I just purchased a WD Live player specifically to steam Spotify through my home audio system.However the sound quality is terrible and it doesn’t sound like i’m getting the 320 kbps bitrate that i should be getting from Spotify premium.There doesn’t seem to be a setting in the ap to change the bitrate quality, and changing the quality to high in my Spotify account on my laptop doesn’t seem to change sound in the WD player.Does anyone know how to tell what bitrate is coming through WD player or how to change it?
I’m no expert on this, but from my experience with various streaming situations from radio stations, livestream broadcasts, video streams, Netflix, etc. on any of my devices (e.g. WD media player, Roku, iPad, etc) you get the bit rate that is broadcast. So, when I use a service such as DARfm (that records radio programs for me) I always seek out the radio station I want the service to record that has the best bit rate for the program I want to record, rather than take the “default” station. And, yes, I can definitely hear the difference.
So, I’d say that if a 320 signal is coming from Spotify to your PC, you would get it. If you use Spotify in a WD or Roku, you might get a lower bit rate (that is the default) for that player because that is what the player mfg subscribes to. Just a guess.
Also, 320 bit rate can be demanding upon one’s network and equipment if it is not up to the task. So, in this case, the bit rate streaming in would drop down so the audio doesn’t pause and stutter. It’s no different than say, Netflix adjusting to a bit rate so a streaming movie works on slow systems. I have a fast network, internet and components, so I definitely get the best bit rate I expect from any streaming media.
