Spotify Sample Rate? Please Help!

[Maroder]

Hi there,

I just bought an AudioQuest Dragonfly USB DAC and this little thing is really amazing - the music just sound so much better and more detailed. As this device allows sample rates up to 96.000 Hz I really would like to know what sample rate the majority of streams on Spotify have. 

It is highly recommended to adjust the default sample rate setting to the actual sample rate of the tracks you are listening to, hence avoiding synthetical up- and downsampling of the tracks.

Could anyone give me some information on the sample rate used for most tracks on Spotfy? I am a Premium User and use High Quality Streaming (Bitrate 320 kbps).

Thanks in advance!

[Merik]

I believe the majority of the sample rates are either 44khz or 48khz. 

Sources:

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Mac-and/Is-Spotify-streaming-44-or-48khz/td-p/528...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10760949/what-is-the-sample-rate-of-spotify-stream-libspotify

[Maroder]

Ok, so most tracks seem to be 44 KHz and some 48 KHz. So what would you set the sample rate at for best quality playback?

[Maroder]

Anyone? 

Let me put the question different: Would it be better to downsample or to upsample?

[OktoberStorm]

Generally speaking it's always better to downsample than the other way around. The better your source is the better the quality will be, but the end result will never be better than the source no matter how much you upsample. 

[Merik]

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@OktoberStorm wrote:

Generally speaking it's always better to downsample than the other way around. The better your source is the better the quality will be, but the end result will never be better than the source no matter how much you upsample. 

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Thank you for responding. I've been asking my friends but nobody has had the answer. 😧

[bendilley]

@Maroder, I'm curious to know how you're able to inspect the sample rate from Spotify. What tool are you using?

[Maroder]

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bendilley schrieb:

@Maroder, I'm curious to know how you're able to inspect the sample rate from Spotify. What tool are you using?

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I want to adjust the sampling rate of my DAC according to the sampling rate of spotify and have no idea which sampling rate ist used. Hence the question 😉

But it seems to adjust it to 44.1 KHz is the best option.

[Blutarsky]

hi there thanks for your prompt reply. i have changed the cable with an older one and now it seems working fine so probably the bug was due to the faulty cable. strange thing is that the faulty cable is a newer one apparently supporting high speed!

[Blutarsky]

BTW what are your thoughts on the bit and sampling rates?

[user-removed]

It all comes to the devices used and how they actually respond not how they get rated, and sometimes the highest price is not the best. As you saw you had a high speed rated HDMI cable but maybe the manufacturer used substandard manufacturing techniques or maybe there was just a fault in the materials supplied and the company just made due, or maybe the manufacturer used deceptive markings on the packaging to deceive you in what you thought you were getting?

I would say this, some are going to disagree, but most home theater systems the mid to high ends are going to have the necessary bitrates and sampling rates, and also frequency response. Most mid to high end computers with better than average sound cards are going to do fine as well. What also matters is getting speakers that can reproduce the sound intended from these devices, and that gets tricky. But if you are getting a head unit in the mid to high end your going to find the same with speakers from the retailer. Just depends on functionality, sound reproduction, and what you wish to spend. Also remember what you hear in a sound room at a retailer does not mean that unit will sound the same at home with the same speakers, the acoustics of the room could be different, but most theater systems come with sound tools to help with this.

Only with pitch perfect hearing people maybe 1 in a 100 people without any hearing damage from this noisy modern world. Only these type will want a perfect sound system, like the high end of high end $5,000 head units and such $7,000+ grand for top of the line speakers for the system, but then again their home theater room probable has been acoustically balanced for them anyway.

Anyway just do plenty of research, comparing prices, and do not believe anything resellers tell you, double check it from multiple sources, and make sure it is not complete B.S. before you spend a dime. That is all I can offer.