MP3 Compression

So I was playing with sound, and as an experiment I took a song from my music folder and dissected it. When I was finished playing with my new sound software, I exported the music as an MP3 with a variable bit rate for maximum quality/file size balance.

I then tried something new. I exported three more files as different bit rates so I could hear the difference in sound between all the files of the same song. 236kbps was the max quality bit rate I ended up with for the variable original, then 64kbps, 32, and 16 for the other three. It's weird how 64kbps sounds like it converted the music from stereo to mono. As the bit rate decreases it sounds more and more like it was being performed under water, and when you get to 16kbps it just sounds so "tinny" and terrible it makes me cringe.

If you're interested to hear these files, I uploaded them to minus.com as a .zip file (which I find to be a bit ironic, as .zip files are a form of compression). Here's the download link:
http://i.minus.com/1329186386/JnbnfEt-k6gDfdyWpLaIww/dD1s7T1wIKBrW.zip