I am a PC guy.
I think the biggest question is what file format to save my music files.
In my opinion, the files need to be lossless, the cd needs to be ripped accurately and the file format needs to be stable over decades. If I have stable lossless files, they can always be converted into whatever format I choose in the future. I just don't want to lose my quality, or ever have to reburn all these cd's again.
I believe the apple lossless files are proprietary- I am concerned that 10 years from now apple may stop supporting the files, at least on a pc based system.
I find the mp3 files have lost some of the quality- but by storing lossless like flac or ape I can always convert it to mp3, and keep the high quality lossless files untouched. Flac is an open source code, so it "should" be supportable forever.
Ape is another lossless file format that has good support.
I have looked at 2 software programs, mediamonkey and dbpoweramp.
I have used mediamonkey, and its interface is much like itunes- which makes it easy to use. I am just looking at dbpower. It's advantage to me so far, is it uses a service called accuraterip, which confirms that your ripped file is perfect by comparing the data with other's files. I find the interface difficult, and playlists seem difficult to manage.
I am actually an audio nut, and usually listen to vinyl- but I will admit that files stored with the flac format, played through an external dac (
http://www.stereo-link.com) actually sound ok. MP3 files often sound like am radio on the same system.
I'll continue my search, and post my thoughts here. I hope others-- hopefully many smarter than I, will post as well.
Thanks, listen more, talk less. Good tunes forever!
Gary