In order to stave of cabin fever, Mrs 12th and I have been playing games more, and it's become a little bit of a chore having to keep picking whole albums to play - my usual listening involves flitting from one thing to another as the whim takes me. I'd been given a cheap Bluetooth adapter for Christmas which the kids have been using and the sound (at least at modest levels) didn't seem too bad, so I thought b*gger it, I'll set up a Spotify account and some playlists so I am not getting up so frequently.
I also thought I'd listen properly and see what I made of the sound quality, and initially I was pretty impressed (and with caveats, I still am) - I am streaming from a fairly bog-standard android phone (presumably though its own onboard DAC which can't be anything other than inexpensive) through a cheap adaptor connected by a fairly basic cable. I picked some primarily acoustic recordings as these seem to me to be things that are difficult to reproduce. The stereo separation and lateral focus were very good - much better than I was expecting I have to say. So much so that part of my initial reaction was whether sticking with CD makes sense. On closer listening there were some issues - the very top end is a little thinner, and the soundstage is compressed front to back, but both songs I had thought would flummox it featured piano - and these lacked the feeling of having a tangible 'physical' presence. But nonetheless, it did well in the very things that I was expecting it to do badly. These songs were also ones without any real rhythmic drive to them.
So, we were playing games last night and over an hour of very mixed listening I came to the conclusion that bass was thin and rhythmic timing was quite poor. The 'musicality' element (as discussed in another long-running thread) was compromised. My toes did not tap. Ever mindful of imagining things, I asked Mrs 12th (without prompting) what she thought of the sound quality, and her exact words were 'It's a bit tinny.'
But it's a promising start. I'll be listening to some more demanding tracks back to back against CD later, songs that require real rhythmic drive and a taut and fulsome bass. I can see streaming being a permanent feature alongside CD - but we'll see how I can improve it. I have a few questions, if anyone has any comments/suggestions:
1) Adaptor is a cheapo Esinken from RS - I think they were about £30 and I don't think it has its own DAC. If I get another Bluetooth adaptor with a digital out, am I correct in assuming that it is taking the analogue Spotify signal and 're-digitising' it? I ask as I'm wondering about using the CD's DAC (it has multiple digital inputs), but that would seem to be partly defeated if the signal has already been converted by the phone.
2) If this is correct, is the only way of sourcing an unmolested digital output is to have a proper streamer, rather than just using a phone or tablet?
3) How do you interact with a streamer? As it'd be for more background listening, I don't want to be having to get up and faff about with it - are playlists etc still accessed by the Spotify app, but this controls the streamer?
I also thought I'd listen properly and see what I made of the sound quality, and initially I was pretty impressed (and with caveats, I still am) - I am streaming from a fairly bog-standard android phone (presumably though its own onboard DAC which can't be anything other than inexpensive) through a cheap adaptor connected by a fairly basic cable. I picked some primarily acoustic recordings as these seem to me to be things that are difficult to reproduce. The stereo separation and lateral focus were very good - much better than I was expecting I have to say. So much so that part of my initial reaction was whether sticking with CD makes sense. On closer listening there were some issues - the very top end is a little thinner, and the soundstage is compressed front to back, but both songs I had thought would flummox it featured piano - and these lacked the feeling of having a tangible 'physical' presence. But nonetheless, it did well in the very things that I was expecting it to do badly. These songs were also ones without any real rhythmic drive to them.
So, we were playing games last night and over an hour of very mixed listening I came to the conclusion that bass was thin and rhythmic timing was quite poor. The 'musicality' element (as discussed in another long-running thread) was compromised. My toes did not tap. Ever mindful of imagining things, I asked Mrs 12th (without prompting) what she thought of the sound quality, and her exact words were 'It's a bit tinny.'
But it's a promising start. I'll be listening to some more demanding tracks back to back against CD later, songs that require real rhythmic drive and a taut and fulsome bass. I can see streaming being a permanent feature alongside CD - but we'll see how I can improve it. I have a few questions, if anyone has any comments/suggestions:
1) Adaptor is a cheapo Esinken from RS - I think they were about £30 and I don't think it has its own DAC. If I get another Bluetooth adaptor with a digital out, am I correct in assuming that it is taking the analogue Spotify signal and 're-digitising' it? I ask as I'm wondering about using the CD's DAC (it has multiple digital inputs), but that would seem to be partly defeated if the signal has already been converted by the phone.
2) If this is correct, is the only way of sourcing an unmolested digital output is to have a proper streamer, rather than just using a phone or tablet?
3) How do you interact with a streamer? As it'd be for more background listening, I don't want to be having to get up and faff about with it - are playlists etc still accessed by the Spotify app, but this controls the streamer?
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram