[LHN91]

I can still hear some compression at 192 kbps, but once you go above 256, it becomes far less noticeable.  That being said, I have a crap-load of music in FLAC, just for the e-peen.

Have to admit, my personal experience is similar. Most things sound fine at 192, but I have a couple bands that mp3 in general can't compress worth crap below 256 (stuff with lots of cymbals are the worst culprits). And for that stuff I keep a FLAC copy XD. e-peen ftw!  (don't shoot me, I also find the FLAC leaves the soundstage more intact then mp3)

[Pred the Penguin]

I like having CDs...

I fully concur, and all the music I really care about ends up in a physical format on my shelf.

I don't mind iTunes, and in fact I kind of like the software. The software to truly be loathed and despised is Windows Media Center.

Same here, I avoid Windows Media Center by simply by using Windows only for games. And because I don't really buy that much music (I have very specific tastes) I have loads of shelf space available.

[Klaustrophobia]

i don't know about windows media CENTER, but i use WM player (10) exclusively.  the only thing i wish it could do is manually add or change album art.  other than that, i find it superior to itunes in every way.

[IceFire]

i don't know about windows media CENTER, but i use WM player (10) exclusively.  the only thing i wish it could do is manually add or change album art.  other than that, i find it superior to itunes in every way.

Copy and paste. It's super easy to change album art in WMP... 11 for sure but 10 as well I think.

[jr2]

Use foobar2000 as your media player...

And, anyone else here use VBR?

EDIT:

Advantages and disadvantages of VBR

The advantages of VBR are that it produces a better quality-to-space ratio compared to a CBR file of the same data. The bits available are used more flexibly to encode the sound or video data more accurately, with fewer bits used in less demanding passages and more bits used in difficult-to-encode passages.[2][4]
The disadvantages are that it may take more time to encode, as the process is more complex, and that some hardware might not be compatible with VBR files.[2] VBR may also pose problems when streaming over a dial-up or broadband Internet connection, because the instantaneous bitrate, if unconstrained, may rise above the maximum data transfer speed of the web connection. These problems can be avoided by specifying a maximum instantaneous bitrate during the encoding process.
Also, encryption of VBR-encoded speech (or other signals including video) gives only limited privacy, as the patterns of variation of the bit rate may reveal what language is being spoken.[5]
In the past, many hardware and software players could not decode variable bitrate files properly, partly because the various VBR encoders used were not well developed.[citation needed] This resulted in common use of CBR over VBR for the sake of compatibility. As of December 2006, devices that support only CBR encoded files are largely obsolete, as the vast majority of modern portable music devices and software support VBR encoded files.[citation needed]
Support for VBR in AAC and MP3 files is found in most modern digital audio players, including those released by Microsoft, Apple Inc., Creative Technology, and SanDisk. Early VBR algorithms occasionally introduced audible artifacts when encoding monotone or minimal tones (for example audiobooks and acoustic music). These artifacts often mimicked a "digital chirp" during the quiet portions of the song or when there was only speaking. As VBR encoding algorithms have improved, these problems have been resolved in subsequent generations of the VBR standard.[citation needed]

[Klaustrophobia]

i don't know about windows media CENTER, but i use WM player (10) exclusively.  the only thing i wish it could do is manually add or change album art.  other than that, i find it superior to itunes in every way.

Copy and paste. It's super easy to change album art in WMP... 11 for sure but 10 as well I think.

to where?  there is no album art field within WMP.  i tried changing the album art hidden files in the rip folder but that didn't seem to take.  not even deleting the folder and re-ripping worked.  not a big deal though, it's a pretty rare thing WMP doesn't have the album art when ripping a CD. 

[perihelion]

And, anyone else here use VBR?

I use .OGG Vorbis for everything I encode myself, so since Vorbis always uses VBR, [checks E-PEEN size], that would be a YES.

All dick-waving aside, there was a time when I was very pro-OGG and anti-MP3 because of how swishy MP3s sounded on high frequency percussion, but that was back when a 2.0 GB hard drive was considered extravagant.  I find that at ~192 kbps (LAME-VBR) I can only occasionally tell the difference between the two formats.  So, with enough memory space, it becomes a bit academic.

But I still use .OGG whenever I get the chance.  And foobar2000, for that matter.  Must be my knee-jerk response to buck whatever I perceive to be "normal."

Well, that, and I like native Replay Gain support.  Having to change the volume all the time had gotten annoying.