How to Get Spotify Best Audio Quality on Any Device

Spotify can sound noticeably better or worse depending on a handful of settings most people never open, spread across streaming quality, download quality, and playback controls like the equalizer. None of them are hidden, but they’re easy to miss since Spotify doesn’t group them in one place. Here’s where each one lives and what to change to get the best sound your setup can actually deliver.

Change Spotify’s Streaming Quality Settings

This is the single setting that controls what Spotify actually sends to your device, so start here.

To find it:

iPhone/Android: Open Spotify, tap your profile picture, go to Settings and privacy, then Media Quality
Desktop: Click the three-dot menu at the top-left, choose Edit > Preferences, then scroll to Audio quality
Web player: Quality can’t be changed here at all, so use the desktop app if you want control

Once you’re in the menu, you’ll see the streaming quality options, which control what plays while you’re actively listening online:

Low, Normal, High: Available to all users
Very high, Lossless: Premium only
Auto-adjust: Turn this off if you don’t want Spotify lowering quality on its own based on connection strength

Each option shows its bitrate and roughly how much data it uses per hour, so you can judge the tradeoff. Mobile also lets you set separate quality levels for Wi-Fi and cellular, which is worth doing if you care about data usage on the go but want full quality at home.

Fix Your Download Quality Too

Streaming quality only affects what plays live. Anything you’ve downloaded for offline listening follows its own separate setting, so it’s easy to fix one and forget the other.

Scroll further down the same settings page to Download quality
If you downloaded songs before raising your quality settings, those files stay at the old bitrate until you re-download them
Tap Download on that page to refresh everything to the new setting
If you’re low on mobile data but have plenty of phone storage, download at High or Very high and listen offline to skip streaming limits entirely

Turn On Spotify Lossless (And Know When It Works)

Lossless gives you CD-quality audio through compression that keeps all the original data intact, but it only matters if your hardware can carry the signal.

Bluetooth can’t transmit a true lossless stream, so Lossless mode changes nothing while you’re on Bluetooth earbuds or speakers. The signal has to travel over an actual wire or a Wi-Fi connection instead, which rules out most everyday listening setups. That leaves a short list of setups that qualify:

Wired headphones plugged directly into your phone
USB-C earbuds, since the connector carries a digital signal over a physical cable rather than Bluetooth
Wired speakers connected to a computer
A Wi-Fi speaker running Spotify Connect, since Wi-Fi doesn’t have Bluetooth’s bandwidth ceiling

Smart TVs and other connected devices follow the same wired-or-Wi-Fi rule, but the setup looks different since you’re not holding the device:

Some models support lossless depending on hardware, check the device’s own quality selector first
If there isn’t one, start playback on the device, open Spotify Connect on your phone, tap the device name at the bottom of the Now Playing screen, then tap it again in the Connect list to reach Change quality settings

Even with a lossless-capable setup, cheap earbuds or car speakers won’t let you hear the difference. Save Lossless for a quiet room and decent headphones or speakers, and don’t expect it to matter much in a moving car or a noisy street.

Adjust the Equalizer and Other Sound Settings

Beyond the quality tier itself, a few playback settings inside Spotify change how the audio actually sounds.

Equalizer: Go to Settings > Playback > Equalizer to pick a preset or adjust frequencies manually. Your phone’s system EQ, Spotify’s own EQ, and any EQ built into your headphones can all be active at once, and stacking them usually muddies the sound rather than improving it, so keep only one active
Volume normalization: Try turning this off. It sets a consistent baseline volume across tracks, and while it shouldn’t reduce quality unless set to Loud, some listeners prefer the raw dynamics with it off
Mono audio: Make sure this is disabled unless you specifically need it
Crossfade: Found under Track transitions. Not a quality setting, but a long crossfade period will cut off song endings
Data saver: Turn this off under Data-saving and offline if mobile data isn’t a concern, since it quietly caps your streaming bitrate

Pick the Right Quality for Where You’re Listening

With all these settings in place, the quality level worth actually using still depends on where you are and what you’re listening on.

At home with real speakers or good headphones: Lossless or Very high is worth the bandwidth
Out with Bluetooth earbuds in a loud environment: A lower setting saves data without costing you anything you could actually hear anyway

Not everyone hears the difference between high-quality lossy and lossless audio either, and that’s normal. If you’re curious where you land, an online ABX listening test can show whether you can reliably tell the two apart.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Spotify offer lossless audio for free users?

No. Lossless streaming is limited to Premium subscribers, along with the Very high quality tier. Free accounts can only choose between Low, Normal, and High.

Why does Spotify still sound bad even with Lossless turned on?

Lossless only helps if your entire signal chain supports it. Bluetooth connections strip out the extra data regardless of the setting, so you need wired headphones, USB-C earbuds, or a Wi-Fi speaker through Spotify Connect to actually hear the difference.

Does changing streaming quality also change my downloaded songs?

No. Streaming and download quality are separate settings. Songs downloaded before you raised the quality stay at the old bitrate until you open the Download quality menu and tap Download again to refresh them.

Will turning off Data saver drain my mobile data faster?

Yes, since Data saver caps your streaming bitrate to reduce data use. Turning it off lets Spotify stream at your selected quality setting instead, which uses more data per hour, so only disable it if you’re not worried about your data plan.

Can I use the equalizer and still get accurate lossless sound?

Yes, but any EQ adjustment alters the original signal, so it’s a tradeoff between accuracy and personal preference. If you want the closest experience to the source recording, leave the equalizer flat and skip additional EQ apps on your phone or headphones.

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