@kbronctjr I think it's very difficult to quantify which is faster without a per-game comparison between original hardware, a single reliable method of ripping the CDs to images, PBP without compression, and PBP with compression.

I wonder if the advantage comes from CD images ripped in strange ways causing very slow loading and even jerky streaming or broken audio, but downloading a PBP which was ripped with a different method removes that root cause as a factor.

Oh well, whatever works :)