Audio format of choice for streaming.

[Audio_ELF]

I would suggest the vast majority of people will use either a lossless compression format - FLAC or Apple Lossless (often refered to as ALAC) if using iTunes - or an uncompressed format - AIFF or WAV.

 

All of these should theoretically produce the same sound quality as all store the music in a way that allows it to be reconstructed fully by the playback software. Some people feel that FLAC/ALAC produce a lower sound quality to WAV/AIFF though this is a subjective view and you should experiment with both (the cost of experimenting is zero + your time).

 

Very few people will use MP3 or AAC which use lossy compression methods and reduce the quality by getting rid of information that theoretically you cannot hear/percieve. Given the relatively cheep availability of high capacity hard drives, using MP3 or AAC for home audio is a bad compromise.

 

Eloise