Crisis3

I don't have AMI so all my music has been through the radio or CDs. Is there any major difference in sound clarity and or quality when plugged into an iPod vs. a CD I've burned of the same music?

MP4.2+6.0

I can play AMI/iPod of literally the same track of an original CD back to back with the iPod vs. CD player (with the original in the drive) in my 2006 and can't tell the difference. I have tested it a number of times and concluded the same.

I copy at 320Kbits AAC and have a Bose (pre-B&O) for reference. Some folks say below 256K on the bit rate and you can start to hear some differences. Storage is so cheap and the time to re-dup a library later to a higher bit rate enough hassle that I just keep everything at the higher rate.

TSHong

Yes at those higher sampling rates, its hard to tell the difference but a lot of people use 128K for storage on their ipods and you will hear the difference. I have an added sub and I only have a few old songs in the lower sampling rate and the highs and lows are just not there. So it will depend on your rate your music is ripped.

Brozee

The medium generally doesn't matter, except for bluetooth. Anything filetype (mp3) below 192kbs is garbage.