I read and read a lot of the helpful information on this topic. I ripped an classical instrumental CD and an Opera CD - one AIFF and one Apple lossless. I also created an AIFF from the Apple Lossless. My ears can tell a difference in all three.
Straight AIFF rip has better "presence" to my ears and my wife's. I am a church musician of many years and so is she. The AIFF created from an Apple Lossless did not sound as good to us as the direct CD rip to AIFF rip. I have descent Bose speakers attached to my MacPro for our test.
But the quandary is obviously disk space related to portable players. We both have new 64GB iPod Touch devices. I have tons of music on my iPod but I don't listen to it all - so I am going to rotate the AIFF's around I suppose. Don't know if iPod will take those files or not yet as they are new and we are experimenting based on all the info in this article.
