MP3's and the audiophile

WMA has a lossless format. There are others, but I wouldn't try to list them - I use WMA. This approach definitely gives you bit-for-bit support, and loading them all up and running them from computer definitely gives you the flexibility you describe. You might get an audiophile demerit, but it certainly is the right way to interact with a music collection for me.

WMA isn't supported by iTunes. Again, there are others that are, but not WMA.

Your best choice in the Mac space is iTunes which offers you a choice of Apple Lossless (compressed), AIFF and WAV. All of these are considered to be ACCURATE bit-by-bit copies so long as certain options are checked. There is an interesting comparison of the formats on Audiogon Tech Talk Forum - search for #1137630045

The sine qua non ripping app is considered to be EAC which is only available on Win. Hard to say how much better it is or isn't - its certainly not as user friendly.

Regardless of how you get your music to the hard drive, there are only four ways to get it off the drive and into your preamp:

1) USB to SPDIF or
2) USB to I2S, or
3) the SLIM Devices Squeezebox which can work in 802.11g (WiFi) or
4) Airport Express (WiFi) which for the moment is quite as pure a format. There are people who are ecstatic with each of these solutions.

The salient point here is that getting away from a traditional opto mechanical transport is where the big step in quality happens. The rest of it, while rich in nuance its all variations on a theme.

Beyond this Forum, you will find a tremendous amount of information on Audio Asylum's PC Forum. You are trodding a well known path...

Check out Max. It is freeware and is IMHO the best ripping software for OSX. It uses cdparanoia to control the ripping process. Max can convert to over 20+ formats including all Apple formats. BTW, there is nothing wrong with iTunes as a player interface. I am exeremely paranoid when it comes to my ripping software.

Ckorody is correct. Use Apple Lossless format for your collection. It will save you space on your HD (about half the space of AIFF or WAV) without losing any quality. It has been said before but, depending upon the size of your collection, be sure to backup your music HD (I would use an external FW for the main music drive and another FW HD, tape or DVD for backup). Nothing is forever but there are precautions you can take so you won't need to rerip your CDs.

Computer to DAC is now. Enjoy your new setup!

Max looks promising - I downloaded it a few weeks back but was unable to get it to work - perhaps a bit more fiddling is in order

Though I have to say that based on how slowly iTunes works through some CDs I am not sure how much better the error checking can be.... But for sure it is more flexible

I read the review on Stereophile recommended components and one quote reads "files ripped on AIFF were indistinguishable from the CD". is this a better option than lossless? or the same thing?