http://storage.ziffdavis.com/article2/0,3973,910056,00.asp
When CD-Audio was introduced, many hailed the format as a breakthrough. The disc was convenient and smaller than a record. And while the CD’s sound was compressed and didn’t offer the acoustical range of vinyl, the digital format held the appeal of consistency; it could be played perfectly, perhaps indefinitely, without the creeping degradation suffered by the earlier record media.
CD’s optical technology was adapted to computers and is now standard equipment in the computer world and in consumer audio. It has grown in popularity through its writable and rewritable formats. Still, the technology is slow, and its capacity is limited for today’s needs.
Sound familiar? If we look (and listen) hard enough, we can see that CDs actually produce mediocre sound and are mostly passé as a storage vehicle. Yet they’re everywhere. It’s the tyranny of the installed base.
My god. Where do I begin with this moron? Yeah, traditional audio CDs have “compressed range” and produce “mediocre sound”. What a ridiculous argument. I doubt that even 1 person in 1,000 could tell one of these super-zooty high-res super audio CDs from a traditional audio CD in a double blind test.
Then, on the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got Jason Cross, who swears that 128kbps WMAs are indistinguishable from the original CD content. KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE