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Any way to listen to wav or high bit files with anything approaching audiophile sound?

Forgive the question, but this is my first time posting on Audiogon in a few years and I'm not up on some of the latest technology.  I'm doing a project where I'm going through as much music as possible for a blog I'll be creating where I find my 1,000 favorite albums of all time and ranking them.  I'm most of the way through my thousands of CD's (don't do LP's), and I have decent audiophile equipment, though nothing top of the line.

For other music, I'm going to have to listen to it online or purchase a digital version of the music, as there's no way I can afford to buy thousands more cd's, or they're out of print on cd's (as much of the music I love that I don't have is somewhat obscure), or they never existed on cd.  Some albums I know I won't be able to find. 

First off, is there a way to legally find more obscure albums online other than illegal downloading? 

Secondly, is there ANY way to listen to said music in anything remotely approaching audiophile sound quality?  Does it have to be a certain file type or bit rate?  I've always stayed away from digital files in the past, but now I kind of need them.  Is there some kind of audiophile digital storage device where I can download music to and play it on my stereo system?  I'm pretty ignorant about these things, so again forgive me, and any help would be appreciated.  I don't expect the music to sound quite as high fidelity as using cd's on audiophile equipment, but what are my options to get as close as possible?
soulgoober
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fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,624 posts
 
Spotify, library (hoopla), YouTube.
Spotify has the biggest library.
Most comments here are about listening to music, not finding it.
Any list you make is personal. No one else has your autonomous taste.
Good luck with your project.
gdnrbob
4,447 posts
 
Though Spotify has no High Rez format available, I will concur with @fuzztone. A very extensive catalog and very good recommendations.
B
soulgoober OP
55 posts
 

jazzman7 - my system is very modest just due to budgetary constraints - Outlaw RR2150 integrated amp, tube research labs modified Sony 595 multi-CD player, some decent paradigm speakers and subwoofer, audio art cables
soulgoober OP
55 posts
 
someone said " if some of your top 1000 albums are so obscure they can’t be found in Amazon’s 50 million+ track library, what’s the value in blogging about them?  Whose going to get to listen to them?"

it's a personal project where i'm trying to listen to as much of the music in existence as possible from the genres I love (late 60's psych, 70's prog, 70's electronic, krautrock, free jazz, folk, acid folk, ambient, etc.), to figure out what my 1,000 favorite albums of all time are and then rank them.  i don't plan on reviewing each album in a blog.  so, it's not about how obscure an album is or not, but if I'm going to listen to all the albums form the genres I love, it's going to include more obscure ones - it's really all for my benefit, just thought i'd write about it publicly.  if people want to hunt down some of those albums and listen to them, great, but that's up to them.
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