[Android] Support USB Audio directly - bypassing the Android Driver

[ZorkII]

USB DAC/amps are less impressive on Android Spotify because the standard Android driver is up-sampling. The Dragonfly Red runs at 44.1kHz with Spotify on my PC but on Android it up-samples to 96kHz causing glitching. Other DACs have similar issues. The proposal is for Spotify to access USB DACs directly, bypassing the Android driver.

Audiophile music players already take this approach, e.g. USB Audio Player PRO (UAPP) and Neutron. Tidal works with UAPP.

This idea is a version of "Support USB Audio through the USB Audio Player PRO driver" without the 3rd party partnership. It was written in response to @meahtenoha's review. Both ideas originate from the USB audio out OTG support thread.

External USB headphone DAC/amps for Android phones are becoming a thing. What Hi-Fi has a Best DACs page that mainly lists portable audiophile kit. I would prefer to carry a phone and a DAC rather than a phone and a portable music player because it is more fun to have access to the whole Spotify catalogue.

[gvl]

Same as WASAPI exclusive mode support on Windows this is not going to happen. Shame. 

[Caduceus81]

I get that Spotify gets a lot of requests and can't possibly fix everything, but it would be great if people who like quality audio get at least *something*. 

Spotify sounds like **bleep** currently compared to other services like Tidal with a good sound setup. I'm using a dragonfly red, and the difference between Spotify and Tidal is night and day.

I'm currently trying out Spotify for 3 months (a nice deal) after having used Tidal for a long time. Only because Rammstein is not on Tidal, but I'm definitely moving back to Tidal if Spotify doesn't make any effort whatsoever to improve audio quality. 

[misterTTT]

What is the status of this request?

[samm91]

Please implement this! 

[themonarc]

Especially as manufacturers are removing headphone jacks from devices, this basic functionality for listening to music with higher-end hardware needs to be implemented. This is a software limitation that other apps don't struggle with. 

[TomLegend]

Updated on 2019-09-18

Hey folks,



Thanks for coming to the Community, and adding your vote to this idea!



We're setting this idea to 'Not Right Now', as this isn't something we have any immediate plans to implement. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

If we do have any new info to share, rest assured we'll check back in here with a new status.



Thanks

[Ebbyfriedel]

Hello, I also bought a DAC. Unfortunately I am totally disappointed that Spotify does not support this solution. Others can. The only solution for me at the moment is the playback of the Android TV with fiber optic connection. This is unnecessarily complicated.

[b0ff]

I've been a Spotify Premium customer for several years but am about to switch to Tidal purely because of this issue.

[WilliamZWang]

This is due to DRM concerns. They will never offer that. 

[user-removed]

Please Spotify, act fast on this, or some of us will move to Tidal ...