Is this normal??... and if so what am I to do??

[RochaCullen]

I was listening to a few records yesterday as I was working from home and there was no one else at home to keep awake or annoy, so I could turn it up a bit. I played a couple of CDs also on my new (new to me of course) SLP1200 which has been a bit of a revelation when it comes to soundstage etc. But later on in the day I decided I wanted to have a listen to some Gregory Porter, and I dont have any of his CDs or LPs, so I fired up spotify through my laptop (the exact chain is Spotify -> Lenovo W530 -> Musical Fidelity V-Link -> Audio Note Dac-Zero -> Audio Note M-Zero -> Audio Note P-Zero -> Celestion Ditton 44s) and played the first track from the album Water, which is called Illusion. The track sounded amazing; smooth, detailed, full bodied. After listening to a bit more of Gregory, I then moved on and played some Lorde. The track I played first was Royals, and the first thing that hits you, of course, is the bass, it was far more controlled and precise than anything I've heard on vinyl or cd.

So I listened and thought to myself,

are these tracks that I am focusing on just extremely good recordings,
am I wasting money playing around with an SL1210 and SLP1200 when I can so conveniently move to digital
would this sound even better if I had a machine that was dedicated to music and not doing fifty other things at the same time, and I dont mean just a stripped back laptop, I mean a music server; and if so how much better?


I have of course heard tracks sound harsh via spotify and have been largely underwhelmed by playback through foobar, but playing some Random Access Memories at a nice high level through the chain mentioned above is goose pimple stuff.

So what now...

[synsei]

I've had some excellent experiences playing stuff from Spotify and it does seem to be down to the quality of the album recordings, in fact most of my listening is done through Spotty as I have amassed a vast playlist of well produced and recorded stuff. Incidentally my account is of the Unlimited variety so I only get 160kb/s and yet it can still sound bloody fabulous ;)... ;)

[mr sneff]

I've had good results with Spotify Unlimited too. What to do? Enjoy! :)

[WAD62]

Spotify is MP3, MP3s are remasters and affect the sound, where the emphasis of certain aspects of the music differ from the original...and I'll bet Spotify pre-process their tracks, in the same way as radio stations often do

[RochaCullen]

Spotify is MP3, MP3s are remasters and affect the sound, where the emphasis of certain aspects of the music differ from the original...and I'll bet Spotify pre-process their tracks, in the same way as radio stations often do

What kind of preprocess?

[RochaCullen]

I've had some excellent experiences playing stuff from Spotify and it does seem to be down to the quality of the album recordings, in fact most of my listening is done through Spotty as I have amassed a vast playlist of well produced and recorded stuff. Incidentally my account is of the Unlimited variety so I only get 160kb/s and yet it can still sound bloody fabulous ;)... ;)

That's a good idea, build up a library of those albums which do sound amazing coming from spotify.

I suppose the other thing I was wondering is there a digital player out there I can get the same results with as I find playback via foobar can often sound a bit flat. I must do a like for like play one using spotify and one using foobar.

[Stratmangler]

I find playback via foobar can often sound a bit flat.

Are you using the appropriate sound drivers for your hardware, as in ASIO or WASAPI?
What hardware are you using to interface the PC to your amplifier?

[WAD62]

What kind of preprocess?

DSP perhaps...?

[RochaCullen]

Are you using the appropriate sound drivers for your hardware, as in ASIO or WASAPI?
What hardware are you using to interface the PC to your amplifier?

I am using a musical fidelity v-link for handling USB to SPDIF conversion, and the software that comes prepacked handles the shift to 24/96, which matches the AN dac.

[Stratmangler]

Which OS on the PC?

[RochaCullen]

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. On my previous laptop I had ASIO set up, but on this one I am either listening to it via my Pro-Ject headbox, which has its own software, or through the V-Link which I assume bypassed all the windows filters.

[Stratmangler]

Try downloading the WASAPI drivers and give them a whirl.
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_wasapi

I have a M2Tech HiFace2 USB>SPDIF converter, and Foobar sees the WASAPI drivers for this device.
I expect the V-Link to be no different.

[RochaCullen]

Nice one, I'll give that a whirl.

[synsei]

It was Chris who put me onto Wasapi drivers a couple years ago and I've not looked back, they totally transform playback via Foobar although they do take a bit of setting up. I should applaud Chris's patience as he steadfastly walked me through what I needed to do, I got quite stressed about it if IIRC. Thanks Chris ;)

[Stratmangler]

I'm pleased to have been of service, Dave :cool:

[RochaCullen]

I'm pleased to have been of service, Dave :cool:

Got them installed earlier. So should be able to try them out perhaps tomorrow as I have the two kids to bath and bed this evening. The misses has gone shopping ;(

[synsei]

You will need to boot up Foobar and go into File>Preferences>Output then Device (top right of Output window) to point Foobar at them Nathan ;)

[icehockeyboy]

What kind of preprocess?

Radio stations usually use a device called Optimod processors.

[Rothchild]

Spotify is MP3, MP3s are remasters and affect the sound, where the emphasis of certain aspects of the music differ from the original...and I'll bet Spotify pre-process their tracks, in the same way as radio stations often do

OT a bit but it's not MP3, it's Ogg Vorbis:

https://support.spotify.com/se/learn-more/faq/#!/article/What-bitrate-does-Spotify-use-for-streaming

[starbucksboss]

I was listening to a few records yesterday as I was working from home and there was no one else at home to keep awake or annoy, so I could turn it up a bit. I played a couple of CDs also on my new (new to me of course) SLP1200 which has been a bit of a revelation when it comes to soundstage etc. But later on in the day I decided I wanted to have a listen to some Gregory Porter, and I dont have any of his CDs or LPs, so I fired up spotify through my laptop (the exact chain is Spotify -> Lenovo W530 -> Musical Fidelity V-Link -> Audio Note Dac-Zero -> Audio Note M-Zero -> Audio Note P-Zero -> Celestion Ditton 44s) and played the first track from the album Water, which is called Illusion. The track sounded amazing; smooth, detailed, full bodied. After listening to a bit more of Gregory, I then moved on and played some Lorde. The track I played first was Royals, and the first thing that hits you, of course, is the bass, it was far more controlled and precise than anything I've heard on vinyl or cd.

So I listened and thought to myself,

are these tracks that I am focusing on just extremely good recordings,
am I wasting money playing around with an SL1210 and SLP1200 when I can so conveniently move to digital
would this sound even better if I had a machine that was dedicated to music and not doing fifty other things at the same time, and I dont mean just a stripped back laptop, I mean a music server; and if so how much better?


I have of course heard tracks sound harsh via spotify and have been largely underwhelmed by playback through foobar, but playing some Random Access Memories at a nice high level through the chain mentioned above is goose pimple stuff.

So what now...

I'm with you! I posted only yesterday that Ive had this revelation too...I was not predesposed to computor audio at all...now I believe its knocks my LP12 finally into 2 nd choice along with my Krell CD. Enjoy!

[RochaCullen]

I'm with you! I posted only yesterday that Ive had this revelation too...I was not predesposed to computor audio at all...now I believe its knocks my LP12 finally into 2 nd choice along with my Krell CD. Enjoy!

So if this is the case and it is truly the way forward what is the best way to do it. I recall a couple of months age one of the trade folks on this forum were flogging an audio server. Is it worth the extra outlay to get one of these, or would any old laptop do, or perhaps one of those mini apple devices.