GoKawiilRyan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR Spotify rolls out Exclusive Mode on desktop, aiming to deliver cleaner, more accurate audio.
It bypasses your OS audio mixer, reducing resampling, jitter, and unwanted noise.
The feature is live for Premium users on the Windows desktop app.
Spotify is finally letting desktop users try out an audiophile mode, but there’s a catch that could make you hesitate.
The company is rolling out a new feature called Exclusive Mode for its desktop app. Spotify says it bypasses the operating system’s audio processing, which can reduce sound quality, but it comes with a trade-off for multitasking.
The main issue for years hasn’t been Spotify’s bitrates, but how your computer processes sound. Operating systems usually mix audio from different sources, like your browser and music player, and then resample everything to a set frequency. This process can add jitter and unwanted noise. If you use a high-end Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) or studio monitors, you may have been frustrated that you couldn’t send them a pure audio stream straight from Spotify.
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Exclusive Mode fixes this problem. When you turn it on, Spotify takes full control of your audio output device, skipping the system mixer and sending audio directly to your hardware. This lets your audio device handle the digital-to-analog conversion, resulting in more accurate sound. The difference is especially clear if you use high-impedance headphones.
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