Brad Wardell's site for talking about the customization of Windows.
The Washington Post brings in a team of experts to test out the various compressed audio formats (MP3, MP3pro, WMA, etc.). The results are very intersting.
Comments
on Jul 15, 2001
Yeah, interesting.

The quote most appropriate quote on my laptop is "the loss of subtlety would probably go unheard".

Nothing beats sticking the original CD in a DVD player hooked up to a good surround sound system.
on Jul 15, 2001
Unfortunately, the article didn't go into enough detail on the specifics of the tests to make it worthwhile, in my opinion. I really get tired of people creating a .mp3 with a lousy encoder at 128kpbs and then going on and on about how it's nowhere close to CD quality - duh! The article didn't mention the encoders used (which can have a dramatic effect) or the bitrate. Was it 128kps, 192, variable? I'll bet that if you compared a CD to a Fraunhofer encoded .mp3 at 256 kbps you'd have a much tougher time distinguishing the two... Just my $0.02...