Thanks Knownothing, that was the type of answer I was looking for. I believe my weak link is my speakers. I tried a comparison with a classical piece (cd version compared to itunes plus), there was more dynamics and air on the redbook compared to the cd I burned with the aac file. The first test was "hard rock" which was quite a bit compressed in the first place. It was harder for me to tell a difference. The 256 acc, however, did sound quite good and if I did not have the original CD, would have been quite happy. I hope HD tracks keeps expanding...and hopefully, Apple will have lossless downloads one day.
anyone listened to iTunes Plus on high end system?
Just curious if anyone has taken a recording of an iTunes plus AAC 256k file and compared an actual CD version on a high end system. I know AAC is "lossy", but was wondering if there was a human ear difference. On my low to mid-fi system, I cannot hear a difference. And I have really sensitive ears. I'd like to hear from the high end world.