I find the David Chesky blog to be very interesting and not off point. I think its simply the money and its far less expensive to grab a kid off the street- set him up with some computers and let the mixing begin.

So I tried listening to Earth Wind and Fire's greatest hits. I used 2 CDs that I burned off my server.

CD #1 was a perfect bit for bit copy
CD #2 was CD #1 ripped to itunes at 256kps AAC at 44.1khz sampling, stereo. Then I took these files and created CD 2 which itunes recreated the PCM from the AAC files.

Playback was via Meridian 800 into the 861 via MHR and upsampled and I used Trifield. I popped in CD #2 first. You know what- it sounded pretty good! But CD#1 was, to me, noticeably better. The treble sounded clearer and cleaner- pardon me for using this tired expression, but as if a vail was lifted. There was more life to the sound and the imaging was better- the cymbals were crisper and the guitars jumped into the space better. The differences in the bass were not quite as noticeable and Im not so sure I detected them. Never the less disc #2 was not a sonic mess in terms of Trifield as I feared. Disc #1 did have more sonics into the room and I suspect it helped Trifield more but this was a more subtle difference than thought it would be.

Soooooooooooo---- IMHO while 256kps AAC might be fine for convenience - it ain't no "lossless" CD..............

best regards,
Jerry

Best regards,
Jerry
Main System: 861v6, DSP8000s in corners, DSP7000s Center and Sides, 1-9 humans.