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When digital music first took off, most of us didn’t care that much about audio quality. Some of the lesser, legitimate, legal ways to download music offered terrible quality audio, while the best options at the same time (i.e., iTunes) only supported MP3, which was a relatively low quality codec. Times have changed: While most of us are still not necessarily audiophiles, we expect high-quality tracks from the streaming services we use – especially if we pay for them. It may not be the “gold standard”, but streaming sounds great even with wireless headphones.
But for those of us who listen this way, there’s an obvious limit in audio quality. Bluetooth can only support 320 kbit/s, which is good enough for many of us, but it does mean you basically lose detail in mastered tracks. If you have the right setup, including the right streaming plan, you can listen in high quality at your home, while preserving those details. Spotify may be late to the game, but it now supports lossless audio for Premium subscribers, which can playback up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz. with a good pair of wired headphonesYou can hear some better details than before.
Now, Spotify is back with another quality booster – at least for a very specific type of customers. Facility, also known as “special mode“is meant for Windows listeners to get even more out of their lossless audio playback. (Spotify says a Mac version is in the works.) But while any increase in audio quality sounds like a good deal, you probably won’t notice much of a difference here.
How Spotify’s “Exclusive Mode” works
According to Spotify, the purpose of Exclusive Mode is to get “bit perfect playback” from your PC. It does this by specifying Spotify as your PC’s sole source for audio processing. Typically, when listening to Spotify on Windows, you have several other apps and services playing their audio sources through Windows’ audio mixer. This may include notifications from Slack or Teams, Windows alerts, video playback if you click on a YouTube link; Whatever makes noise on your PC is routed through the same mixer.
Spotify says the music you hear in its app may be altered before it reaches your DAC (digital audio converter), either because Windows re-samples it, changes its volume, or mixes these other sounds into it. Exclusive mode, then, disables all those other audio sources, so that Spotify’s lossless audio is never compromised in that automatic mix. If you’re a purist, this might be a welcome change: you’ll know that the 24-bit/44.1 kHz audio you’re paying for is coming out of your headphones or speakers just as well as it was coming out of your Spotify app.
You probably won’t notice any difference in Spotify’s Exclusive Mode
However, there are some caveats and drawbacks here. First of all, to achieve this, Spotify needs to disable all other audio sources on your PC. This means that when using Exclusive Mode, you won’t actually be able to hear anything on your computer. If you don’t pay attention to your notifications, you may miss task messages or important Windows alerts. If it doesn’t matter to you, you can ignore that issue, but it’s important to know, especially before you start using Exclusive Mode. This includes non-music playback within Spotify itself, including music videos, podcasts, previews, and Canvas clips. These may also play through Windows’ default audio source, and if so, you’ll need to disable Exclusive Mode to use them.
Spotify says you don’t do that need This feature requires a DAC or audio interface to work, but it works best with one. A DAC converts a digital signal to an analog signal for output to wired headphones or speakers. Spotify says that if your PC has a headphone or speaker port, it may have a DAC built-in, but you’ll want to confirm if you want to listen in the highest possible quality. Otherwise, you’ll want to choose a DAC or audio interface.
What do you think so far?
Of course, the biggest caveat is that even with the right setup – a DAC, great wired headphones, exclusive mode playback lossless audio – you won’t notice a difference. The higher quality the audio files, the better the music will sound, yes, but like many media formats, there are diminishing returns in what you see as you improve your setup. Going from MP3 tracks with a cheap pair of earbuds to AirPods with 320 kbit/s playback on Spotify is night and day; On the other hand, going from the latter to a wired headphone setup with lossless audio running through a DAC could be a day and a bit of sunshine.
If you already have such a setup, and you enjoy listening to your music in the highest possible quality, this is probably a setting worth trying. If nothing else, you can see if you notice any improvement in quality, and if not, you can disable it, and get the rest of your Windows sounds back.
How to Enable Exclusive Mode in Spotify
Again, this feature is currently exclusive To Spotify Premium members on Windows desktop app. Then, connect your DAC to your computer. (Ignore this if your computer has a DAC.) Now, open Spotify, then proceed to Settings > Playback > Output. Select your audio device from “Devices,” then click the toggle next to “Enable special modes for this device.”
Spotify recommends you go back to playback settings and turn off the following features when using Exclusive Mode: “Crossfade,” “Automix,” “Normalize Volume” and “Equalizer.”
