maybe I should throw 2 sixty gig dives in the empeg and go for wave files?

Or you can simply go for the highest-quality MP3s you can get, such as 320kbps cbr made with LAME or Fraunhofer.

But until we get to the bottom of this perceived "just sounds funkie" problem, we won't know if MP3 encoding is the root of it or not.

Can you describe in more precise details what's wrong with the audio? It could be something as simple as needing to EQ the stereo properly.