Ditto - originally I thought MP3's were inferior [to CD] because they were
not lossless compression (like zip), however for most purposes you really
can't hear the difference.

Do the same experiment that I did with some colleagues.

Record a band they know well. (I used a band from Stoke called Halcyon
Dayz, most of whose members worked at the same place we did.)

Mix the close mic'd multitrack recording to your taste.

Play back the stereo mix at 16 bit, 44.1kHz sample rate.

Repeat using a 320kHz bitrate mo3 file using the same playback system.

Repeat using "FM radio" quality settings of 128kHz bitrate.

Almost anyone will note a deterioration in sound quality the further
down the chain you go.

Repeat using a decent choir and a crossed cardioid mic setup. Play to
the choirmaster.

Do you know some of the worst audio quality seems to be acceptable to
some classical musicians I've met with over time;!(..

Having said that some years ago I used just that simple crossed mic
setup and sometimes an ORTF pair to record same and the results were
superb..

Find exactly the same results.

I use a lot of mp3 files to play background music while I'm driving, as
I can't justify the storage cost for CD quality .wav files with many
horsepower of diesel engine drowning out the distortion and noise floor.

Thats why DAB was invented then;!..
--
Tony Sayer