The digitalization of music may have democratized music in large parts but in terms of quality, compressed music file formats like MP3s are far inferior to uncompressed files or even to analog media sources like LPs.

One of the ways to compensate for this inferiority is by encoding music files at a level that presents more aural quality. This is a great solution and once you’ve heard a file that has been encoded at a great bitrate you’ll never go back to low bitrate file. A great file is a good start but you’ll also need a really good audio hardware to take advantage of your MP3s. [Read more…]