Can you tell the difference?

320kbps MP3 vs. 128kbps MP3.

Not exactly the best example, some more modern music with greater presence would help...

YES, you can!

Not on my mono MBA!! However on my stereo, the answer is yes.

I could tell the difference through my BV 8 I'm using as a monitor.

I heard them in double stereo, two BL8000 in front and two BL6000 as rear, and yes, i did.

Yep, you can definitely hear the difference.

Robert. 

Listening on headphones there is very little difference. Although I was able to pick the correct one. Tried it with both Form 1's and Form 2's.

 

Craig

Yes, you can hear the differance and its marked, the lower bitrate MP3 does not have the same dynamic range, it sounds 'flat' and has little punch.

Modern recordings tend to compress music so they too tend to sound flat, but you really can tell when you put on something even just a few years older.

Yes you can definately hear the difference, even on my pc speakers....................... but on my BS4 with BL5000/4500 the difference is very big !

I would not say that I have an especially good hearing, but the difference is very obvious in my ears. 

Noticable even on my tacky PC speakers.

Agree - but who encoded the samples, which encoder did they use etc. etc.

I would encourage those that can to try their own experiment, using their own encoder (be it iTunes or whatever) and their own source material and listen again. Not saying the result would be different but I believe in trying it for yourself. (Would you take the same guy's advice on a speaker choice or would you audition them and decide for yourself).

While you're at it try 128kbps vs 256kbps and then 256kbps vs 320kbps. The choice is yours! Did you pick a winner? - what about CBR or VBR? Then again, how does this compare to aac or wma vs mp3?

Call me a sceptic if you will

(btw - did I mention 192kbps)?

Yes, I do. Actually, some time back I was doing an audition on what format I would use when digitizing my CD collection. Back then I chose 192 kbps, because I did the tests with pop music, but soon after that I changed to 320 kbps after doing some listening tests with more acoustic music.

Cheers,
Frank
 

The best encoder I have come across so far in terms of sound quality is CDex.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

....and yes, compare an MP3 from this encoder to a file from another both at the same bitrate and you can tell the differance.

casdave:

The best encoder I have come across so far in terms of sound quality is CDex.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

....and yes, compare an MP3 from this encoder to a file from another both at the same bitrate and you can tell the differance.

 ... and that's my point exactly - as a definitive statement "320kbps is better than 128kbps" seems pretty obvious but it does need to be qualified with data regarding the codec etc. to be truely informative. The other questions I listed then all follow - e.g. how does a 256kbps recording using codec A compare to a 320kbps recording using codec B etc.

 If someone wants to compare all bitrate qualities versus all mp3 codecs plus aac plus wma in a fair and scientific manner I'm sure it will be useful and informative to us all

It'll also give you something to do this summer