TheHelpfulDad t1_je8juf6 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 4:48 AM

If you’re listening to lossy or low res music services like Spotify, pandora or Apple, and/or Tidal at their lowest quality or the one where you can store the most songs in the least amount of space, headphones aren’t going to make a difference.

The better headphones you get, the more you get out of the music. But if there’s nothing to get out of the music because it’s been compressed out or so little data from low sample rates, there’s no point

BicBoiBen OP t1_je8jyoy wrote on March 30, 2023 at 4:49 AM

Would Spotify on its best quality be a good enough sample? Or are streaming services in general not too good in that department?

No-Context5479 t1_je8stuo wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:35 AM

That person is speaking horse shit... Spotify is audibly indistinguishable from higher bitrate files of the same master source during an ABX test

smalg2 t1_je8n88l wrote on March 30, 2023 at 5:25 AM

Spotify on best quality is 320kbps Vorbis (a patent-free alternative to MP3). It should be virtually indistinguishable from lossless for human ears (while using about 3 times less bandwidth / storage).

Here's a blind test comparing 128 kbps MP3, 320kbps MP3, and lossless. See if you can hear the difference ;-) Personally I can hear the difference between 128kbps and the rest most of the time, but not between 320kbps and lossless.

Note that Vorbis is slightly better than MP3 if I remember correctly, so if you can't hear the difference between lossless and 320kpbs MP3, you likely won't hear the difference between lossless and 320kpbs Vorbis either.