Music Server format?

WAV and AIFF take the most space, so I tend to avoid it.

FLAC and ALAC however are fairly well compressed, so easier to store and put on a portable as is. :)

Honest to god, if your music player sounds different if it plays WAV or FLAC, change it. :)

Best,


Erik

AIFF on mac and FLAC on PC make the most sense for most people. That's why high rez downloads are in these two formats usually. WAV loses metadata. ALAC isn't readable on some non-apple hardware so when you bring music elsewhere it creates problems. Most decent hardware expects AIFF and FLAC. Some portables FLAC, but not AIFF. Occasionally, a hardware description won't mention AIFF because they didn't pay off Apple for the rights, but if you try it the files will play on the hardware anyway. 
The Sony is okay for a 1 box option. IMHE, server based solutions storing the music files on disks in another room and connecting server via ethernet are the best route. 
Computeraudiophile is the best site for this topic, where many posters have a far higher level of experience on this topic (but not so much as here regarding amps/analog/speakers, etc. Cheers,
Spencer

Storage is cheap. always rip in AIFF or WAV format. You can always compress files to FLAC or such from there. The Goodwin website gives great accurate info. http://www.goodwinshighend.com/

True. Seems like any on line music purchase requires you purchase entire album even if you only want three tracks.

As noted above, AIFF on the MAC and FLAC on the PC will produce the best sound quality such they are both uncompressed.   Yes, these formats take the most space on your storage device but storage is very inexpensive.   In my case, I rip my CD's to an external hard drive using the AIFF format (MAC) and copy them to my music server (Aurender N10).   Another option, of course, is to connect your hard drive to your music server.   Please remember to have all source material backed up.   I backup my ripped CD's to two different hard drives.

If you are unclear what format to use, you could rip some CD's using these different formats and listen.  Please take your time making this decision since you do NOT want to have to do it over again using a different format.   The goal is to maximize sound quality so an uncompressed format is the best.

Please verify your album cover art is included in the ripping process so that the cover art gets displayed on your music server.