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Maximum PC Tests Audio Bit Rates With Surprising Results.  Do audio bit rates matter? Can anyone tell the difference between a music track encoded at 320kbit/sec, 160kbit/sec and oh lord, that holy grail of audiophile nirvana, the uncompressed wav? Our friends at Maximum PC decided to put audio compression to the test, enlisting four people to listen music first in uncompressed form, and then encoded with a variable bit rate at 320kbit/sec and the lowly 160kbit/sec. It was easy for everyone to tell the difference, right? Right?
It's downright humiliating, in fact, that in many cases, we were unable to tell the difference between an uncompressed track and one encoded at 160Kb/s, the bit rate most of us considered the absolute minimum acceptable for even portable players. Most of the time, even a golden-eared audiophile couldn't tell the difference between uncompressed and highly compressed audio. A useful fact is that the compressed files were hard to detect because they were encoded using a variable bit rate, which makes a huge difference in complex musical passages that might suffer from compression. What a revealing test, and a great read! [^] Charlie WhiteDo Higher MP3 Bit Rates Pay Off? [Maximum PC][Gizmodo]
10:37:33 PM 
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XM hit with false advertising lawsuit over "commercial free" claims.
 Talk about a company that can't stay out of the courtroom. Yet again, we've got XM headed back for another round of sticky legal action, and while we highly doubt the firm's lawyers are done digesting the NMPA suit from less than a month ago, now it's being forced to deal with an Arkansas man's allegations in US District Court. Matthew Enderlin is apparently quite upset with XM's "false claims of commercial free music," as he adumbrates that the channels actually do include "promotional and advertisement segments." Unsurprisingly, XM has said the suit is "without merit," but Mr. Enderlin isn't backing down; au contraire, he's actually seeking to "have the suit certified as a class-action suit so all XM Radio customers can be considered plaintiffs." Bet you weren't expecting to join in on the fun yourself, eh?
[Via Orbitcast]  [Engadget]
10:30:57 PM
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Circuit City, Napster team up for subscription-based music service.
Following Best Buy's move to team up with SanDisk and Real for an online music service, Circuit City has now conjured up a deal of its own as it works with Napster to provide yet another subscription-based solution. The simply-titled Circuit City + Napster seemingly won't deviate from what Napster's current service already offers, but the partnership does tease "access to exclusive songs and new releases on a weekly basis" when it launches on April 29th. In what appears to be little more than a marketing effort to get the $14.95 per month service into more retail space, the low-key offering will give new customers their first month gratis, five free song downloads (you know, the ones you "keep"), and the ability to purchase individual song downloads at 99-cents apiece. Furthermore, prepaid download cards can be snapped up in bundles of 15, 25, or 60 tracks, and we can only assume the playback restrictions from the current Napster service will carry over into this.
[Via Yahoo]  [Engadget]
10:24:51 PM
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