How do I know if iTunes files are all 'lossless'?

I'm not sure if iTunes plays lossless files at all such as EAC, FLAC etc...?
I use Media Monkey since I couldn't uncode them with i-Tunes.
There's certainly hi-rez capability of iTunes but still not considered lossless.

Well I thought I had done this correctly...

but looking now as advised above, I can see music that I ripped using iTunes as well as everything I purchased is "protected AAC" and only 128.

One album which I always thought sounded better than the others was somehow ripped at 256.

But would love to know how to maximize fidelity, while remaining within iTunes if that is possible.

If iTunes forces you to buy compressed music, its time for all of us to stop using it.

iTunes can use Apple Lossless and AIFF which are lossless formats. It cannot, however, use FLAC files natively, which I find a severe omission.

I believe that things purchased from the iTunes store are compressed files (someone may need to correct me here, since I've never done it). But nothing stops you from purchasing a CD and then ripping it into Apple Lossless.

Michael

Itunes will rip the CD's at the setting you tell it to at the beginning. For Windows go to Preferences under Edit and under the General page choose import setting. Choose what setting you want. Remember when it says 128 it's for mono so it will be 256 for stereo.

Great! Thanks for all the input and responses guys! Glad to see I'm not the only one floundering a 'bit' in this format ;^)

To further add to the confusion - after poking around a little in the iTunes settings, I also noticed if you highlight any song, then right-click on it, one of the options that comes up is 'Create Apple Lossless Version'. Hmmm, it even allows this option with a supposed MP3 iTunes purchased song, which again, I thought was only MP3 ??

But bottom line, I'm a 're-adjusted' audiophile, who like many was forced to sell off my main system and am now using an iPod based headphone system. So I'm looking for the highest possible rez. From what I'm learning so far, sounds like dumping iTunes altogether and going with a different music file system is the way to go?? Comments and suggestions??