Re: Self inflicted
>Suddenly, all of those 128 kbps MP3 audio files you grabbed from Napster in the 1990s are garbage to your ears.
I think 128kbps is low enough that most people could pick which is which for some types of music. If you double it to 256 and add some VBR, the difference is physically inaudible to most the population. At 320, you would have a lot of trouble in a double blind test to pick one from the other.
That is not to say that it doesn't sound better to you. We know for example that the placebo effect is real. Someone who is told that a particular medication will help their breathing performs better at altitude tests than control even if the medication is just a sugar pill. I am in no doubt that someone who knows they are listening to a lossless encoding will experience in their brain a better quality of sound.
Nonetheless, your point about 1990s tracks sounding like garbage is correct* but that has little to do with how the music is encoded ;)
* especially only happy when it rains.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
