Internet Radio sounds better than ripped CDs. Why

Mat,
The analogue outs of the AE are only OK.....or worse.
A DA converter is a 'must' for this guy. I don't know how inexpensive a good DA can run, but just for example, a CA DacMagic is about 400$ online.
Preowned? quite a bit less.

Lossless files are 'decoded' at the computer end and sent as a bitstream to the AE. So, whether you are sending MP3@160 or lossless, makes no difference at the AE end. All the heavy lifting is done at the computers end.

I'm thru with 'upgrades' for quite a while, too. If I do anything, I'll sell my CA840 player, which includes 2 DA inputs and also sell my OPPO upsampler so I can buy an OPPO '83 and a DacMagic. Kind of a sideways move, but I can end up with BlueRay and make a small bit of change.

Definitely use Error Correction when you rip your CDs.

Guys,

I have the same experience in that Radio Paradise (radio station) sounds better than my ripped CD collection (WAV) through my squeezebox.

Drives me nuts.

I have checked everything, I have ripped CD's with I-tunes into WAV files, tried FLAC with the program MAX and the result is still the same.....