Hello r/linux,

I have some exciting news for all Linux audiophiles! It seems Spotify has quietly enabled Lossless (HiFi) audio streaming on their native Linux client without any official announcement or client update.

I confirmed this via the audio pipeline, and the results clearly show a CD-quality stream.

1. Discovery and Client Details

• Spotify Version: 1.2.63.394.g126b0d89 (Copyright (c) 2025, Spotify Ltd)
• Operating System: Linux Mint 22.2
• Audio Server: PipeWire (Running via pipewire-pulse)
• Prerequisite: Spotify Premium subscription (The Lossless option appeared under the quality settings.)

I noticed a new 'Lossless' option in the Audio Quality settings, situated right below 'Very High.' When this setting is activated and playing a track, the audio output is immediately upgraded.

2. Technical Verification (The Proof)

To verify that the client is actually streaming at a higher quality than the standard 320 kbps Ogg Vorbis/AAC, I checked the output format reported by PipeWire using the pactl list sink-inputs command.

The crucial finding is that the audio stream is running at 44.1kHz.

🔑 Key Output Lines (From pactl list sink-inputs)

サンプル仕様: float32le 2ch 44100Hz 形式: pcm, format.sample_format = "\"float32le\"" format.rate = "44100" format.channels = "2" ... プロパティ: application.name = "spotify" application.process.binary = "spotify" media.name = "Spotify" node.rate = "1/44100" media.class = "Stream/Output/Audio" 

What This Means:

44.1kHz (CD Quality): This confirms the stream is using the CD-standard sampling rate, a hallmark of lossless quality, and is not the standard 48kHz used for most compressed streams and general PipeWire mixing. Float32LE: Spotify is utilizing a high-resolution, 32-bit floating-point format internally, which is a best practice for maintaining audio integrity and avoiding digital clipping before the DAC. Server-Side Switch: Since there was no client update, this feature appears to have been rolled out via a server-side feature flag (a "secret switch") to select users/clients.

3. Call to Action

If you are a Premium user on the Linux desktop client, please check your audio quality settings now! Can anyone else confirm this behavior, especially on different distributions or with ALSA/JACK? This is a massive win for the Linux desktop audio ecosystem!

(元の投稿者による日本語コメント: これまでLinuxでロスレス再生は非常に複雑でしたが、PipeWireのおかげでスムーズに実現できています。この発見は本当に嬉しいです！)