Spotify has finally joined the lossless audio gang, and since it started rolling out, you could say that I’ve been making up for lost time. I’ve had Spotify Lossless enabled for the best part of a week now, and the experience has been 50/50.
Though there’s a slight improvement, Lossless hasn’t necessarily been a universal hit with fans – and there’s definitely room for growth. With that said, my personal experience has been adequate, but I’m still going forward with Lossless as my default setting, even if my brain is playing tricks on me.
There are a few factors that have stood out to me, some of which I’ve enjoyed, and some not quite as much. Let’s get into it.
Likes
Stronger vocal layers
This stood out to me the most upon my initial listening experience, mainly because vocals are the first thing my ears go to when listening to music – especially if I’m blasting a dynamic pop song.
Across the board of genres, I’ve picked up on the improvement of vocal clarity. I also find that backing vocals are more present, bringing out hidden layers in a track I might not have heard before.
Punchy bass
One of my must-haves in a song is a catchy bass, which does wonders for hyping me while I’m getting ready, or keeping me motivated while running. Since enabling Lossless, I’ve definitely noticed a small, yet significant difference.
This is particularly the case with Lady Gaga’s song Abracadabra – which I’ve listened to countless times before switching to Lossless.
Compatibility with Spotify Connect
Though I rely on headphones to listen to Spotify most of the time, I resort to smart speakers and soundbars when I want to switch it up. Luckily, Spotify Lossless is compatible with devices that support Spotify Connect, including Sony, Bose, and more. Support for Sonos and Amazon devices will land next month – which is music to my Echo Pop’s ears.
Dislikes
It has quite a few bugs
The first of its many bugs occurred when I first enabled Lossless. When I shuffled one of my personal playlists, it only played downloaded songs and skipped over the ones that weren’t. I no longer have experiences with this, but there are still other issues.
When it came to listening to my downloaded playlists on Wi-Fi, the ‘Lossless’ indication label disappeared from the playback bar. I resolved this by removing the playlist from my downloads and then re-downloading it, and it worked fine – but this is still an occurrence for me.
Bluetooth is getting in the way
Though Lossless works with Spotify Connect, it’s not there yet on the Bluetooth front as there’s not enough bandwidth to transmit lossless audio. This is quite a big disadvantage as a large majority of subscribers, which includes me, use Bluetooth headphones or earbuds most of the time. Instead, Spotify suggests using wired headphones.
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
