[Christof]

Please bare with me, you have a woodworker trying to figure out computers here.  

I picked up a new iMac, external LaCie HD, Airport Express and all the little Apple gadgets that go along.  I am ready to start ripping my collection but not sure what encoding to use.  iTunes offers ACC, AIFF, Lossless, MP3 and WAV.  A friend of mine said I would hear no difference b/t Lossless and AAC in Variable bit setting with Stereo bit rate set to 160kbps.  He says by encoding in AAC vs. Lossless I would save lots of HD space but I say memory is cheap, heck one pair of my IC's cost more than a 500gig external these days.  So, can anyone who is using iTunes to manage their PC based system give me some tips.  I really appreciate the help you guys are willing to give to those of us who really have not much of a clue about this PC schtuff...

[davehg]

See my blog (link below) which discusses the various file formats. I personally prefer WAV files (make sure you check the "error correction" box in iTunes).
http://musicserver.blogspot.com

[jp1]

Hi there,
I went through this whole thing a couple months ago.
you already have the space in the external drive so you should DEFINITELY rip into lossless. I ripped using the standard 128 and then had to redo my entire 700 cd collection. The quality difference is VERY noticable over a good system.
Using itunes to import to lossless works very well and is easy. there are debateable differences between itunes lossless and FLAC (look it up), but i went with itunes because it is possible to convert to other formats if necessary, and its much easier to use itunes. There are also other "burners" than itunes ( i forget the names) but again, itunes is virtually as good, and  easier. (just remember to check error correction on) .

next, you must also take a look at Slimdevices.com and once satisfeid, purchase a squeezebox 3. virtually any other way of "Serving" music from a computer to a stereo is a waste of time. check it out.
here's a review:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1205/slimdevices_squeezebox.htm

if you want to step up the squeezebox to competing with thousand-dollar cd players, check out redwineaudio.com or boldercables.com
They do the slight modifications to the squeezebox that are talked about in the review. (the mods can be as cheap as a $ couple hundred, and quality goes to excellent levels. anyway, thats enough for now.

happy ripping and listening.