"Keith G" wrote in message ...

My own initial feeling (in what was ostensibly a 128 Kbps CBR/MP3 vs.
110 -150 Kbps VBR/MP4 comparison) is that the MP4s sounded a little
'fresher' (more open in the treble?), but I haven't yet had the opportunity
to do this blind (using my own Electro-Acoustic Replay Scrutinizer), where
the tracks will be selected for me in random pairs......

At 128 Kbps and below, formats such as Ogg Vorbis and AAC are clearly
better than MP3, specially using a good AAC implementation such as
Apple iTunes one. At 128 Kbps and over, there's another very good
performing contender called Musepack or MPC. At high bitrates, MP3 is
not that bad, specially if compared to Ogg Vorbis, but at around 160
Kbps, Ogg Vorbis and even more AAC, tend to still be better, and MPC
is probably the best with difference. At bitrates of 200 Kbps MPC is
the winner without doubt, achieving perceptual transparency with
virtually all kind of sounds, and of the formats left, probably only
AAC is still beter than MP3.