re: Audiophile question. Sound quality of digital music(iPhone, mp3, etc, etc )

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Full Lossless Audio Codec files take the song and rip it from the CD with no compression.

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FLAC is compressed and can cut file size in half. It is, however, lossless, hence the name.

As for 320 Kbps being the minimum recommended, it is a fact that many people vastly overestimate their ability to distinguish lossy from lossless audio and are surprised when they can't tell them apart under proper ABX testing. You might find this slideshow interesting (the paper it is derived from is not free, alas); it was the basis for my earlier post:

LINK

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I rip all my stuff in both FLAC and 320 kbps MP3s.

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As for ripping, only rip to a lossless format such as FLAC or ALAC, and use a program that does AccurateRip to make sure you get a perfect copy. This is like having the original CD. You can then convert to lossy formats on as needed basis, and you won't have any transcoding artifacts as you might when converting 320 Kbps MP3 to another lossy format. iTunes can convert higher bit rate files to various AAC bit depths when syncing to devices, so as an Apple user, the OP should rip to ALAC and have iTunes convert to 256 or even 128 Kbps AAC when syncing to get the most out of the memory on his devices.

Those with the golden ears who have never ABX'd should try it in foobar2000. Take some lossless music you know well and convert to a variety of bit rates in MP3 and AAC, e.g. 320, 256, 192, 128, etc. Then use the ABX comparator addon to compare the lossless original to each lossy copy, the idea being to find the lowest bit rate that is transparent. This will be your future default for lossy conversions. Make sure you do the conversion yourself. If you take files from different sources, you might be comparing different masterings, which would be totally invalid, and it's probably responsible for some of the instances where people concluded MP3s sound like shite compared to the CD.