Hey me too... and a big part of that is the automatic playlist's function in itunes. I've generated a bunch of lists that update automatically by genre... works awesome if you take the time to tag your files within itunes... eg 70's Rock, Pop, Hip Hop.. etc... select the playlist, set to shuffle and tunes for hours without futzing... album art on the remote app and wi-fi control ... multizone speakers for the backyard... wicked, wicked setup. My neighbours like... lol...
I've gotten into buying (used) cd's again... rediscovered a ton of stuff... from Ministry to Gordon Lightfoot to some other funky 70's stuff... lol
Also really like the new cult... slash...
I record vinyl to hard disc with protools, my soundcraft recording console does the analog to digital conversion. All files are recorded to 24 bit, 44.1 Khz and processed with de-clicking, de-noising (to remove direct drive turntable hum), eq curve correction and a touch of mastering compression. I lot of the first cds that were released.. stuff from 70's, 80's.. the labels did a horrid job mastering for cd. In some cases they didn't even bother to correct eq on the masters... I picked up a used copy of L.A. Woman on vinyl... was very impressed with results. My version sounds wayyyyy better that the label released cd. You hear the crunchy, whirly sound of the organ.. you hear the guitar string plucks... you hear the full sound of the drums and room that they're being played in. You lose ALL of that with mp3.... if you listen carefully on decent equipment.. and know what to listen for. My ex thanked me for 'wrecking' mp3's for her.. lol... once I told her... had shown her a/b -ing files she couldn't listen to mp3's anymore...
The debate in audio engineering world is where the 'golden ear' cutoff is.... 24 bit over 16 most people can "taste test" the difference. The frequency rate has been debated since digital audio was created. Personally I use 44.1 K as it's best not to resample if it's going to be burnt to cd. I cannot tell the difference with higher sample rates... 48 or 96 Khz... some engineers can... and I've seen it.
Mp3's are great for consumers... obviously the demand shows... in a noisy environment (car...) it doesn't matter anyway. Most consumers don't care about quality... SACD was a flop... DTS died... cd's next
... and the popularity of sirius/xm... Again, I can't listen to sirius radios... it sounds like the music is underwater... garbled highs, no stereo image, muddy crap sound... however... sirius sounds decent on dishnet. Better bit rate...
My challenge was to find a streaming device to get my digital music to the main stereo system. As I have a 500 gig drive full of aif audio, the perfect solution (for me) didn't come along until the apple tv.
Mp3's are a compromise to get a bunch to fit on a smaller device/drive. You're sacrificing some quality for size. The newer codecs do a better job, but you're fooling yourself if you think there is no quality difference.
Sorry to take this so far off topic... thanks for reading... what are y'all listening to???
Edited to add...
If you want to take the red pill follow the rabbit...
Test for yourself...
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2010/04/sound-test-difference-between-wav-vs-mp3/
Basic theory from our friend, Mr Nyquist...
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/3016/en