Edited by author 04-29-2003 08:20 PM
I did a experiment today and ripped a CD first at 190Kbps MP3 and then the 128kbps AAC format and played them back to compare. Through some average headphones, I could definitely hear the difference, especially in the low end bass. In comparison the file sizes where 6.1Mb for the 190K MP3 and 4.9Mb for the AAC file.

I've been a subscriber to Emusic for over two years and the Apple AAC format at 128Kbps is very noticeably better then their 128K MP3 format. Emusic's format is o.k. for alot of the stuff I download from there as it is mostly old blues stuff which wasn't recorded very well to begin with.

For ripping, I'm sticking with 190k MP3, but tomorrow is payday so Apple will be getting some more of my money for some old BNL and Tower of Power. My iPod is needing some spring tunes for jamming. Now if only my iTrip would get here...

I've burned a cd full of songs, then without even having to eject the newly-burned cd, ripped them as mp3s using iTunes (all-in-one solution...yum). You can set the bitrate to whatever you want in the prefs, but while there is a noticeable dropoff in quality when compared to the AAC-encoded files, these resulting mp3s are just as flexible (ie, DRM-free) as any other mp3s. In fact, after I ripped them, I was able to put them on my Palm and play them using various Palm OS mp3 players. Can't complain at all about that. Very, very staisfied user of the service.

Duke, I am sure that the quality arguement is to help sell more CDs. The reality is that they want to control how and where you use your music, as it was the concession they had to make to the music industry in order to make this whole system work...

You CAN burn them to usable CDs However the bitrate from the Apple Store (160) is NOT as good as they say it is on a good stereo. The bass end is just not there. I checked on my car stereo through my hardwired iPod. At kbps for kbps the file sizes are the same, so there is no real saving there. I haven't imported a CD with it yet, but I think this is more about the Digital rights thing than real quality.

I'm in France so I have not been able to try this out myself, but:

you're supposed to be able to burn CDs. Is there anything that stops you from then ripping those to MP3? One another machine if need be?