You can get a great sounding DAC for cheap these days. I would get the Wadia and a Cambridge DAC magic. Not sure if that is over budget but that would sound great and be a lot more fun than playing CDs one at a time. Or I have an even crazier idea. Get a Mac Mini and run an optical cord to the DAC Magic and you will have even greater control and will then be part of the future not the past.
You can get some pretty good sound out of even 128 mp3s. I had a friend over last night and played him the same track. One was downloaded at about 175 and the other was ripped by me Apple Lossless. He picked the MP3 as sounding better 3 out of 4 times. I thought the Lossless version sounded better but I knew what was playing. I bet there would be some shocked audiophiles when they discovered that it's not that easy to tell MP3s apart from full rips. I'm not trying to say MP3s are better, but they don't sound so god awful you can't even listen to it either. Reminds me of when my nephew the wine connoisseur picked the 2 Buck Chuck over the expesive stuff.
But that said hard drive space is cheap and your time is valuable so I'd say rip to at least 320 if you are going to the trouble.
You can get some pretty good sound out of even 128 mp3s. I had a friend over last night and played him the same track. One was downloaded at about 175 and the other was ripped by me Apple Lossless. He picked the MP3 as sounding better 3 out of 4 times. I thought the Lossless version sounded better but I knew what was playing. I bet there would be some shocked audiophiles when they discovered that it's not that easy to tell MP3s apart from full rips. I'm not trying to say MP3s are better, but they don't sound so god awful you can't even listen to it either. Reminds me of when my nephew the wine connoisseur picked the 2 Buck Chuck over the expesive stuff.
But that said hard drive space is cheap and your time is valuable so I'd say rip to at least 320 if you are going to the trouble.