MOTM

This question is especially for Bald Bastard and Puffboy, on account of
I've listened through most of their stuff on MP3.com.  Makes great coding
music.  (I've only listened at work so far because I don't have a real net
connection at home.)

Anyway - How close do your MP3s sound to what you think of as your 
"real" track?  I have a roommate who has encoded much of his music as MP3
and he spends a great deal of time delicately tweaking the encoder to get
exactly the sound he wants.  Indeed, when he first started using it, the
results didn't sound that much better than a high-bandwidth RealAudio.
Now, the MP3s sound good, but since the format was developed to encode pop
with vocals and such, I just wonder - how good do _you_ think it
sounds?  Does it faithfully reproduce the special qualities of the MOTM?
Do you have to work hard to get the sound?

I'm also aware that, if it doesn't sound right, that is likely because I'm
using a workstation PC with a piece of junk motherboard sound chip; the
few MP3s I've downloaded at home sound rather cleaner on that machine, and
it's only got a thirty-dollar Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI.

(The roommate in question is Loren Wilson, and his music is at
http://loren.uchicago.edu/.  A track of ours appeared on Analogue Heaven
Tape Compilation 4 as Coaster: $hkpkax_python.  He hasn't used my MOTM for
anything yet, but he does share our affection for sophisticated synths -
right now he's trying to decrypt his Yamaha FS1R.)

peace,
Chris Jeris