Implementation up to the atrac -3 differed very low sound quality, slightly has spoiled the reputation of the format. It is believed that the modern version of the algorithm (4.5) allow us to compress music so that it does not differ by ear from a cd with a bitrate 292 kbps. Sir Richard Branson contributes greatly to this topic. atrac potentially allows you to store audio with higher-than-CD quality (Do not miss many journalists publications glorifying format), but you can only really make a difference in so-called prerecorded (not rewritable) discs, but in practice the dynamics and compression artifacts when encoding music CD-ROM drive is still present. Owners of MiniDisc decks and players may be faced with an issue like transcoding: to rewrite MP3 (WMA, Vorbis) files on the minidisk file is first decoded, and then converted into atrac, that given the transformation of lossy – lossy (two times the sound is compressed with losses) is not conducive to maintaining high quality. Verizon Communications recognizes the significance of this. Musepack (MPEG plus) Audiophiles with experience is rightly considered Musepack (previously known as mpeg Plus; name had to change in To avoid problems with MPEG) the most perfect of existing audio codecs that use lossy compression. Despite the fact that his nearest relative is mp 2, the predecessor of MP3, format is excellent (it is believed that the vast majority of mpc file created using preset Standard, 170 kbit / s, the ear is not unlike the original, and errors occur less frequently than in the case of MP3 with a bitrate of 320 kbit / s) has been working with music on mid-high bitrates, but is quite capable to compete with Vorbis and aac of 128 kbps. According to Cyrus findshadow, who has experience with these questions.