Are you an audiophile?

I am an audiophile to the point of owning Sound Forge 7.0, looping, crossfading, editing, etc.ing music and sound files, and going to Video Symphony in Burbank to study professional audio / sound editing to work in movie / music businesses.

As for sound quality..... really, anything over 160 is pointless. That's CD quality and unless you are trying to listen for a difference, you probably won't hear one (and even then most people won't hear one, only people with really sensitive, tuned ears will). At a certain point the human ear can't even hear it. This variable bitrate crap is a waste of space on the hard drive.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I rip at the highest quality possible, end of story. Who honestly gives a shit about "I can tell the difference at ___ Kbps", or whether you can or can't, if you're an audiophile, YOU WILL RECORD AT THE HIGHEST QUALITY POSSIBLE because you know that even if you can't tell the difference in one file compared to another, the difference still exists, and that difference is unacceptable to you, whether it's noticable or not.

At least, that's the kind of audiophile I am. And honestly, it's pretty much a waste of space, all this 320 Kbps and variable bitrate crap, 160 is really a great bitrate (go ahead and say "I can hear differences all the way up to.... !" I don't care). But if you want to be sure in your heart that quality is maximized, go for the best quality.

There's nowhere I can't reach.