Go to http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ and you can find all the nice objective numbers you want. The reality is that th

Go to http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ and you can find all the nice objective numbers you want. The reality is that they now do listening tests at <96kbits because the encoders are too good above that threshold. Subjective is no more useful here than it is any other quantifiable, scientific application. Providers push higher bitrates because customers think they're better and demand them.