On Jul 25, 8:00*pm, mpd wrote:

yes the audio quality might not always be good but if people didn't
listen to stuff that was bad quality than mp3's wouldn't have taken
off!

Well, also some of the MP3 players come with relatively lousy
headphones and get used in noisy environments. I suspect many people
learn to "tune out" how mediocre some MP3s sound.

Years ago I was getting ready to encode all my CDs, and wanted to
choose the encoding rate by syncing up the playback between CD and
previous ripped file and switching back and forth between them. 128K
bit/sec. is obviously inferior to the CD and it was quite obvious
which was the CD. Interestingly, at 192K bits/sec., which uses only
1.5 times more storage, the quality goes up so much that it starts to
take critical listening to determine which is the CD.

On a related note, anyone notice how the human ear can enjoy music
even when it has been battered by tough propagation and distortion? I
guess that's the basis for cheap MP3 players and accessories.