On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:35:36 +0000, Jim Lesurf wrote:

My impression is that the bitrate alone doesn't tell the entire story.
The quality will also depend on how well the encoder 'judges' the
audibility requirements. Matter of settings and details of processing.
And how much the producer avoids adding problems like excessive
level-compression or eq.

Yes. I've heard one or two good recordings at 128k from Venice Classic
radio via my Pioneer N-50/MDAC/Quad Elite/Quad ESL system.

- Richard.