What are the best import settings for iTunes - AAC 160 / AAC 192 / MP3??

started using apple lossless i could swear the cd's i burn sound better on the stereo in my pickup.

Because they are better. When you RIP to lossless, audio quality is the same as the original CD. Burning an audio CD will result in identical quality to the original CS.

i know people say you can't tell the difference

I've never heard anyone say this.

Eric Willie wrote:
Thanks .... do the songs still remain in my Library then as Apple Lossless ( best sound ) when they are converted for the iPod ? or do they get converted as well ?

The feature " convert higher rate songs to 128" creates new smaller versions "on the fly," and syncs them to the iPod. It does not modify the copy in the library.

Thanks Much !

You're talking about ripping your own CDs, right?

If it's just iTunes (in other words, not LAME or something like that) then AAC, if you want to save some space but do not want to lose too much of the sound. Sure, full size files and Lossless are always better, but they are bigger and take up more room.
Also - MP3 in iTunes DO NOT support continuous playback. So, if you had a remix album of Techno dance music or something like that, AAC is better as it won't create gaps between songs, but MP3 will do, even if you set it at a higher bit setting.

At least, that's how I understand it. Nevertheless, I rip mind to 320kb AAC, because I can still hear some sounds drop out or get distorted if I go much lower to 192 or something, especially these extreme-bass tracks with a lot of sound effects. I used to do 320kb MP3, but I got annoyed by the gaps between tracks of albums that were supposed to be continuous.

I've never downloaded songs from the iTunes store, so I don't know nothing about the DRM stuff and how all that works. I've always gone to Amazon for online purchase as well as CD purchases. The LAME encodes from Amazon are pretty good, and have no DRM.