys.....It's because you have not posted to any forum yet....

I use Exact audio copy to rip CD and stream the full wave from a couple of Terrabite size drives .WAV From CD best available quality for a cd rom full wave no compresion.....

It checks the disk CRC and repairs the original WAV file like it should be if every disk error was not there. It therefore provides the maximum resolution possible from the original CD.

Next comes flack which provides lossless packing and a reduction to half file size......

MP4 is better than MP3, and both are better at higher bit rates. The least compression That is possible. 320Khz and higher.

I have a DD turntable hooked up to my PC and a 24/192 soundcard direct input to my mixing and recording software. I can tell you now that at 24/192 my DD recoedings reveal extraordinary levels of hidden detail......

Same for error repaired WAV streamed direct to harddisk.....

The difference in vibration and mechanical noise is a whole order of magnitude lower than with a CD rom mech.....Just ask Linn and others.....

So save the music to hard disk in the highest sample rate possible, because even with CD you can hear fine detail which gets lost in the mix with a cdrom mech.......Trust me I've been there and done it and theoretically there are no benefits, but in reality the fine detail is revealed that it would take a CD player worth several £1000's to reveal.....Like I said I want to archive as close to the source as possible.....

VINYL recorded at 24/192 is identical to the Vinyl.
Leave it raw, don't use any jiggery pockery like dehiss or decrackle, they just ruin the sound.....

No compression ever....

Ban compression.....

MP1,2,3, forget about unless it's all your player can handle....... MP4 or AAC sounds better for the same bitrate, so why go backwards unless it's for a portable source.....

I have DVD audio 24/192 capable car player and 6 speaker system and it sounds excellent with my own cuts.....

I stream it to my HI-FI and i'm a happy bunny......

ONE LOVE

[soulminer]

Originally Posted by BOONDI

No compression ever....

Ban compression.....

Why? What's wrong with compression? Why waste space unneccesarily? Lossless is just that.... Nothing is lost. Not sure I follow your reasoning to be honest. I can't tell any difference between WAV or FLAC (because there is none or it would be a lossy compression).

[pre65]

My reasoning would be to keep it 100% if you have the hard drive space.

Lossless it may be but (to me) the less it is messed about with the better.

[soulminer]

Originally Posted by pre65

Lossless it may be but (to me) the less it is messed about with the better.

That's the point Phil..... Lossless doesn't mess with anything.... A FLAC is no different as it goes through your player into your DAC, than a WAV file is.

Also, don't forget that WAV hardly supports any of the tagging facilities that FLAC does and FLAC (any lossless compressions in fact) can be re-coded into a non-compressed format if need be. It's a no brainer to me, but YMMV.

However, I do agree that if you only have a few hundred CDs then the size issue is no issue at all with today's HDD sizes and costs.

Cheers,

[BOONDI]

Originally Posted by pre65

My reasoning would be to keep it 100% if you have the hard drive space.

Lossless it may be but (to me) the less it is messed about with the better.

Me too....no messing = time saved converting CD collection from WAV to Flac files....

WAV and Flac files do sound Identical though and the compression is lossless and error corrected.....but, to me it is still messing about with the original. It may be psychobabble to everyone else but it kinda feels right not to compress when I don't have to now that I can get 1000 or more CDs on one HD.....

I will hold my hand up and say I did use FLAC and AAC extensively before terrabyte drives became commonplace....

[andrew ivimey]

Well I've gotten seriously into this ripping business and from one of Lee's suggestions (huge Ta, muchly) I have been using dBpower amp for that rip to Flac & ease of use.

And it is.

I don't yet know for sure that .Flac sounds the same as .Wav, but mp3 is the work of the devil; I don't like it!

The trouble I'm having using either of two computers is how the files get written as they drop this, lose that and it is a bugger to try to recompile how the data is stored and I have, sofar, often resorted to erasing the albums and re-ripped them, hoping for and usually getting a more sensible folder full of the right tracks. This problem is doing my head in.

And as for Squeezebox; it is too small and the hierachical menus are driving my nuts too. I shall call this 'the learning curve'.

[BOONDI]

Another PM to me from the same member above....

Hi,
Greetings to all Forum members.
I am William. My main interest is audio- pure 2-channel stereo listening, though I have a 5.1 HT set up and enjoy DVD and surround audio.
At the moment I am seeking help in ripping my CDs and vinyls. My external HD & PC HD both failed so getting ready to save my audio collection as soon as possible. So far I have had advice and decided to (1) have one external drive and one in my PC, both to be backed-up.
(2) rip to FLAC- and taking advice from here rip to highest res possible.
(3) It is a steep learning curve for me so I will listen to any advice coming forth.
Good to be here.
***************

[Shian7]

All interesting stuff....

But, erm, what has it got to do with Spotify?