Neo Radio - How is the sound quality with Internet Radio
Neo Radio provides a sound quality on par with the best FM stations – the same level as DAB+ radio and Internet Radio channels. The FM input is used on your B&O product.
Many are probably asking the question – what sound quality do I get by using Neo Radio together with my B&O product. It is natural to ask that question.
The short answer – Internet Radio channels
The very short answer is that you get the same sound quality as a good FM station with a good antenna, because Neo Radio use the FM receiver in your B&O product.
If you use DAB Radio or DAB+ Radio, you experience the same quality as Neo Radio with Internet Radio channels. After all, they are both streaming from the Internet.
If you have been satisfied with the sound on the FM band, then you will also be satisfied with the sound quality from Neo Radio – because it is the same quality. The FM radio in your B&O product sets the limit for quality - it does Neo Radio not.
The longer answer – the FM receiver and Internet Radio
The slightly longer answer is more technical - but the answer is the same. You get the same sound quality as a good FM station with a good antenna.
That said, there are some conditions to get this. These conditions depend on you and your choice of Internet stations.
In the same way as when you heard different FM stations, there are different Internet stations to listen to. The Internet stations or Internet Radio have different sound qualities.
Some transmit with super good sound quality, others with medium good sound quality and some with rather poor sound quality. So the result in your B&O speakers and your ears depends on your choice of Internet Radio stations.
Sometimes you just want to hear a certain station, regardless of the quality from the provider.
You can choose your Internet radio stations via NeoRadio.net and in connection with your choices you can see the quality of the radio station.
The deep technical answer
The deep technical answer is more complicated and you don't really need to know it when you can just read the short answer. But - some would like to know the technical explanation and we will try to provide something for this here. Without a doubt - it can be elaborated much more and there are also different interpretations of this, so consider this our take on the technical explanation.
Neo Radio uses the FM input on your B&O product for streaming Internet Radio channels. It is not just the FM input, but the entire FM receiver in your Bang & Olufsen product.
Simple operation when using Neo Radio
Why have we chosen it? We have had two considerations regarding this solution. The first and most important thing is the operation. To listen to Internet radio channels, press RADIO on your B&O remote control and select the channel number - exactly the same way you always did when listening to FM radio. It is familiar and simple. You can close-operate the B&O product or operate via your B&O remote control.
The second consideration is the quality of the sound. The conclusion here is that if Neo Radio can provide a sound signal at the same level as the best FM station with a really good antenna, then it is good enough for Internet Radio streaming (like FM radio streaming). Everyone was happy with it and thought it was a good sound. That was the goal and it can Neo Radio.
Neo Radio use the FM receiver in your B&O product
An FM radio is typically specified to provide sound frequencies from 30 Hz to 15.000 Hz. The FM modulation dampens low and high frequencies - that's how it's always been.
Many people love the slightly "round" sound and soft sound from the FM receiver, but it is actually unnatural. Digital music from the Internet, on the other hand, is sharper due to compression of the sound. Many perceive this as a harsher and sharper sound than FM.
The quality of the Internet sound can well be described as better than the FM band - but here you have to remember to take the compression technique into account. When listening to high-quality Internet Radio channels, it will be the FM receiver in the B&O equipment that sets the limit for the quality - but no worse than the best FM stations that everyone has listened to in the past and enjoyed for many years.
How good does an Internet Radio have to be to give the same perceived value as a really good FM station?
Experience shows that if an Internet Radio streams with a compression technique HE-AACv1 and a bit streaming speed of 88 or 96 Kbit/s – you have the same experience and quality.
Danmark Radio streams exactly this quality on Internet Radio and DAB+ radio.
DAB+ and Neo Radio – is it like Internet Radio channels
Isn't DAB+ better than Internet Radio stations?
Yes and no – it again depends on the station's compression quality. As an example, many Danish DAB+ radio stations have a compression model called HE-AAC v1 with 96 Kbit bitrate. Danmarks Radio broadcasts DAB+ in 88 kbit/s DAB+ Stereo HE-AAC v1 and a few Danish DAB+ stations broadcast in 144 kbit/s DAB+ Stereo HE-AAC v1.
A great many Internet Radio stations transmit in the same quality as DAB+ - you can therefore easily argue that DAB+ is not better than Internal Radio stations.
Now one can ask whether Internet Radio streaming (and for that matter also DAB+ streaming) is faithful to the actual recorded music. The difference between "real music" and streaming is, after all, a compression of the sound so that it fits the listener's internet connection.
After all, the goal is to play "the right sound", as when the artist recorded the music. If you sent uncompressed audio files, the internet would grind to a halt and not be able to serve everyone. Therefore, the sound is compressed so that it takes up less space via the Internet - but then has the unfortunate property that the quality deteriorates.
In 2015, Danmarks Radio prepared a report - "ITU-R BS.1534-2 (MUSHRA), codec and bitrate test - Executive summary", which compared the real music with different compression methods.
Here you can read that AAC 96 Kbits was perceived as Excellent by the listening panel and approved. There is a difference to the actual recorded music, but mostly not audible.
What is audio compression on Internet Radio channels
The advent of portable music players forced the manufacturers to compress the sound so that it could be in the scarce memory of the portable devices – eg an Apple iPod.
This gave birth to MP3 music, which is a compression method called MP3.
The successor to MP3 is AAC – Advanced Audio Coding – primarily as MPEG-2 format. The typical view is that ACC is better than MP3 music.
Today, the improved version of ACC is used with the new name HE-ACC, where HE is High Efficiency. It is also seen as the MPEG-4 format. The method is often used for Internet Radio streaming. It is often seen as HE-AACv1. Others arm it as AAC+. It is the same.
There is also now HE-AACv2 or referred to as eAAC+.
You can read more here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Efficiency_Advanced_Audio_Coding
Rudi Pedersen – Neomesteren – October 2022