Used Rega Planet or Apollo vs. affordable PC audio

OK - so...back to the OP - which system do you think would sound better? We have one vote for and one against the Rega...

And regarding the fate of physical media - until a good solution for lossless downloads is implemented, for a broad range of genres, I will continue buying CDs, ripping them to WAV/AIFF/ALC, and letting the CD gather dust in storage. I expect the record companies would fight lossless downloads tooth and nail, if they knew what was good for them.
My litmus test for purchasing the CD vs. purchasing 256 .mp3 on iTunes is - if I like 2 or more tracks on the CD. If that is the case, I figure I might grow to like some of the other tracks, this has been the case in the past.

Another thing about buy the CD and ripping it for PC audio - if, in 5-6 years, your hard drive goes t!ts up and you lose 50GB of music, you can get it all back. If the files are simply downloads, the lossless version may not be so readily available.

My litmus test is exactly the same. Ill be honest- I cant hear any meaningful difference between 256k AAC and lossless but I do rip to ALAC because who knows what playback technology might offer better resolution in the future. However, my reservations on buying 256k aac from iTunes are very few these days. I love the 24bit stuff and find it far superior to anything 16 bit but the catalog just isn't there yet.

In regards to a drive failing- I think it is easier to implement a disaster recovery solution that keep all the CDs around. A second hard drive or even RAID setup with some inexpensive software is easily had. Keep a 3rd HD that is updated occaisonally at a friends place if you really want to get crazy.

I think that PC audio is the best thing to happen to audiophiles in a long while- maybe even ever.

think catastrophic flood or lightning storm that sends electrical surge spikes thru anything and everything plugged into a wall. Its happened to my sister and a friend of mine (separate occasions). I think having the CD is the ultimate back-up, but I still do have a ton of download-based 128 and 256 .mp3's files in my library. I wish I could get them upgraded, but its not possible. I can definitely tell the diff between 128, 256, and lossless, when played in sequence, but picking them out in a blind test - haven't tried yet.

A fire would also wipe everything out too.

MP3 is a different story- although 256k mp3 is getting pretty transparent but aac is substantially better and almost completely transparent @ 256k imo.