CD vs. high bitrate, professionally ripped MP3

So guys (and gals) ... what do you think? There may be already similar polls, but I'm particularly interested in how such a poll will turn out in 2009 ... download stores are gaining popularity, and it seems to me like MP3 is slowly, but steadily becoming the successor of the physical formats.

BTW: Let's not include consideration of artworks, booklets or other aspects here ... I think there's another poll that I started a few months ago which specifically asks whether you would purchase MP3s instead of CDs. Let's make this poll just about the actual music.



BTW: My vote goes to: "There's no audible difference even on high-end systems". To back that up and in case some of you don't already know the study:

http://www.geocities.com/altbinariessoundsmusicclassical/mp3test.html

Even nine years ago they could not hear a difference.

^ wow, that was fast ... 

I don't think I could hear the difference.

In my experience if the cd is compressed to very loud levels, the clipping increases when ripped to even the best quality mp3. If the cd is mastered to reasonable volume levels with no clipping to begin with, then there's no big difference. Perhaps none at all, I haven't really listened to two versions side by side.

I think it would be cool if those who vote here could also describe which types of systems they normally use for listening to music. As far as I'm concerned, most of the time I'll use Logitech X-530 speakers connected to the standard sound card of the computer and my Creative X-Fi mobile player with Sennheiser CX-300 in-ear headphones. But I also have a hi-fi system (Harman Kardon + Elac Speakers) and a professional audio-interface for the computer which I use to make music, connected to the hi-fi system and AKG K-512 headphones. :-) 

Option number 3 - I'll give some examples...

Yesterday morning, I was playing my dad a burnt CD of Maudlin Of The Well - Part The Second through our Klipsch stereo.

(Note: these were the 263KBP MP3's, not the WAV's)
You could immediately hear the thin dynamics and hollow noise... It didn't sound like a CD, but rather a slightly muffled radio replay of the tracks.


My dad told me to download the CD quality WAV format the band had hosted on their website, and after re-burning these, you could immediately hear the difference... It wasn't really debatable.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ "a slightly muffled radio replay" ... I think it's more likely that something went wrong during burning. Can you try connecting the computer to the Klipsch?

Possibly, not sure what input to use though... Its currently running through the PS3 with an Optic cable, so I'm not sure how to re-connect it.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ Doesn't it have line inputs, too? That would be the way to go ...

Probably... I'll give it a proper look tomorrow, but I'm far too tired right now

^^I'll try that right now, and post back after listening to a track actually

Do you think that the test would turn out that differently on a "monster" machine compared to the equipment that you normally use?