Here's a debate that's been going on for quite a while now - the issue of compressed audio. The British Federation of Audio (BFA) - the UK's specialist AV consumer electronics trade body - has come out saying it's concerned that consumers aren't getting the enjoyment they could from their portable music devices or hi-fis, with today's music fans happy to download and listen to low bit-rate music files - which often don't come even close to CD quality.
Listening tests carried out by various members of the Federation reveal what most of us already know, namely that the standard recording rate of around 128kbits per second is audibly inferior to CD by a wide margin. And although higher bit-rates of 256kbps and above deliver a far better performance it's still not as good as that from CD. The BFA is keen to encourage us all to use non lossy compression systems for example Apple's Lossless compression, which it says allows for plenty of music on an iPod and the sound quality is far better - more akin to a budget specialist CD player.
Of course these aren't earth-shattering revelations, but until storage capacity on portable devices increase then the debate over the merits of compressed audio is sure to rumble on.
So, we've heard the BFA's opinions on this, but what are your thoughts? What do you think is an acceptable bit-rate for compressed audio? Does digital compression bother you, or at the end of the day is it the quality of the songs themselves that's most important? Whatever your opinions, get stuck in on the forum below!
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