Thanks for clearing this up completely Peerless. By the way, does anyone know (just out of interest) what the bitrate would be on a bought CD converted to mp3 format? Probably a silly question, since it occurred to me to ask it!

All of the above depending on who ripped it. Some are quite happy with 128, others want as high as possible, and the rest like anything in between.

Thanks Sleepless - I can't imagine for the life of me why some-one wouldn't go for the highest bitrate, as this surely gives the best quality!

Think yours and Peerless and other responses have given me all of the info I really need now - thanks to you all.