That's the spirit!

Let me know how you get on.

P.S. if you manage it - don't forget to save your ABX log as proof!

That's what everyone says until they try an actual blind test - myself included!

The placebo effect is a hell of a drug.

Press X to doubt.

That's highly unlikely, statistically speaking.

If you are basing this purely on your subjective experience as you play both sources side by side, there are various factors that could be affecting your perception (not least your preconceived expectation that the one with the higher bitrate is supposed to sound better).

I'd be interested to see your results from a proper blind ABX comparison to see if you can still hear it then.

People who would spend $2,000 on a DAP, apparently.

That's pretty normal, actually.

Going from Spotify @ Very High to lossless is almost certainly not going to be a noticeable difference, even with expensive equipment.

When people compare streaming services and hear a clear difference, it's either because of a disparity in volume, user EQ, or master recording, 99.9% of the time. The actual file format itself doesn't really matter all that much.

Maybe look around the used market for an older model?

Ones like the Fiio X1/X3/X5 have really good battery life. The screens are small but they get the job done.

It's getting downvoted because suggesting that people avoid an entire brand based on certain types of music is asinine.

I love many types of music including dnb, hip-hop, dubstep, and electronica, and I'll take my various Sennheisers over some Beyer DTs any day of the week.

Calling the HD600s sharp is a new one, by the way - in terms of treble they're nowhere near as hot as the DT880 or DT990s. Maybe it's the upper mids you don't like? If so, that can mitigated with EQ.

Anyway, this hobby is largely subjective - what works for you won't work for others - so you're right in that it's more important to test out headphones for yourself rather than rely wholly on the advice of internet strangers.

Mate, your method fails on multiple levels.

You haven't done an actual blind test.

You don't get to act with this level of arrogance when you haven't even done that much.

Lol it's not a proper blind test if it's you that's controlling things, regardless of whether you squeeze eyes shut or not.

Plus did you do that at least 10 times per song to rule out the possibilty that you simply guessed the right answer out of sheer luck?

While I admire your inclination to test it out in the first place, I'm afraid that any results you obtained by the method you described above are not reliable whatsoever.

I have included details of how to conduct a proper double-blind ABX and provided links to freely available tools in the link above, should you want to give it a proper go.

Or at least you can simply listen to the samples I recorded side by side and see how they are incredibly hard to tell apart when you don't know which is which.

No I haven't.

Do go on and explain it to me in your own words

Lol knew it.

You have the unmerited confidence of someone who hasn't actually attempted a blind ABX test of Vorbis @320 versus FLAC.

I genuinely suggest you try it.

Tested how? Listened to them side by side while jumping back and forth, or an actual blind ABX test?

You can see details of my methodology in the link above.

I've had about a dozen people message me so far and none of them were able consistenly tell Spotify apart from any of the other services.

Bruh, do I have just the thing for you.

I recorded a series of samples from Spotify and compared them to others taken from Apple Music, Tidal, and Qobuz.

Before you go any further, I would suggest you head over to the link below, download and listen to a few of them and see for yourself how that "marked difference" vanishes when you don't know which one you're listening to.

https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/ymk4fj/curious_to_see_if_apple_music_tidal_qubuz_really/

It's pointless marketing.

I've found this AutoEQ convolver preset to be much better than oratory's.

Tightens up the sub-bass but leaves most everything else stock.

Sure .. but presumably AAC > AAC would be less prone to audible degradation, right?

But Opus would be transcoded to AAC via Bluetooth, right? Couldn't that affect the audio quality?

This is pretty much bang on. I'm also quite treble sensitive so that 5K spike was the first thing to fix (I actually use oratory's fixed-EQ settings with just a touch less sub-bass) , but once that was done I could see why the HD800 are so well-regarded. Classical and Jazz are just sublime on them.

They're also some of the most comfortable headphones I've ever worn - they're just so damn ergonomic. Also, even though they're over 100g heavier than the HD6x0, they don't really feel like it due to how the weight is distributed.

The only downside, though, is that I often find that they are almost too resolving. So many albums in my collection are hard to listen to because the HD800 shine a spotlight on a bad recording like no-one's business. They're definitely a "serious listening" headphone for me. For that reason, I still generally default to my HD600 as my daily driver, simply because they do a pretty decent job with everything you throw at them and they're so great for casual listening.

Yes, who can forget all these classics?

Edit: Wow, was not expecting a bunch of McG fans in a movie subreddit.

Maybe 10 years ago with 128kbps you could easily tell, but with modern codecs at 320kbps? It's completely indistinguishable for the vast majority of people.

Case in point:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/367klddxnjrvi7g/AB-fidgety-feet-tidal-vs-spotify.zip/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/a073avgs9ydi2kw/AB-south-of-heaven-tidal-vs-spotify.zip/file

Check out these blinded samples taken from Spotify and Tidal of two very cymbal-intensive songs and see how challenging it is to tell them apart.

You don't need it, you just like to think you do.

I won't divulge the exact results, but it will suffice to say that the outcome was pretty much as expected.

Alright, let's bump up the technicality and samples size.

Give me your decision on the three additional tracks and I'll shoot you a PM with the answers.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/a073avgs9ydi2kw/AB-south-of-heaven-tidal-vs-spotify.zip/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/367klddxnjrvi7g/AB-fidgety-feet-tidal-vs-spotify.zip/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/rknbmanhbffpa1k/AB-mahler-10-tidal-vs-spotify.zip/file

Here you go: samples of four different tracks recorded directly from Spotify and Tidal, volume matched and synched.

Good luck telling which is which.