importing songs to iTunes: AAC vs. Apple Lossless

goo

first of all, I'm not a Mac guy or an audiophile, but I do have a sharp ear. but I do want the music I import to sound the best it possibly can. but I'm just now noticing that all the music (hundreds and hundreds of songs) I've imported were all imported in AAC (MPEG-4) format. of course it sounds fine to me, but should I have imported it all in Lossless format? I mean, is there really THAT much of a difference to the every-day ear? I really don't want to have to go back and re-import all the music if I don't have to. I do play my iPod through some larger speakers/nicer sound systems from time to time, and it sounds okay. but am I selling myself short by not going Lossless? I've heard that some ipods have trouble playing music synced to it in lossless format. I also have to keep in mind that those files take up more space. so, sound/audio wizards out there, should I just keep doing what I'm doing or should I go lossless? if I'm not missing anything, I'll be relieved.

Starfall

Honestly, unless you have extremely high end equipment to listen to your music with, you won't be missing a lot. I myself rip my music in 256 kbps VBR AAC ("iTunes Plus")since it provided the right balance of file size and sound quality, and I couldn't tell the difference between that and 320kbps.

128 kbps AAC ~4 MB/song
256 kbps VBR AAC ~10 MB/song
Apple Lossless ~25 MB/song

However, I did compare a Lossless rip of Pete Yorn's musicforthemorningafter and a 256k VBR AAC rip, wearing an Etymotic HF2 headset for my iPhone, and there was a slight but noticable improvement with the Lossless. If it really concerns you, do a side by side comparison and see how you feel afterwards.

Good luck.