So, I know bringing this up is like beating a dead horse...but...

I decided to conduct some listening tests with a few songs in both my car and on my home system. I encoded 4 songs at 128, 160, 192, 256, VBR 1%, VBR 51%, and VBR 100%. The songs were:

1) Bodyrock by Moby
2) Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers
3) Run Like Hell by Pink Floyd
4) Silent All These Years by Tori Amos

I tried to get a wide range of sounds. Maybe you guys have better suggestions for songs?

Anyways, I think I have a pretty good system in my car, and I know I have a good system at home. In the car, I couldn't tell the difference between any of the bitrates. They all sounded good. I thought the Tori song would be the best test, but the 128 sounded as good as the 256. In my home system, they all sounded the same too, although much more crappy in general.

So, I think I'm going to end up choosing 192 as a happy medium...but I wanted to find out what you guys think on the subject.