FLAC, WAV or AIFF question

You can play FLAC files on your mac, but iTunes doesn't support it. You'll need to use a different music player.

My choice would be to get the WAV format. Once you have that, you can transcode to any other format you're interested.

Most of my ripped CDs are in AIFF, except for the special ones that get a WAV copy.

FLAC, as noted, is not supported by iTunes. I use Pure Music, which does support FLAC via iTunes by creating a pointer to the files. I believe the only caveat is that once you import the FLAC files, you can't move them without breaking the link. Not a big deal; I just keep all FLACs in a special folder.

You could go with WAV, but there goes your metadata.

I would personally go with FLAC, it is the most prevalent of the audio codecs and has very good support from all mfgrs. except Apple - big surprise there, huh?

Nonetheless, using a program like dbPowerAmp allows one to transcode from/to virtually any codec to another. And it can do so as a batch, so you can set it to begin transcoding an entire library when you go to bed and it will be done when you get up in the morning...