Hi! I am going to do something different here because I have been thinking about this a lot. This issue is almost all about listening to music, which is surely one of my obsessions.
Music is a thing that I have enjoyed since I was a wee lad. Quality, in general, is also one of those things. So why did it take me so long to enhance the quality of my music-listening setup? Hard to say!
What I Was Doing
I have an app for Spotify data that tells me that I listen to Spotify for about 10 hrs per day on average. This is lower than usual because I recently got Tidal (another music-streaming service), but I’ll get into that later. A lot of these hours are while I’m sleeping, but I also listen to music while working or doing stuff around the house.
Before this month, I was listening to music mostly on small and cheap Bluetooth speakers. I have much better speakers for my computer (Klipsch Promedia 2.1 (2 speakers, 1 subwoofer), which I recommend), but I’m not always at my computer. The house I’m living in has a 5.0 surround system (5 speakers, no sub) in the living room, but music does not sound super good on it. I have been using Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud for music.
What’s wrong with this? Nothing. I was enjoying the music and everything was fine. I knew I could be listening to music at higher quality, but didn’t want to spend a ton of money on stuff.
Then I got a Guitar Center gift card and used it to get a Bose Bluetooth speaker - I was using that cheap Tribit Bluetooth speaker for like 75% of my music-listening, and wanted to see if I could take a step up for that significant chunk of my time.
It wasn’t like a night and day difference, but bass was way more present, and higher frequencies were less distorted and shitty. It was definitely an upgrade.
At this point, I was fine and did not need anything else. If you enjoy listening to music on whatever setup you have, that’s all that matters.
But I am me, so then I was thinking about how I play guitar through a different Bose speaker and it sounds so much better than average guitar speaker cabinets sound to me. “Why come,” I thought to myself, “I play guitar through a large good speaker but mostly listen to music through a small Bluetooth speaker?”
Then I fell into an Obsession Hole. I figured that I have my guitar sounding the way it’s “supposed” to sound to me - beautiful, full, nothing missing - and felt that I was doing myself a disservice by having less-than-great audio for music. That is kind of dumb but whatever.
I did a bunch of research on “budget” high-quality audio, and got a ton of targeted ads until I succumbed (succame?) to my fate.
What I’m Doing Now
I decided I wanted some Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-160M’s based on a handful of factors - namely that their frequency response goes down to 45 Hz and up to 20,000+ Hz (the range of adult human hearing is roughly 20 Hz - 16,000 Hz). Reviews said that the bass response was fantastic and most people did not feel the need for a subwoofer to make up for the range between 20 hz and 45 hz. I don’t really like subwoofers anyway, I feel that too much bass distracts from the rest of the frequency range, so I figured these speakers would suit my needs. Also I found a pair of them used on Craigslist when I was visiting a friend in Seattle. Also they just look so cool.
These are “unpowered” speakers, meaning they need an amplifier to drive them. This is in contrast with “powered” speakers, which have amplifiers built-in. So that means that I also had to get an amplifier, which I was excited for. I was getting soo many ads for a “hybrid” amplifier that would fit my needs - it uses vacuum tubes in the preamplifier section, and a solid-state amplifier to multiply the signal to get loud. Also it just looks so cool.
Amplifiers that use vacuum tubes can easily cost upwards of $1,000. This one is way cheaper, probably because it only uses vacuum tubes for the preamp section instead of the whole amplifier - I can explain this more if you’re interested. The idea with vacuum tubes is that they introduce a slight bit of distortion, making the audio sound “warmer” in a cool way. I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and this amplifier got great reviews. Also it looks so cool.
I plugged everything in and was initially a lil disappointed - it sounded good, but not as amazing as I expected. It turned out I just had to “break in” the equipment by listening to it for a while, and also tune the bass and treble on the amp until I was happy. At this point I was using Spotify via Bluetooth built into the amp.
But then I remembered something I read somewhere: Spotify does not have the best-quality audio available, and also Bluetooth does not have the best-quality audio. This bothered me after getting all this shid.
Without going into too much detail (but again ask me if you’re interested), I got a lil music-streaming device that uses wifi instead of Bluetooth (wifi has much higher bandwidth), and started a trial of Tidal. Tidal offers higher-quality music files than Spotify does.
At this point, I am loving it and don’t want to change anything. I’m hearing details in music that some of my other speakers haven’t been able to reproduce, and everything sounds full and beautiful.
Audio Quality Over Bluetooth
Basically, almost all Bluetooth speakers use a codec (an algorithm; “codec” is short for “compression-decompression”) called SBC. In theory, SBC can offer good sound quality, but in practice, it results in compressed audio with compromised quality. Combined with compression from Spotify or whatever your source is, music can sound less detailed. (This is only really relevant if you have a speaker system that can reproduce fine details in music. If you’re using low-end speakers anyway, this probably doesn’t matter.) There are devices that use better Bluetooth codecs that support higher-quality audio, but I decided to not worry about it and opt for a wifi stream instead of Bluetooth. More info on Bluetooth quality here
Tidal vs. Spotify
There is plenty of debate here. Here are the facts:
While neither service pays artists enough, Tidal pays artists $0.00876 per stream while Spotify pays $0.00348
Spotify’s “high quality” maxes out at a 320 kb/s bitrate. This is pretty good quality (almost CD quality but not quite), most people can’t tell the difference between 320 kb/s and anything higher. I can’t tell the difference in quality on my Klipsch Promedia 2.1 computer speakers, but (I think) I can on my newer speakers. That said, there is no indication of whether the file you’re listening to is 320 kb/s or if it’s something lower
Tidal’s “low quality” is 320 kb/s, and highest-quality is 24-bit 192 kHz. 24-bit 192kHz is objectively way higher quality. In real life, however, this is unnecessarily high quality, humans can’t hear that well 🤪
Tidal is extremely transparent with the quality of the file you’re listening to. For the song I’m listening to right now it's showing that it’s a 24-bit 44.1 kHz FLAC file. Spotify does not tell you anything about the quality of the file
Spotify’s main feature is its custom playlists based on your listening. These have been great for me in the past, but lately I have noticed that my daily mixes are playing the same hits of the same like 5 bands day after day. Tidal has playlists based on your listening too. I’m still getting those dialed in but so far they are pretty good
Spotify and Tidal have roughly the same # of tracks, like 80 million, but I have seen somewhere that Tidal has 90 million now. Idk
In my experience so far, Tidal seems to have noticeably better-quality master files, and sometimes several differently-mastered versions of albums. This is what really makes music sound “better” for some artists/albums on Tidal in my opinion. Some other nerds on the internet have mentioned this too, but I don’t know that there is any hard evidence. Since there’s no transparency for file quality on Spotify, there’s no way to tell if they’re using subpar master files, unless it sounds like turd compared to the same album on Tidal (if there is even an audible difference). I have noticed that the same album sounds better on Tidal than on Spotify on my high-quality setup for some albums.
I still use Spotify on my Bluetooth speaker and in my car because audio quality doesn’t matter as much to me in those situations - my Bluetooth speaker wouldn’t benefit from a higher audio quality source and my car’s sound system is bullshit. I will probably drop down from the Tidal Hifi Plus plan to the cheaper paid plan when my trial ends because the audio quality in the highest plan is way above what can actually be heard anyway.
Questions I’m Going To Ask Myself Pretending I’m You
“But Ted, this is all so dumb. I am happy with my current setup. Must I change?”
No! If you’re happy, do yourself a favor and don’t worry about any of this 😚
“But Ted, was all of this even worth it if humans can only perceive audio quality to a limited extent?”
Yes and No! The speakers were definitely the biggest noticeable upgrade, followed by the amp. I want everyone to experience high-quality speakers. But if you were to sit in my living room and I played you the same Spotify track over Bluetooth and then over wifi, I’m like 99% sure that neither of us would notice a difference. But at least now I know that 😏
“Dear Ted, I would like to improve the quality of my music-listening but I do not want to do all this. What do you recommend?”
For a computer or maybe even a TV, the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 powered speakers that I’ve had for like 8 years are great
There are so many other speakers out there. If you find some that you’re interested in, check the frequency range - this will tell you the range of frequencies that the speaker system can reproduce. You don’t need 20 Hz - 16,000 Hz - the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 system above is 31 Hz to 20,000 Hz but I’ve never felt that I’ve lacked bass. Even my bigger speakers that go down to 45 Hz have enough bass for me. That said, frequency range does not determine how good the speakers will sound. Check reviews and do other research. Or ask me:)
“But Sweet Ted, what about Bluetooth codecs and wifi? Is there a difference?”
Technically yeah, wifi will always be capable of higher quality audio streaming, and wired will always be superior to wireless. But the difference is likely imperceptible unless you are listening to the music super closely
“Sweet, supple Ted - how deep does this hole go?”
There are sets of speakers that cost $50,000 and amplifiers that cost $5,000. Not to mention some people design rooms in their houses specifically for a certain set of speakers and an ideal audio experience. This hole is bottomless my dear friend. I am going to quit while I’m ahead!
The Playlist
No playlist this time! I am too busy listening to music LOL
Cleo’s Corner
Cleo got into one of the cabinets this week … saucy gal! The thing is that I’ve reached my limit on images for this email though. So here is a video
That is all! See you in hell!