Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Why does YouTube sound better than Spotify?

I am finding, more and more, that tunes on YouTube sound better than Spotify. I find the soundstage is far wider and bass, if not other bands, is also better.

Case in point --> Season of the Witch by Donovan:

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/GU35oCHGhJ0

Spotify version: https://open.spotify.com/track/6MOE...KTUSadrY-oeVBsw&utm_source=copy-link

Why is this particular tune so different on one platform compared to the other?

Do you actually have a full Spotify account? I wonder if one is compressed more than the other, or maybe the free version doesn't offer as high quality bitrate.

Randy, I have a premium Spotify account. The client in all my devices is set to highest quality.

If you have Spotify, have a listen to the two different versions to hear what I am referring to.

BTW, I am listening to both via Firestick 4K --> Onk --> active LFRs.

I found the same song on Amazon Music. It sounds the same as Spotify.

To be honest I don't listen to a lot of streaming music services, I do listen to occasional youtube song, interesting what you are seeing.

Sounds like a completely different recording. Even on my Bose computer speakers there's a noticeable difference in tone.

It could be a different recording. It might have been doctored by whoever uploaded it to YouTube. I like it better even though it may not be the original. I've been finding a ton of stuff on YouTube that makes my system come to life in ways that Spotify never could.

Listen to this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k0xwa4qUBs&t=28s

Edit: Canes, throw those Boses away. Get yourself a pair or M2 computer speakers with a decent sub. I have the Audiobytes with the M0 speakers and absolutely love them. They are mated with my cheap and modified Sony sub.

BOSE, no highs no lows, must be Blows

As far as I know, I am the first and perhaps only one who figured out Bose's brilliance.

Google definitely did something with their youtube streaming earlier this year coinciding around the time when they retired their google play app. We started noticing that It started sounding so much better even though its spec appears to be below par vis-a-vis spotify. The bass had suddenly improved and the songs overall were sounding so very improved and nice relative to the earlier version of music you would hear on youtube. It has definitely become very noticeable. Maybe it could be that we were randomly hitting uploaded versions that were relatively better or probably google has some algorithm to identify and play better recordings..

Hey Raj! I hope you are still enjoying your amazing set-up. I am glad someone else is noticing it too. That just lets me know I'm not losing my mind as badly as I thought.

I managed to get YouTube Music to play on the Air Force and Freedom using bubbleupnp. I can also Chromecast it and of course play it on the Firestick. YouTube Music gives you lyrics and videos and I don't know what else. It's also a better experience on the Air than Spotify Connect which is really flaky. Bye bye Spotify!

Edit: YouTube Music also has EQ.

I still continue to be very satisfied with YouTube Music. With the premium subscription, I also get YouTube with no ads, off-line watching and a few other things. I'm watching YouTube more and more and it's all educational. I don't miss Spotify at all. One of my buddies just cancelled Spotify and switched to YouTube. Next up, I'm going to punt Netflix because I continue to not only be disappointed with the sparsely good content but also the lack of properly reproduced audio.

Yeah, I just cancelled Tidal, it's just not worth it folks.

Same. Dropped Tidal. Not worth it. Still have Spotify and YouTube Music / Premium. Gonna hang onto Spotify awhile longer. I’m going to try Amazon music too as I have Prime anyway. Then maybe stop Spotify. We ll see. I’m kinda curious to see if and when Spotify Higher quality comes in.

Listing from Youtube, always sounds perfect !

Oh yeah? I bet it sounds super vintage out of that Philco Predicta TV of yours!

So glad I ditched Spotify. Now I can enjoy 1000 versions of the same song and most with video. Like this gem:

https://youtu.be/7g2IlaDLVLo

So let's see, based on this thread, Tidal isn't worth it, Spotify Premium doesn't cut it, there are limited evaluations and unknown reasons as to why or even if Youtube all of a sudden sounds better and Amazon Prime seems to be relatively untested.

None of this gives any confidence to a person seeking a high quality streaming digital music platform with really useful user features (let's agree that Spotify came close and perhaps if they fix their 'high res' streaming to real high res then they would have the best solution).

Still going good enjoying Spotify Premium. Just upgraded to family plan for everybody.

I’ve tried and used:

Apple Music
Deezer
YouTube Music Premium
Amazon music
Spotify Premium
Tidal Hifi

By natural selection I’ve kept Spotify and YouTube. And I am happy with both of those. I’d say Spotify is my go to and then YouTube for downloads for travelling as the files are generally smaller. Not sure if that really matters or not but it works well and I enjoy the videos that come with some songs and enjoy that while flying. Listening and video at same time.

I will stick with what I’ve got until a need to switch comes up. I personally find the Spotify music is of better quality and the searching and lists are really good.

I can find music on YouTube Premium that is recorded better than the popular music on Spotify. Like this one:

https://youtu.be/QaFh6MBin44

By "recorded better", I don't necessarily mean sampling frequency and bit depth. I mean spatial preservation.

I totally agree on that. The bit rate and sample frequency isn’t the bees knees if its poorly produced in the first place.

I just find more consistent within Spotify without searching around. In You tube , I find I have to dig thru a few versions to get the better stuff or find playlists that have “ hi fi” or acclaimed better quality and even at 256kb it just doesn’t matter because the original is so good. But that’s just my ears I don’t know if science or math proves that. But I gotta just trust what I’m hearing.

It’s totally amazing the amount of music that’s at our finger tips these days. No more waiting for my Columbia House CD order to show up in the mail! So glad I kept all my cds though. Super fun to play those!!

I don’t think I’ve ever truly heard what 24 bit 192 sounds like but CD quality via an optical cable is pretty good!! I think beyond that I don’t feel like I’m missing much , especially with well produced and recorded stuff.