Does 128 kbps music sound that bad?

...this completely depends on the individual listener. Some people can't tell the difference between 128 and 256 while other people run shrieking. I'd recommend taking an original source (ie: CD) and creating 2 copies of the same song from the exact same source and loading both copies (128 & 256) to your iPod and listen to them back to back.

The question is can you tell the difference?

 

128kbps sounds fine, a large portion of my music collection is encoded at that bitrate. Be happy you have that much space to work with, music on my first MP3 player had to be encoded at 96kbps in order to fit a single full CD.

 

I can tell. I buy my music on vinyl whenever possible. Anyway, you can always just give it a try and uncheck the box again if you don't like it.

 

I love vinyl as well and still have every vinyl record I ever purchased growing up...but the stylus has a habit of skipping when I try to jog with my turntable (kidding)

 

A very important thing to consider is what headphones you're going to use to listen to the 128kbps songs.

When using those crap iPhones / iPods headphones, maybe you won't notice much difference; BUT when using at least half-decent ones there's a huge difference to higher-bitrates songs.

On the other hand, iTunes converts songs to 128kbps AAC which is better than MP3, but still won't be as good as a 256/320 CBR sources, or lower VBR ones.

 

I can tell. Of course, as others have said, if you're using cruddy headphones you won't notice the difference. If you have spent $50 or more on your headphones (Currently have the Klipsch Image S4's at $70, sound pretty good) then you're probably going to hear the change.

 

Depends on the codec I'd be happy using 128kbps with ogg files but I'm probably the only one I know who really uses that format and of course Itunes will use AAC which I don't know a lot about.

The only way to know for sure if you can accept the quality of 128kbps or not is basicly trying it as opinions vary and a lot probably depends on your earbuds and the quality of the original files.

 

From my own experience with mp3s:

256 and 192 sound about the same, and they are clearer/better than 128. Some people may not notice this, though.

128 is definitely better than 96.

96 starts getting into a blurry/foggy area.

I really don't hear much difference between FLAC and other lossless codecs and a good solid 192 mp3. I'd much rather save lots of space (and have more player options) than have to deal with those.

 

Pretty much what everyone else has said, just depends on your kit and how important music is to you.

I wear top range sony bass boosters, so anything less than 192 sounds dreadful in them. But I don't care, because I love music and am always enjoying it, so I want the best sound money can buy.

 

most people can't tell the difference between 128 and 256 unless they are trying to work out which is lower/higher.
Of all my friends none can actually say that a song is higher or lower bit rate, unless they compare them one after the other and concentrate. It's the same for me.