diff --git a/lib/reporters/base.js b/lib/reporters/base.js
index c3ffe6a974..bec43e58f5 100644
--- a/lib/reporters/base.js
+++ b/lib/reporters/base.js
@@ -189,11 +189,9 @@ exports.list = function(failures){
     if (err.showDiff !== false && sameType(actual, expected)
         && expected !== undefined) {
 
-      if ('string' !== typeof actual) {
-        escape = false;
-        err.actual = actual = utils.stringify(actual);
-        err.expected = expected = utils.stringify(expected);
-      }
+      escape = false;
+      err.actual = actual = utils.stringify(actual);
+      err.expected = expected = utils.stringify(expected);
 
       fmt = color('error title', '  %s) %s:\n%s') + color('error stack', '\n%s\n');
       var match = message.match(/^([^:]+): expected/);
diff --git a/lib/utils.js b/lib/utils.js
index c1393a9c62..3650a707cc 100644
--- a/lib/utils.js
+++ b/lib/utils.js
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@ function jsonStringify(object, spaces, depth) {
       default:
         val = (val == '[Function]' || val == '[Circular]')
           ? val
-          : '"' + val + '"'; //string
+          : JSON.stringify(val); //string
     }
     return val;
   }
diff --git a/test/reporters/base.js b/test/reporters/base.js
index 3b06f34ad1..b5de60b3f2 100644
--- a/test/reporters/base.js
+++ b/test/reporters/base.js
@@ -88,22 +88,24 @@ describe('Base reporter', function () {
 
   });
 
-  it('should not stringify strings', function () {
+  it('should show string diff as raw data', function () {
     var err = new Error('test'),
       errOut;
 
-    err.actual = "a1";
-    err.expected = "e2";
+    err.actual = 'foo\nbar';
+    err.expected = 'foo\nbaz';
     err.showDiff = true;
     var test = makeTest(err);
 
     Base.list([test]);
 
     errOut = stdout.join('\n');
-    errOut.should.not.match(/"/);
+
+    errOut.should.match(/"foo\\nbar"/);
+    errOut.should.match(/"foo\\nbaz"/);
     errOut.should.match(/test/);
-    errOut.should.match(/\- actual/);
-    errOut.should.match(/\+ expected/);
+    errOut.should.match(/actual/);
+    errOut.should.match(/expected/);
   });
 
   it('should stringify objects', function () {