Hard drive space is very, very cheap compared to the bad old days. Much easier/cheaper to store straight .wav/.aiff files than ever before.

I've seen people rip their entire collections and convert into mp3s and then sell their cds! Madness!

But then, I despise any mp3s.

If I were you, I would never, ever store cd files in any other format other file than it's native 16 bit 44.1.

That's already "lossy" enough imho.

"Art is making something out of nothing and selling it."
---Frank Zappa