I thought web radio stations would be more similar in quality than FM stations because of the difference in transmission. But one station, KUSC. com, sounds like it's got digital, wow and flutter. It's really bad. Annother one, Beethoven. com, sounds pretty good. Why the difference? Can I do anything to fix it?
Well, saying 'Internet Radio' is a bot of a misnomer. It's actually streaming media, which is affected by several factors: Client Bandwidth -- the speed of your internet connection Server Bandwith -- The speed of the media source's internet connection Audio Codec -- the mathmatical algorythm used to compress the media Network Congestion -- Just like it sounds, Internet traffic Recording Quality -- If you're listening to a Louie Armstrong album from 1921, it's not going to sound any better just because it's being broadcast in a digital medium If the host server you are streaming music from only allows a small portion of bandwidth to each client, e.g. 24kbps, the music quality will sound simply awful - likely worse than FM radio. On the other hand, a connection at 192kbps will sound more or less the same as a CD. The audio codec the music is being streamed in is also a factor. Some codecs sound better than others even at lower bitrates. All the best, -AT
