What are My Options for Ripping My CD Collection ?

@seymour-krelborn 

WAV files have the most compatibility because the format is the oldest, and for me, supported by virtually all USB-enabled car stereos. Because WAV files are not compressed- like all the others you mentioned- they have less latency, meaning they load faster and respond better.

The zip file analogy you used is similar but not exact. A zip file is fully accessed and ready to go whereas a compressed music file is uncompressed as it plays. This stresses the CPU and many car stereos become burdened with latency with some just perpetually loading with compressed files.

@cleeds 

I was referring to the fact that those programs cost money or they don't. If they are "free", you will have to read the fine print to understand why, but there is nothing in life for free.

Sales fluff refers to the persuasion to the prospective customer that you need the product when, in reality, you do not. Kind of like a pop-up blocker or virus protection- the fear is worse than the product and they know that so they lead with the fallacy that you have a problem, when they are the ones who are creating the problem. Similar to children.

Metadata album/thumbnails photos change the most. If your local database does not include a photo of the artist playing, an online database will download one. I put my music on a portable device, the rest is done for me. It's what metadata was meant to do, fill in the blanks.

I was referring to the fact that those programs cost money or they don't. If they are "free", you will have to read the fine print to understand why, but there is nothing in life for free.

Nonsense.

If you have a drive its easy enough to rip your CDs to Lossless files and stream through just about any streamer on the market.  Just find any software package, Sourceforge, dbpower amp and may others .  As long as you rip to lossless say FLAC files you are set to do what you want later on.  I have ripped my thousands of cds a few times just because I wanted to do them over as I had a mix of FLAC WMA and WAV lossless the first time.  Now they are all stored on a NAS streamed through my various systems if wanted or just  played in my office 

Take your time do it while you are doing other things.  Rip move in Rip, move on etc... its is very easy to do no real knowledge required once you get it set to go. 

I use a $50 LG Blu-ray CD-R player to rip my CDs, and JRiver software (inexpensive IMO for lifetime upgrades) on my PC. The JRiver does a great job for what I need. But honestly, I don't really listen to much of my digital library. I either stream via Qobuz or play the CDs.  Every CD or vinyl copy that I buy from Bandcamp usually comes with a digital copy that I use for backup. I'm only ripping CDs these days to act as digital backups, as well as having a copy of most of my library on my laptop. That is handy when I travel & want to listen to music off-line.

In the event the internet comes crashing down thanks to our soon-to-be AI overlords, I'll be able to listen to everything I enjoy without relying on wifi.