Music Collection: ISO vs MP3

[Hammerhead 4]

Now that I have my first NAS, I've been giving some thought to what format is best to archive my 300 some-odd album audio CD collection.

I confess I'm a bit of an audio snob, which is to say that I have a moderately high-end audio system (Dahlquist DQ10s, Polk SW, Macintosh Preamp, and so on...) which I keep separate from my HT system.  At some point, I hope to upgrade to a better amp (Krell, Pass or other similar) and perhaps even trade to a pair of vintage Martin Logan CLS II speakers.

With that in mind, I'd like to do for my audio what I'm doing for my movie collection, but my concern is to preserve the maximum audio quality (read: soundstage) of the original discs.

Experience suggests that MP3s are OK for space saving on digital devices, but converting the data almost always results in a loss of ambiance (imaging, presence, soundstage) so my thought was that if I got an inexpensive Raspberri Pi with a good DAC, that would be at least as good as a high-end disc player.

So, I'm kicking it over to you guys to hear thoughts on how to best go about this.  Would it be a mistake to convert my collection to ISOs and store them on my NAS?  Should I just go to MP3s and forget chasing a dream?  If the consensus is that ISOs are the way to go, what concerns are there in terms of disc protection, if any?

Looking forward to some second opinions.
 

[Overseer 66]

Why not use FLAC or some other lossless codec? I rip all my audio to .FLAC for home use.

[Raff 51]

I would use a lossless music format that has the most support on your target devices.

 

Edit to add: what Overseer said!

Edited December 30, 2015 by Raff

[porkbone 47]

I would stay away from mp3 and go with flac.

[Hammerhead 4]

Never done FLAC.  How does one go about 'ripping' that?  Would I use something like MediaMonkey?

[Deathsquirrel 745]

I rip to flac and then make MP3 copies with flacsquisher.  The flac files go on my media server for emby and an MP3 copy goes to a separate folder for itunes users.

[Deathsquirrel 745]

Never done FLAC.  How does one go about 'ripping' that?  Would I use something like MediaMonkey?

 

I use Exact Audio Copy which I've been perfectly happy with.

[Hammerhead 4]

Given I have Emby and Kodi on all my platforms, you guys seem to be saying that ISOs are not the way to go.  What's the advantage of FLAC over ISO?

[Deathsquirrel 745]

Given I have Emby and Kodi on all my platforms, you guys seem to be saying that ISOs are not the way to go.  What's the advantage of FLAC over ISO?

 

I would never recommend ISO as the storage format for any media you plan to playback.  As a playback format it's unpopular, generally unsupported, and will require transcoding for most any Emby client you may use.

 

Flac is lossless and will playback without transcoding on at least a few client platforms.

[Overseer 66]

Never done FLAC.  How does one go about 'ripping' that?  Would I use something like MediaMonkey?

 

You can use MediaMonkey, I have that installed on one of my computers.  I use dBpoweramp myself for ripping. Like @Deathsquirrel, I have it setup to rip for FLAC and another version in MP3 for on the go.

[porkbone 47]

dBpoweramp is a great ripper for flac

[Hammerhead 4]

So, is there a difference among apps where ripping to FLAC is concerned?  I know that some encoders for MP3 make a difference, but is an one program any better than the other, or is it a case of using whatever interface I like the most?

[Overseer 66]

You might want to do some test rips yourself using trial versions of some programs (MediaMonkey, dBpoweramp, etc.) and see how they sound on your system. Unless you have the ears of a god you may not be able to tell the difference.

 

I like dBpoweramp due to the control it gives me over the ripping process, though the interface leaves a little to be desired.

[Lee 212]

foobar2000 is also decent for ripping to flac

prefer the UI to dbpoweramp and you don't need any dodgy hacked varients...