As I stated in another thread...

You can't compare apples to apples when you're playing an audio CD compared to a computer file, if you use a computer to play back the computer file. The computer and the audio CD player have different circuitry to produce the sound.

The audio CD player itself introduces its own tone coloration to the audio signal. For instance, most CD players artificially boost the bass before it even leaves the player.

The only way to properly compare an encoder to the audio CD is to decode the encoded MP3 to a WAV, then burn that WAV as an audio CD track. Then you can accurately compare the original audio CD track to the MP3 encoder in the proper apples-to-apples environment.

I think I should make this into a FAQ entry with pictures. Anyone think we'd benefit from such an entry?