it sounds fine on my current system but I'm starting to worry that I might start to notice imperfections when I get a decent set of amp and speakers in the car.

Y'know, chances are it would sound better if it were re-encoded perfectly using the best ripping/encoding hardware and software at a higher bitrate... and chances are, unless you actually did a careful A/B comparison under the very best of listening conditions (car parked inside your closed-up garage, engine off, windows closed, high volume, listening very carefully) you would never notice the difference. There are many variables that affect how good your music sounds that are more significant than the bit rate you used for encoding or the presence or lack of a few minor imperfections and artifacts. Things like quality and power of your amplifier(s). Things like the quality, frequency response, size, number, and location of your speakers. Things like how good a job you did equalizing and tuning your system.

A marginally encoded song (for example, a 96 kbps download from the internet) will probably sound better played on a really good stereo system than a perfectly encoded (Plextor CD player, EAC and Lame at 256 kbps) song on most original factory stereos.

Unless you are really seriously into stereo quality, and think it is more important to impress your friends than it is to just listen to and enjoy your music, I'd recommend leaving your existing music alone, and just worry about improving the quality on new music you add to your empeg.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"