Besides, honestly I can hear the artifacts in 128kb even through cheaper speakers...

Me, too, but only because I'm practiced in what to listen for. It's easier to hear the artifacts on a really good system, but it still takes time and practice to pick them out.

The problem is that, although I was once satisfied with 128-fixed, the high quality of the Empeg playing through a good car system has trained my ears to hear the artifacts. Now that I know what to listen for, an artifact-y cymbal crash sticks out like a sore thumb and it really bugs me.

It's like when someone points out a glitch in an otherwise good movie. You could go your whole life enjoying the movie on its own level, but as soon as your friend points out how you can see the wires holding up the spaceship in that one scene, it'll bug you every time you see it from then on.

Some people will never get to that point. I mean, look at all the memory-stick MP3 players they're selling. The owners of these devices have to be satisfied with low bitrate encoding because of the limited storage. So some folks are happy with 128, 112, or even 96. I'd say "ignorance is bliss", but it's not ignorance, it's just that they never listened closely enough to hear the artifacts, or never had it pointed out to them.

So don't get down on folks who are satisfied with lower bitrates. Envy them.

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Tony Fabris