I ripped the wav file, and then encoded it several ways, and then threw the wav and the mp3s all onto my Empeg

This works, too. Doesn't convince audiophiles who refuse to believe that the perfect sound of their favorite CD player is the only way to listen to music. Generally, whenever I hear the complaint that the "MP3s don't sound like my CD player", what they need to be convinced is to hear the MP3s played back through that particular CD player. Only way to do that is with a decode-to-disk and a burn.