Onkyo DX-C390 6-Disk CD Changer w/ MP3 CD Playback

Well you're touching on multiple things here; I agree most of us can't really hear a difference between FLAC and 320kbps mp3. Either we can't hear the difference, or we simply don't have good enough equipment to get the most out of FLAC. I personally rip my cd's to 320kbps and find that's good enough for music on my phone or in the car. At home, I do most of my listening on vinyl and the occasional CD. Again, maybe if I had a better DAC, and a better amp, and a better set of speakers. I've no idea. But even in my recording studio, listening on studio monitors (Yamaha HS8's w and wo subwoofer), I may be able to hear a difference, but sure as hell can't tell which is which nor which is better. Now, the other thing you mention is Spotify. Spotify is not even close to CD quality, or FLAC, or 320kbps MP3. Spotify free uses, normally, 112~128kbps on desktop and 96~128kbps on mobile. Premium gets up to 192kbbps in certain cases, which, is pretty good, I'd say. They're supposedly launching "Spotify HD" later this year. We'll see what that means exactly. But even with Spotify Premium, I still find it super hard to enjoy music through the service. Even if I download the music beforehand and select the highest bitrate possible; there's something they do to their source that kills dynamics. It's particularly bad in the car I've noticed (tested on a 2013 Mazda 3 and a 2021 Mazda 3). So, yeah, I agree, most people either can't hear or don't have good enough equipment to tell the difference between FLAC and a high quality MP3; but Spotify vs either CD, or FLAC or a high quality MP3 is a much lower bar. I'd say most modest setups will be good enough for you to hear a difference there. It may be tricky because volume is often different when you switch sources, but listen carefully, find an instrument in the mix and focus on it, cymbals are a good tell imo; they sound harsh and distorted in spotify; while, if they're not intended to, they won't on even a 196kbps mp3. IMHO the take away is that Spotify (and every other music streaming service as well) is a fantastic tool. It's a great music discovery platform that I believe has value to offer for everyone. But that's all it is. Just a tool. You discover music there, only to go to the musicians merch page (or amazon or discogs) and buy a record or a cd to listen to and rip to take on the go. I've paid for Spotify on multiple occasions. Every time they offer me the 3 months for the price of one deal. But I never end up using it any more than when I don't pay for it. It could also be linked to my age... I grew up listening to vinyl and recording vinyl on tapes to take with me. I was skeptical of CD's as a kid. Preferred the fun of buying a record and recording it onto tape. So maybe streaming just isn't for me.

Thanks for sharing the information, is there really a difference between Spotify and CD talking about music quality? I don't think most of the people can tell the difference between uncompressed FLAC and 320k/bps MP3 songs. I used to download Spotify to MP3 and stream the same song on CD, I can barely hear difference.