Why does Spotify going from my Fire TV through my Denon x3500h sound like ass compared to my wireless phone connection to the same receiver?

Alter3go

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I just got done setting up Spotify on my Fire TV, cause I thought it would be a convenient way to use Alexa voice commands to play music through my receiver, but alas, I was mistaken. As soon as it started playing, it sounded weird, ass-y, flat. I checked to see if it was just me by trying a couple tracks, one very familiar, over the wireless connection from my phone in comparison, and through the Fire TV (not stick), back and forth. Consistently the Fire TV sounded worse. The only way I could describe it is it was like taking a 3D image and squishing it flat into 2D, if that makes any sense.

I thought in either case the DAC would be in the x3500h? Or is there a separate DAC in the Fire TV doing the decoding?

Also, what would be a good way of getting full quality music while using Alexa voice commands to load said music?
 
I have the same issue running spoty through my TV and Roku (sounds terrible) It would still sound better running spotty off the phone bluetooth to you amplifier or better still if via a network connection if you have a streamer like a bluesound.
 
I’m not sure but I’d think in your case the receiver DAC is doing nothing in either case. Depending on the phone you probably have a decent Bluetooth codec. As to how to use Alexa and retain good sound I think with current setup you can have one but not the other.
 
I know when I used a FireTV stick, I found everything to be poor compared to using just basic streaming from other devices including my TV, Sonos Connect (not Bluetooth of course) and my old Arcam rBlink via my phone. So I feel @MaryWhitehouse could be right with the Bluetooth side if you are connected via Bluetooth. If however you are using an iPhone and this is connected via Airplay on the Denon then this will also answer why you're phone outperforms the Fire TV option as it ought to

As for the Roku @Kapkirk, this seems to be something that users are complaining about it and other app using the Spotify Apps on different platforms. So it could be something to do with Spotify and those Apps. I wonder if they only allow 96kbps (or something in the setting is throttling it to a low bitrate), it could explain the TV to (but I'm not sure). I know that people via Spotify's own forums are complaining about it :thumbsdow
 
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I keep saying this but if you’re an Apple person then an airport express connected to your amp for Airplay streaming is excellent and allows optical out. I’m sure can be improved on but it’s cheap (my last cost £5 as so old) and much better than you’d expect. For Android a CC Audio can be similar I believe with a few caveats.
 

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