recording from itunes

The reason why I say is I did a blind test and could pick out the itunes recordings every time...

I am not using that good of equipment either. A TALK cd, classe 20 pre, conrad sa 250 amp...

I totally agree with buying!!!

That said, I read that the iTMS is going to start offing Apple Lossless versions of some tracks. Looks like the audiophiles have started making some impact there.

Absolutely! Itunes downloads are not the same, they are at a much lower sample rate/compression scheme. I don't remember but the difference is substantial. It is not apple lossless. I only use itunes downloads for meaningless, 1-off song purchases (my wife hears a song on the radio and must have that 1 song by some 16 year old phenom). Good luck.

Yes, there is a degradation in quality. Whether you can hear the difference depends on the equipment you're using to play the music and the environment in which it's played.

The music you buy from iTunes is in a compressed format that does not retain all the audio information available from the same music on a CD. If you want the highest quality you'll need to buy the music on a CD, DVD-A or SACD.

If you're listening on an mp3 player with earbuds on an airplane or subway you likely won't hear any difference. If you're playing the music through a reasonably good home system you'll definitely hear a difference.