"bob" wrote in message
...
Serge Auckland wrote:

True - Hard disc's will change everything - but what format?

Best guess - AAC at 320kb/sec. I can get more than 400 full-length CDs
onto my 60GB iPod in that format, and I can't tell it from the
original CD, even though it compresses the data about 5:1.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

I definitely agree with AAC, but if music were ever to be commercially
released (other than downloads) in AAC format, my guess is that it would
probably be at a much lower data rate, my best guess 256k max, probably
192k.

Other than downloads? What other way do you think there will be?

As for bitrates, Rhapsody already sells AAC downloads at 192kbps. I
wonder how many people could pass an ABX test comparing that to CD.
I'll bet not many.

bob

Probably not, which is why I think that 192k is probably the best we're
going to get with AAC. For streaming audio, AAC plus works even better at
lower bit rates. I've heard 5.1 surround streamed on AACplus at, if I
remember correctly, 96k. Surprisingly good. Stereo at 48k AACplus is
perfectly good for non-critical listening.

S.