Audio quality - vs Edge. (Chrome sucks too... but still better than Vivaldi)
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Hi Guys,
Is there anyway to tweak, set, or improve the audio playback quality from Vivaldi?
I switched from Chrome to Vivaldi... I love it. I love their privacy principles. The extra features, everything...BUT...
Streaming Music from music.youtube.com or Google PlayMusic sucks. The quality just does not compare to chrome.. and chrome sucks in comparison to the new Edge browser. Is there anything I can do? Is this something that has been mentioned? I would like nothing more than being able to forget other browsers exist. But at the moment I have to have Vivaldi open and Edge just to stream my music.
Thank you for the amazing work... and thoughts that go into this browser.
Kind Regards
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Get a good headset... Example: I have a Logitech G635 headset.
Open all 3 browsers (I am using Windows 10) play music. Same songs from all 3... test it. Rock, EDM, Metal. If you do not notice the difference... then I am not sure what to say. My friend has a logitech speaker set... and there too is a distinct difference in audio quality... Between the 3 browsers
The new edge browser being the best... Then chrome second. Then Vivaldi seems to fall a little short here.
I do not know how you would test this without an account... I can try to see if the same applies to standard Youtube.... But I am referring to specifically account based music streaming from Google play music and music.youtube.com.
Kind Regards
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Hi,
I remember I had to adjust the audio channels (I don’t remember how exactly) in Windows settings a long time ago… maybe this can help. -
@Javah said in Audio quality - vs Edge. (Chrome sucks too... but still better than Vivaldi):
Open all 3 browsers (I am using Windows 10) play music. Same songs from all 3... test it. Rock, EDM, Metal. If you do not notice the difference... then I am not sure what to say. My friend has a logitech speaker set... and there too is a distinct difference in audio quality... Between the 3 browsers
The new edge browser being the best... Then chrome second. Then Vivaldi seems to fall a little short here.
I do not know how you would test this without an account... I can try to see if the same applies to standard Youtube.... But I am referring to specifically account based music streaming from Google play music and music.youtube.com.
Kind RegardsAlright I submitted it.
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@potmeklecbohdan
If you can tell me how.. I can test. But for now.. The actual audio coming through is... lower quality. I don't know how to explain it. Unless you test all 3 browsers on the same pc with the same music from the same source on the same speakers.
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@Gwen-Dragon
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Really strange, I assume this is only with headsets over USB? I certainly notice no difference at all in the browsers I've installed, Firefox, Opera, old Edge, Vivaldi, using Realtek Digital Output to a regular amp.
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Verified this. Quite obvious, even using the tiny built-in speakers in my Surface Book. (They have no bass, but they're quite crisp and detailed, and sit along the very edges of the screen.) I used the Qobuz web app on Vivaldi and the new Edge, and the dedicated Qobuz application.
In Vivaldi, the stereo image is entirely between the speakers, no wider than the screen. In Edge, the image is twice as wide, my brain can matrix the sound and imagine some is originating out beyond the speakers. Using the Qobuz Windows app, which connects to the built-in speakers via WASAPI instead of DirectSound, the stereo image acquires uncanny depth, behind and in front of the screen, as well as the double width.
What is happening? I have not dug into this particular issue, but I'd almost guarantee it results from differences in resampling. Resampling (as in Windows KMixer, or Flash SoundManager 2) is the main enemy of a convincing sound space.
When I had the original Sony DSS (the format that became DirecTV) I found that music recorded from it as a WAV file sounded acceptable but if re-compressed into an MP3 it lost its sound space no matter how high the bitrate. When I explored the much-hyped Beats Music that Apple bought, they were streaming the exact same tracks (same URLs!) MOG provided, but their player ran them through SoundManager 2 before you could get to them - totally destroying the sound spaces. There was a vocal minority of former MOG fans who noticed, but most people including Apple execs seem to have bought the hype. Guess that’s why Dre is a “billionaire” and I’m not...
More of my ancient history at:
http://www.psychoros.com/stereoFrame.htmlI don't believe any browser can swap out the resampling components a music service chooses to include in their web players, but maybe Edge has found a way? Or maybe they just default to WASAPI instead of DirectSound? Someone could probably dig through this in DevTools... Maybe SoundManager 2 is still in use?
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@LorenAmelang Vivald is forced to use different codecs from Edge, or even Chrome.
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@Ayespy If so this should apply to all users, but it's not. I certainly have not noticed any difference in audio output from all browsers the I have installed.
Then again, we do know Vivaldi has issues decoding multi-channel audio, but music would usually be stereo only.
I'd recommend you guys who are experiencing this to gather as much information on your systems as possible and see if there are similarities in device types, audio drivers, speaker setups (analog/digital output etc), and environmental audio settings in the drivers.
Since audio perception is very much subjective, maybe you can use Audacity or similar to record the audio being output to the device before it's sent to speakers?
"Qobuz isn't available in your country."... man am I tired of seeing that kind of crap.
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@Pathduck said in Audio quality - vs Edge. (Chrome sucks too... but still better than Vivaldi):
Really strange, I assume this is only with headsets over USB? I certainly notice no difference at all in the browsers I've installed, Firefox, Opera, old Edge, Vivaldi, using Realtek Digital Output to a regular amp.
Same for me. Headset plugged in using 3.5 mm audio jack to the front of my computer. As far as I can hear there is no difference at all between Vivaldi and Chrome. Tested with TheFatRat's Rise Up and Thomas Bergersen's Illusions and Immortal.
Specs:
- Vivaldi (3.2.1964.3 64-bit)
- Chrome (84.0.4147.105 64-bit).
- Windows 10 1909, build 18363.959
- Motherboard with built-in SupremeFX S1220A audio
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@Pathduck The difference I hear is not obvious to all listeners, in fact many people with expensive and exotic audio systems who consider themselves expert judges of equipment insist it does not exist.
When I was designing hardware, I found my brain turned off the ability to detect better sound space once I'd listened to an inferior stream. Test first thing in your day, with the clearest audio first. You may notice the space shrink when you switch.
Audio recordings vary widely in the amount of spatial information they include. My playlist of things with outstanding space is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLegqn2q5hEYV8NMiqNNPZLSL2y5tZNvJb(I have not listened to the YouTube versions... The Qobuz versions were exceptional. Maybe take the titles to your own best music sources...)
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