Is better really better?

From Cognitive Daily comes the most scientific study of MP3 sample size and quality I've ever seen, titled Few listeners can distinguish between "average" and "best" MP3 samples.

Of course, most people would come to that conclusion anyway, I've found in my experience that people who claim to be able to do this are entirely full of crap. It's one of those effects where they think higher bitrate is better even if it's actually not, so they "hear" differences that aren't there. It's the same thing that happens with food and wine, perception and expectations alter subjective experience.

Sometimes hype is just hype, which is a great thing to understand.