From my experience at the lower end of the bit rate scale you experience phase distortion which is that whirring white noise that most people associate with poor quality audio streams. As the bitrates progress further it becomes the sound stage and the dynamic range that is affected (mainly in the treble range, cymbals being a prime example), and the perception of distortion at dynamic peaks. I have done blind tests to be sure that there really was a different I was perceiving, but to me the difference between 192 and 256 is night and day. It should be noted that some people's ears are just more sensitive to this type of thing, being an audio engineer helps. Trust me, my hard drive wishes I didn't care.
|