I have noticed that the reproduction quality of streaming radio stations can be correlated with the kbps required. For instance, right now I am listening to Classical KUSC streaming at 96 kbps and playing at 44khz through Winamp.
Reproduction is excellent.
Voice, such as Rush et al, is fine at 36 to 41 kbps. too far below that and it gets “tinny”
Years past It seemed that 21 to 27 was about normal and allowed listening at dialup speeds. I have seen kbps go as low as 7 (telephone quality) for the Guam station through Realplayer, that station appeared to be variable from 7 to 21 kbps.
Today, reproduction via CC oplayer seems to be generally the best, though many WMP popup, flash, etc. players can also be as good ( i note some of them streaming in the 40+ kbps range)
Though is not a problem for many people, I often share my limited low-end DSL bandwidth with someone and at times a bandwidth requirement this small can make a difference.
A one line difference in kbps and kBps is that the first is bits and second is bytes.
In summation it would be nice to have, where available, a kbps (or kBps) indicator on the stations — , and I am not saying that is not already there, or implied, just that I have not seen it and I like ‘real ‘ numbers.
jim
One problem with that (and I know other web sites do try to do this) is that Windows Media Player does adaptive speed detection. If the player starts detecting packet loss, it will lower the bit rate on-the-fly, so the bit rate may be different for different people, especially those who are stuck on dialup still. On MP3 streams, often there are several choices at fixed bit rates – I always pick the fastest one that works.
A lot of this comes down to willingness of volunteers to do the work to make things happen. With 7000 stations, it’s a major job just to keep one streaming link correct and tested – adding more than 1 link per station or tracking bit rates is just beyond the amount of work people are likely to do as volunteers. Get a hundred people to help, and anything is possible :)
Also, codecs play a huge role in the sound quality. The AAC+ capability built into WinAmp makes a huge difference, as well as if you use some of the optional codes that do Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to equalize the music to pump up the places where the human hearing is weak, and to enhance the stereo effect.