i have my WMA's at 160....CD's sound richer...thus doubling the bit rate

Huh? Uncompressed WAVs are more than 1400kbps. That's like nine times the bitrate.

Anyway, just do side-by-side comparisons. There's probably some point at which your mp3s or WMAs will sound as good as the source, even if you do have to pump them up to double the bitrate, 320kbps, the max for mp3 -- not sure about WMA.