160kbps 44khz sounds worse than 128kbps

[Xenon14]

All of my mp3's in 160kbps sound worse than 128kbps/192kbps. It has a more base and less treble...so the actual voice of singers becomes muffled. I dont' want to make false claims.. but in most cases i have downloaded 128/160/192kbps of the same song, just to see the difference, and that's what I heard.

 

[pm]

There are noticeable differences between the encoders. What encoder are you using?

I encode most of my stuff at 160 - it sounds better than 128 to me, and I can't tell the difference between it and 192.

 

[Finality]

Yeah it really depends on the decoder. I've heard 256K which sounds worse than 96K.

I use Audiocatalyst set the bit rate to variable and on high and I can notice no difference between the cd and the mp3