Sounds soooo sad. Goodbye quality (Score 1)

I think this is one of the saddest things I have heard in my life. It is like the "kiss of death" for all things quality. I wrote a paper on this when MP3s were first becoming popular. The paper never really went anywhere, but the idea (I was a music major at the time making "clean, clear orchestral recordings") that maintaining quality throughout the entire process was key, and having your final recording be "just like the real thing", the badge of success. With compressed format so much of that is thrown out the window. Sad.