I tend to think in terms of "density". MP3 is a compressed WAV file. Higher density (or kbps) MP3s yields larger MP3 files with less degree of compression, and sound quality that is closer to CD quality.

When I hear 128 kbps MP3s, I hear radio quality. Listening to 128 kps MP3s would be fine for my car stereo, where road noise and cheap speakers rule out hi fi. I would want CD quality though for my home stereo. (Amazingly I do know some people who can not tell the difference between radio and CD quailty.)

If your plan is to burn CDRs with WAV files from MP3 files, you should consider that the likely path of the music is:

WAV -> MP3 -> WAV

The only problem with this scheme is that music lost while compressing the WAV file into a MP3 will not be restored going from MP3 back to WAV.

If you are giving your friend MP3s burned onto a CDR which he/she will only play on their lo fi computer speakers, 128 kbps should be fine.

You can always burn a CDRW with varying densities and check it out yourself on your computer, car radio, boom box, home hi fi, etc.

BD