what i think MDS was assuming that you already know, but you might not, is that mp3 is a lossy format, meaning it takes away half the music, ie: takes off all frequencies above a certain amount, and lowers the sampling rate, so if you're sensitive to sound, it'll always sound more muddled than the CD. you can always do a CD vs. mp3 comparison: convert the CD to WAV with EAC of something like that, and keep the WAV file. then, convert the WAV file to mp3. now burn both of those files (the WAV and the MP3) onto an audio disc. you can really hear the difference.