Using dBpoweramp

I use the default as well with FLAC to minimize disk space without any data loss and works fine.

I started out using .wav ripped using windows media player and converted those files to flac recently mainly to enable use with both Squeezebox and PLex systems and for the tagging/metadata benefits. If there is any sonic difference, I have not taken notice and believe both to be more or less equivalent in terms of information content and overall accuracy. dbpoweramp is more explicit about verifying accurate rips or not though.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Tthere is a sound difference between compressed flac and uncompressed (to my ears on my rig). I switched last year to uncompressed and very happy with improvement. HD space so cheap, easy to do. I use WAV for hires downloads as those sound better (to me on my rig) than flac downloads.