Last night I decided to take the plunge and buy my first songs from the iTunes music store. Although the process was smooth and there were no problems buying my music... I was extremely dismayed to see that every song I bought was encoded in Apple's protected AAC format at 128kbps!

I can't begin to describe how disappointed I was.

I am one of those picky guys when it comes to audio quality. I don't mind the DRM protection, but I want good quality, and to me 128kbps is not good quality!

Has it always been this way on iTunes?
Am I doomed to buying overpriced CD's if I want good quality sound on my iPod?

I'm just a little surprised that the quality is so low - especially on DRM protected music. I wasted a few bucks, and I won't be buying songs from the iTunes store anytime in the foreseeable future.

First off, I'm a big n00b when it comes to specifics on audio quality, so if my answer doesn't help, then I'm sorry I wasted your time.

I just checked the first song that I bought on iTunes (I bought it back in 2004) and yes, it says that the file format is AAC protected at 128 kbps. 2004 was when they were only on iTunes 4.something and before the big iPod craze.

Personally, I can't tell the difference between my iPod and my CD. I can tell you, however, that if you're not happy with how your music sounds, you can use the equalizer to balance things out.

Again, I'm not really sure on things like this, but I thought I'd try.

Encoding at 128 kbps results in a small file, and good quality. However - To me, most songs encoded at 128 kbps sound "flat". They're not terrible, but I can hear the difference in the loss of certain frequencies. It definitely sounds much better than FM radio, but doesn't get very close to sounding like a CD.

Most songs encoded 192 to 256 kbps sound good to me. I can hear the full spectrum of sound - no "flat" parts - and I can live with the larger file sizes.

Online music distribution is great, and I'd love to be a part of it, but I want music that sounds good on my iPod, and my home stereo system, so I am one of the few people that still prefers to buy CD's and encode them at a high bit rate than what the iTunes store offers.