[Shanegrla]

iTunes compresses the audio when burning (yes, even if you make sure it's an aiff etc.). At least that's what I was told by the masterers at Sterling Sound in NYC (and I believe they're one of the most reputable mastering houses in the country). They wouldn't take one of my songs when I gave it to them burned from iTunes.

So I bought Toast. It's about $100 or so. And some cool stuff about Toast is that it's not just for cd burning. There's other cool stuff you can do with it too, like converting all sorts of files from one type to another (not just audio, but video files too). Came in pretty handy (lifesaver, actually) when I was trying to reduce the file size of a homemade music video I made from iMovie.