...and deleted upwards of ten gig worth of crap. I've decided that just about everyone else in this world who publically shares their music collection has their elbows in their ears.

Until I find others with the same standards, the only music going on my baby is stuff I've ripped myself.

Preach it, brother!

you familar with the irc groups? which hold regulation on the stuff released, only full albums 192kbs perfect quality, thats where i get my stuff from Verifed FTP servers only hosting the best i rip some of my own, but get most of it from there.

Justin, that stuff is better, but it's still crap a lot of the time. Ripping your own is the way to go. I'm fortunate to have a crap load of CD's between myself and my wife (around 700) but you can build quite a collection borrowing CD's that friends have bought, checking out CD's from your local library or buying used CD's if you are on a budget....

man, that library suggestion is the way to go. My library however puts these stupid metal strips across the top of the CD, so i'm sort of wary to go stickin it in drives and stuff.

It should be fine, even with the strips. You MAY want to put some kind of sticker on the other side, to couterbalance during higer speed spins, if you're really nervous.

My library (surprisingly) have wroked out this balance thing and simply put two strips on the disc - one each side to balance each other out. Never had a problem with high rip speeds and they're usually very scratched.

I agree, most of it is crap. Which should be the selling point for record companies, instead of the expensive law suits. I have no problem paying for the music if I could download it direclty from the record companies with high quality.