This article is really nothing new; all of us who have grown up with MP3s know that sound quality has greatly diminished since they were introduced. I myself, I’m shamed to admit, had largely forgotten just how good a CD can sound until I was forced to get a car after our move to the Chicago suburbs. This article is actually best for a sampling of what artists in the industry think about the change.
What frightens me is that this goes across the boards in all the arts, not just music, although I’m wondering if an exception can be made in the case of the new HD-DVD format. Regardless, that says nothing about the quality of the actual stories that Hollywood is producing today.
It is true. The majority of people who use MP3s (I would assume), generally download them from less-than-perfect sources (file sharing, etc.), which would contribute to the increase of crappy-bitrate MP3s and bad-sounding music.
Personally the lowest bitrate I ever consider keeping is 192k, and the majority of my music is ripped directly from CDs or downloaded from a reliable, quality download source. In the 320k or even 192k bitrate range, I really can’t tell a large difference between an MP3 (or other compressed file, OGG, etc.), and a CD. This of course would depend on the speakers or headphones used as well. Some audio afficianados even use lossless codecs like FLAC and WAV to preserve a completely CD-quality sound.
In any case, nice work on this blog. Its appearance and content is very appealing and causes one to think. When you get a chance, I’d appreciate it if you would visit my own site at http://www.Lightloch.com and take a look and hopefully post a comment or two.
Thanks and keep up the great work!