"For Rossman, the epiphany came after he bought a new car stereo and started making CDs from files he had ripped using the AAC standard at 128 kilobits per second. He had already switched from the MP3 format to AAC, largely based on assurances from Apple Computer, which uses the format on its iTunes music store and claims that, bit for bit, AAC outperforms the older standard. Listening to music on the new stereo, Rossman says he noticed a clear deterioration in sound quality compared with the original CDs from which he ripped the tunes. One album, by a death-metal group called Lamb of God, wasn't produced all that well to begin with, Rossman says, and when he transferred the AAC file to a CD and played it in his new car stereo, the speakers sounded like they were playing under water and the bass drums were muddy."
This article touches on an interesting point - if you have a collection made up of files from your own CDs and files from file sharing services, odds are good that they're not all of the same quality. I re-ripped my CD collection from scratch a few years ago, and it was painful, mostly because some of the CDs weren't in the Windows Media Player database, which meant myself or my wife had to type in the track names. Have you ever re-ripped your CD collection? If so, why?
Reasons for Re-Ripping
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