I can't tell the difference between any of the damn files!

Well, since your baseline item was a 128kbps file, all of them should be very high quality. For most of the music I listen to, 128kbps is fine, and I can't tell the difference from the source material when listening casually. In fact, I can only hear artifacts on certain songs at 128, and only when I'm listening closely. Most of the music, it's not a problem. Like I said, the artifacts are very subtle, and unless you know what to listen for, most folks don't notice them.

I suppose I could run a cable from the headphone output from the laptop into the preamp....

Actually, you'd do best to plug a really good pair of headphones directly into the output and listen really closely.

Although at this point, it sounds like 128kbps (or at least a VBR average that equals about 128kbps) is going to be just fine for you.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144