Audio Bitrate

• Audio quality improves with increasing bit rate

• ...800 bit/s is minimum for speech to be recognised

• 32 kbit/s – generally acceptable only for speech

• 96 kbit/s – generally used for speech/low-quality streaming

• 128 or 160 kbit/s – mid-range bit rate quality

• 192 kbit/s – a commonly used high-quality bit rate

• 320 kbit/s – highest bit rate level supported by the MP3 standard

• ...lossy compression to reduce bit rate can introduce artefacts

• ...caused by data/quantisation errors

• ...distortion of sound

• ...perceived/heard as ‘bubbling/burbling’

• ...stuttering/jerky/blanks/silences in sound.