Where’s the Other Half of Your Music File? - New York Times
The New York Times had good article explaining bitrates, which is worth reading.
I largely agree with the findings. It has been long established that Apple's AAC format and Microsoft's WMA both give better sound quality than MP3. While MP3 remains the most interchangeable format, it is definitely showing its age. I am not the most "musical" person on earth, but I can hear the difference.
Second, to my ears AAC its highest quality settings (256 or 320 kbps) is nearly indistinguishable from CDs -- in the typical personal listening environment. You can hear a difference. But it's not one that leaps out at you, and it's magnitude will vary depending on how high end your audio equipment is.
Finally, while compressed formats still are needed for efficient use of portable music players, these days the cost of adding addition storage to a computer is cheap enough that lossless formats are a practical choice for home use. I expect multi-disk CD changers to go the way of eight-track tapes, replaced by lossless formats on hard drives.
