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Spotify Music Quality on 245 Music

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

has anyone seen what sort of encoding Garmin forces Spotify downloads to undergo?  There's definitely a significant downgrade in the file quality.  I'm using Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless earbuds and there's a huge difference between the sound on the 245 Music versus my S10+.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    A 320 kbps song is roughly 2.4MB per minute. Lets say the songs are 3 minutes. 3x2.4 = 7.2. 245M can have up to 500 songs. Thats 3,6GB for 500 songs. I doubt the 245M has such space. Which is why I guess the Spotify app automaticly converts it down to the lowest quality...

    Does your garmin watch really not sound any worse then you phone? 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I actually use a 945 and only downloaded 171 songs.  I don't know what the 945 music capacity is, but even if the 245 was lower, the watch would just hit it's limit and not change quality just to allow more music.  The "about 500 songs" Garmin states doesn't state at what bit rate.  I don't think I'd be able to download 500 of my personal 320 kbps mp3's either.  Yes, the quality is just as good as my phone and I'm an audiophob

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    Bad research by me. DCRainmaker says 3,5GB on the 245 Music. 

    Ok so your 945 has good quality. Doesnt help us with 245 Music :D 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    So, I just looked.  It appears the 945 has double the music storage space as the 245.  Anyway, this should not affect the quality between the two.  For example, let's say for argument's sake someone recorded a song that is 3.5GB at 320 kbps.  The song would last for hours, but you'd only be able to get 1 song on your watch.  Now, you'd obviously would be able to download 2 songs at the same song length at 160 kbps.  It's all about file size, not the amount of songs.  Spotify has three downloadable settings.  Normal, high and very high.  These are set at 96, 160 and 320 kbps respectfully.  Depending on song length, it's very possible to download 500 songs at 96 kbps and I think we'd agree it would sound like ***.  If you downloaded at 320 kbps, the quality is much better, but you're not going to get 500 songs.  Based on my personal experience of downloading the same Spotify playlist at different quality levels and seeing the storage size for each, plus being 100% positive that Spotify or Deezer wouldn't allow Garmin to take their paying customer's music and change the quality without fear of losing customers, I'm going to need to see something official other than speculation that Spotify and Deezer's music quality is downgraded when put on our watches as spyrusthegreat suggested.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    Why not? For Spotify to download the playlists at a certain quality, it has to be selected in the app, on the device spotify is installed on. 
    The Spotify app for Garmin watches does not have this option? Nor does it have audio normalization option. There for it could be a possibilty that the cheaper 245 M skimps on quality

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member
    Ok so your 945 has good quality. Doesnt help us with 245 Music :D 

    Have you tried Spotify set at "very high"?  Are you saying you still find the quality bad if you've done so?  I don't know for certain, but I seriously doubt Garmin isn't using different hardware for music between the 945 and 245.  It wouldn't be cost effective for them to do so.  I would think the only differences would be storage space.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member
    For Spotify to download the playlists at a certain quality, it has to be selected in the app,

    I don't believe this to be true.  I went from a 935 to a 945 for maps and had no desire to use the music feature.  After a couple of months, I decided to give Spotify a try because I was given the first 3 months free.  My first playlist download sounded terrible.  That's when I went back into the Spotify program on my laptop and found the default setting for downloads was at 96 kbps quality.  I deleted the playlist from my watch and downloaded it again at the 320 kbps "very high' quality, and the sound was like night and day.  No settings or options were made on the watch.  Try it yourself.  Make a playlist at 96 and a separate playlist at 320.  Listen to the quality of both.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    I just did some further investigation. Go to Garmin Express. Check the size of "Music from Apps".
    For me it says "747.2 MB" for a playlist of 225 songs. On my PC, the same playlist is "2,51 GB" @ "Very High Quality". Spotify on my telephone is ofcourse set at "Very High Quality" too. 
    Its obvious that the Garmin Spotify app does not seem to download playlists @ "Very High Quality". 

    As pointed out, you can check this yourself with Garmin Express. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member
    you can check this yourself with Garmin Express. 

    Mine are matching.  1.29 GB.  Divide that by 171 songs and that averages out to 7.5 MB per song.  I don't know why yours is different.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    So if more people can check on this to confirm, we will figure out if Garmin gimps on the quality for the 245M!