ITunes rules OK

Well I don't know if any of you store music On your computer(well I do actually), but what format do you store it in?
I was playing some music from my store in my usual player vlc player and it was terrible quality on certain parts of the vocals. I couldn't remember where I got it from but it was ripped at 128 kbps to an mp3. I went to the CD and it played great(my pc plays through a hiFi). I ripped it again at 320 kbps and it was still rubbish. Interestingly I ripped to a wave file ie full quality and although better it was still noticeably distorted. Finally I ripped to iTunes and guess what? As good as the original! I don't like it and will investigate further but it looks like Apple got it right!