Streaming Audio Quality, Harmony vs Core

45 replies

quick question, as most everyone on here knows much more about the inner workings of the BO products. Is there an audible advantage to streaming with the Core vs streaming to my Harmony? i just BT my spotify to the harmony and it sounds pretty damn great and the harmony offers a LOT of adjustments. Just wondering if i was trading off sound quality by using the TV as the streaming source. Does anyone have any insight? thanks!!

Yes, don’t use BT 😎. Use airplay of chromecast, or the built in deezer through the b&o app.

How do you listen to steaming? On all speakers or 50’s only? And do you want to keep the ability to switch speaker presets with multiple speakers?

Don’t waste your time speculating about possible differences there......it is basicly the same.

But - as Miki wrote - stop using BT as the main way of streaming.....the other options are way better.

MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

Core comes with embedded DAC, pretty good one, and Spotify Connect embedded. BT or WiFi streaming lowers the quality so, based on my experience, the Core will offer a sensible quality improvement.

GLOP wrote:

Core comes with embedded DAC, pretty good one, and Spotify Connect embedded. BT or WiFi streaming lowers the quality so, based on my experience, the Core will offer a sensible quality improvement.

So, and where would the essencial differences between how the BV Harmony and how the BS Core works be.....when it comes to sound (apart from the fact that the Harmony has builtin speakers and handles sound from HDMI inputs.

Why would the Core be ‘a sensible quality improvement’?

And why does ‘WiFi streaming lower the quality’....in the Harmony and not with the Core?

MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

Hey all! Thx for the replies. Sorry, when I said BT I meant I use airplay. And when it’s just me listening, I only use the 50s. Occasionally the jazz groove station on tune in sounds great in surround. 

Millemissen wrote:

GLOP wrote:

Core comes with embedded DAC, pretty good one, and Spotify Connect embedded. BT or WiFi streaming lowers the quality so, based on my experience, the Core will offer a sensible quality improvement.

So, and where would the essencial differences between how the BV Harmony and how the BS Core works be.....when it comes to sound (apart from the fact that the Harmony has builtin speakers and handles sound from HDMI inputs.

Why would the Core be ‘a sensible quality improvement’?

And why does ‘WiFi streaming lower the quality’....in the Harmony and not with the Core?

MM

 

Well, I assume you understand the difference between streaming by Bluetooth from a mobile device to any speaker (or Casting AirPlay if you like) and playing musing from an hard-wired source.

When using BeoSound Core Spotify Connect Engine converts music using it's internal DAC which is better than BT stream or AirPlay or ChromeCast.

If you want numbers google is full of it, there you'll check that BT supports 44.1 Khz and 16bit, Airplay 48Khz and 16 bit and BeoSound Core DAC plays natively 96Khz and 24bit.

So Spotify (or any other source connected which support high spec codec) should sound better than casting the same source wireless.

hope this helps.

G.

Btw do you know the model of the DAC inside the Core? 

GLOP wrote:

Core comes with embedded DAC, pretty good one, and Spotify Connect embedded. BT or WiFi streaming lowers the quality so, based on my experience, the Core will offer a sensible quality improvement.

BT simply doesn't have the bandwith to steam more than 1Mb/s... only the very latest BT 5.1 allows for more than 1Mbit... but then the receiving end also has to have the same BT 5.1... where as Wifi has plenty of bandwith... So.. depending on the quality of the source file/streaming service AirPlay or ChromeCast will be better than BT.

Karel.

My B&O Icons:

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It it funny how the original question about ‘an audible advantage to streaming with the Core vs streaming to my Harmony’ has turned into a question about whether BT is par or worse than AP, Cast etc.

Firstly Mikipedi already adviced not to use BT (if you have other options) and I fully second that.....there is not much more to say to that.

 

As I already posted as an answer to the op, what goes on inside the BV Harmony is basicly what goes on inside a BS Core.

And no, I don’t know which DAC is inside the Core (or for that matter in the Sound Center) - I really don’t care much, since that is just one element of what the Core and the Harmony offers.

You can however say, that the Harmony/the Sound Center has a lot more options to tweak the sound, especially if you have external speakers connected. But overall there is the same processesing of the sound going on in both. And both have support for the same services and streaming options.


Assuming the room is the same, the result is essentially determined by the speakers connected to the system. Since BV Harmony has builtin speakers, speakers that you can not connect to a BS Core, it means that it will be hard to decide if one is ‘a sensible improvement’ compared to the other.

MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

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