MP3 seems to lose quality regardless of the bitrate used, which is probably due to the acoustic masking algorithm it uses (which doesn't just remove inaudible frequencies most of the time). Given the right equipment you can still tell the difference with 256kbit layer 3 encodes. As for layer 2, it's unfair to compare it at 128kbit as it wasn't intended for bitrates that low. 256kbit would be a fair test.


- John.