Nearly all radio is 128kbps mp3 these days - even NPR sounds okay with it.

Gone are the days of live music radio broadcasts…

<L>
Lou Judson
Intuitive Audio
415-883-2689

On May 16, 2017, at 10:59 AM, Eli Bildirici <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Meh. It sounds fine using modern encoders at the higher bitrates it is typically used at by most music stores today - indistinguishable for most from the source. Even expert listeners have trouble:
> http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~hockman/documents/Pras_presentation2009.pdf
> 
> At lower bitrates, the distortion mp3 introduces becomes much more pronounced, regardless of encoder. But, even if you have a distaste for lossy compression schemes, singling out mp3 doesn't really hold water unless you explicitly make a distinction with respect to bitrates. And there are plenty of use cases where exacting quality simply won't matter. That's not to say I don't prefer FLAC and avoid MP3 when I can, but that's because I value having a pristine source that can be manipulated as I choose without negative consequence.