Charlotte, most people are not as critical as you and I, and frankly you can produce very decent sounding MP3's at higher bit rates that are better than FM broadcast and approach CD quality. It is certainly an HUGE improvement over the fidelty that we used to get on cassette tapes!!!

The differences are minor except to audiophiles, and I think those of us who do not own ipod's or mp3 players are becoming dinosaurs. I'm sure there were grumblings when wax cylindars were replaced as well.

The fact is, there have been considerable improvements in technology and recordings made at 256 are very good - broadcast quality. The accepted standard these days is becoming 192kbit/s, replacing the 128kbit/s files that were deemed "good" quality. Originally, MP3'w were even less. That is why you can often find CD's with huge amounts of MP3 files stored on them - the bit rate was so low that you could compress many hours on a disc.

Also, variable bitrate encoders have improved the quality.   Many sites are now offering CD quality FLAC files, or even uncompressed .wav files for download.

The big problem is that some sites are not paying close attention to their encoding and compressing the files at levels that introduce distortion or artifacts. As people speak out, the quality improves.

An ipod or MP3 player has become a convenient way of sharing music - perhaps greater than any other invention to reproduce recorded music. The convenience will allow for more music to be explored and shared by future generations.

I have to admit, I am a holdout - although I did receive an MP3 player for Christmas as part of a gift of Bose headphones. While this MP3 player does not hold as much as others, I can see how these devices can be benefitial.

Try one!