Quality diff. between Spotify on mobile Vs desktop

Ol!ver · 22 Dec 2014 at 22:56

Bit of a strange one this, so bear with me and try not to call me stupid when it turns out the answer is blindingly obvious.

I bought some SoundMagic M310s a few months ago and thought they were OK. Wasn't sure why everyone recommended them, but OK.

I was using them with my iPhone 5 or iPad and now I'm using them with my iPhone 6. Still OK.

Tonight I found myself - rarely, these days - using my MacBook Air in a situation that warrants some music. Plug the SoundMagics in and bang, they sound glorious. Well, they do to me but I don't have any £400 headphones to compare with.

The source is Spotify on both mobile and desktop, with the 'super duper special high bitrate and to hell with data caps' option turned on across both.

So what gives? Yes, the Mac will have different innards obviously, but still, it's night and day.

This is where you tell me I need to buy one of those amps that look like a small fag packet isn't it?

rids57 · 23 Dec 2014 at 01:12

SoundMagic E10s you mean?

They get recommended a lot because they are one of the best earphones at their price level - obviously if you want better sound quality you get better earphones.

Ol!ver · 23 Dec 2014 at 20:24

rids57 said:
SoundMagic E10s you mean?

They get recommended a lot because they are one of the best earphones at their price level - obviously if you want better sound quality you get better earphones.

You've not really read the question, have you?

Brackish · 23 Dec 2014 at 21:02

If you want the best sound quality then yes a small headphone amp would be best. There are so many to choose from! Even small ones in a mint tin (Altoids?).

FiiO have a good choice of portable amp/ dacs to choose from.

Caged · 23 Dec 2014 at 21:10

I'd rule out Spotify before I started carrying headphone amplifiers around (don't do this). Try a track off iTunes, or play a WAV file on both devices.

Ol!ver · 23 Dec 2014 at 22:53

Caged said:
I'd rule out Spotify before I started carrying headphone amplifiers around (don't do this). Try a track off iTunes, or play a WAV file on both devices.

Probably the best course of action. Need to find a track to actually try - I don't have anything local. Must be something hidden in the depths of my iTunes account I can re-download.

rids57 · 23 Dec 2014 at 23:13

Ol!ver said:
You've not really read the question, have you?

Yes I did, I just didn't have a definitive answer for it and the reason I asked if you meant the E10 is that there is no such thing as a SoundMagic M310.

Ol!ver · 23 Dec 2014 at 23:26

rids57 said:
Yes I did, I just didn't have a definitive answer for it and the reason I asked if you meant the E10 is that there is no such thing as a SoundMagic M310.

I did indeed. Looked down and saw M310 on the cable and had a moment.

rids57 · 23 Dec 2014 at 23:37

The modern Macbook Air supposedly has much improved sound quality over older models and iPhones/iPads. So it's likely just better hardware giving you a much better sound.