Photo by Tess Watson. We understand your frustration. While you
may have some idea about what bitrate is, the “can audiophiles
really tell the difference” argument has raged on for quite some
time, and it’s hard to get people to drop their egos and
actually explain what these things mean and whether they really
matter. Here’s a bit of information on bitrate and how it
applies to our practical music listening experience. What Is
Bitrate? You’ve probably heard the term “bitrate” before, and
you probably have a general idea of what it means, but just as a
refresher, it’s a good idea to get acquainted with its official
definition so you know how all this stuff works. Bitrate refers
to the number of bits — or the amount of data — that are
processed over a certain amount of time. In audio, this usually
means kilobytes per second. For example, the music you buy on
iTunes is 256 kilobits per second, meaning there are 256
kilobits of data stored in every second of a song. The higher
the bitrate of a track, the more sp