Even if you have two songs that are both exactly 3:00 long, they could still be different file sizes simply due to how they were recorded, put on the CD, how many tracks there are on the final master, etc etc...the list goes on and on. It just depends per song, there isn't one standard.
There's something weird about the way iTunes rips. The songs sounded less punchy - whereas if I used Rip or EAC (on my old laptop) I'd get a better sound.
Eh, whatever. Far as I'm concerned ripping into lossless for your computer isn't worth it for me anyway, who cares if its lossless if I don't have exceptional speakers to play it out of?
"It's also good to be able to burn CDs for people from lossless files, so that they won't suffer double compression. And of course... it's the way to have good backups if a CD breaks!"
I have never once broken a CD ever in my entire life.
And I honestly believe that through computer speakers, you're hearing a placebo effect of the sound. But hey, if that's what you wanna do, you technically do have a pretty identical replica if anything ever happened to the CD.
Though I've owned plenty of albums digitally and still re-bought hard copies. It just feels right.
Subjective though. Although maybe for myself when I get a promo CD and want to pass it onto someone else for them to have a copy too I might do lossless.
With re-buying albums, I've always waited 'til some deluxe or bonus-track CD comes alongside it. This was what so good about one I bought this year - the standard CD had 12 tracks and the bonus CD had 14 extra demos, B-sides and outtakes. That's what I usually look out for.
(Although eBay's become pretty good in that respect too).
I don't pay more than a few dollars for music that's been out for a year or two. Amazon used, baby. CDs for 2 bucks or under, and 2 bucks for shipping.