Disregard previous comment... 2 Things: - I tried this experiment twice on different days. The first day, I used my high-quality Sennheiser HD515's. On the second day I used my Apple iPod earbuds. Using the Sennheisers, I almost perfectly ordered the tracks (I swapped the 192 VBR for 320 CBR). However, with the iPod earbuds, all of the tracks sounded roughly identical (I actually ordered the 128kbps track SECOND best). So, I wonder if the listening setup of the respondents caused some of the anomalies in the results. - Also, I think the reason for the 160kbps track being highest could be due to the specific qualities of the song chosen. As others mentioned, this song contained a lot of compressed, synthesized sounds. It is possible that the compression artifacts were "masked" somewhat in the 160kbps track, or the resulting sound was most pleasing, but the artifacts could be clearly heard at higher bitrates, confounding the results. It would be very interesting to know the compression characteristics of the synthesized instruments used in the original.

2 things: