Nero announced today that Nero Digital Audio codec with HE-AAC has won a blind listening test at 48 kbps, beating Windows Media Audio Pro 10 which will be shipped in upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

The test, coordinated by Sebastian Mares and presented on a Hydrogenaudio online forum, consisted of twenty audio samples featuring a variety of voice types, tempos, instruments, and music genres. More than 200 results were submitted, coming from audiophile volunteers that took part in the test which compared Nero Digital Audio+, WMA Pro 10, Ogg Vorbis, and WMA Standard 9.2.

At 48 kbps, considered very low bit rates for digital audio streaming, Nero sets the standard for audio delivery for Internet, mobile solutions, and TV/radio streaming. All of which require very low bit rates at higher bandwidth.

Nero Digital Audio+ allows you to store a full Audio CD in a single MP4 file and to embed album art and gapless playback between audio tracks and much more.

Nero Digital Audio+ Encoding and Decoding tools are available for FREE download on www.nerodigital.com.