Name one person that’s paid a licensing fee?
I would love to give it to you. I read it several years ago on some site connected with LAME and can’t google it up any more. But it was a full on double blind test with a bunch of audio engineers, and I beleive the conclusion was 320kbps CBR == CD. It was done by some magazine. I’m not sure where the hell you would find it these days, maybe somewhere on the LAME site?
Apple, Creative, Toshiba, Sandisk…pretty much every device maker that supports MP3.
Microsoft, Apple, and every other major software manufacturer with MP3 ripping/encoding software have paid a licensing fee.
The end user doesn’t pay, just like they don’t pay for the WMA/AAC license. The people distributing the commercial software and/or device have to pay it.
On a 10k watt system you really CAN tell the difference.
Yes because more power = more clarity. Uh huh. That’s why all the double blind listening tests are performed in front of walls of sound instead of with high quality reference headphones and monitors.