It's fairly easy to tell between 192kbps CBR LAME and an original CD. 192kbps VBR is a bit hit or miss. High end gear can absolutely make the imperfections more

It's fairly easy to tell between 192kbps CBR LAME and an original CD. 192kbps VBR is a bit hit or miss. High end gear can absolutely make the imperfections more noticeable. Personally I just got fed up of the goalposts being moved around (LAME codec constantly being updated, mp3 scene switching from 3.97 -V2 to 3.98 -V0, etc.) and now I just have all my music collection in lossless. ~300MB a CD? No problem.