Most of the 'critical listening' blind test I've read about say that AAC 128 and MP3 192 are equivalent quality. And AAC 256 is indistinguishable from lossless by nearly everyone. No doubt a tiny few exceptional ears exist and of course can depend a little on the source type of music - but for my $.02, AAC256 reaches that pinnacle for me. I'll continue to rip at Apple Lossless, but I'll purchase now on iTunes AAC256 as equal to CD; Saving and disk buys for multichannel and those special DVD-A/SACD occassions that have more to do with the production/mix source quality.

Just finished converting the library to iTunes plus - turned out to be about 128 songs - Can't wait to see the Beatles stuff come on....

ken