Hello there. I want to turn my computer into a media player and wire my computer into my amp.
Is the quality of Apple Lossless any good? Is it as good as CD audio? I want to stop using my standalone CD player (it's actually a decent unit) and have all my CDs ripped to my iTunes library and just flick through my collection.
Well... this is a hard one to answer to be honest. In theory, Apple Lossless (MPEG4) does retain the original sound quality, but there is a pretty big price to pay which is space. This codec only reduces the file size by about 40% or maybe a little more depending on the source. Depending on the quality of your amp, speakers and your ears, it might not be worth it.
MP3, despite being an old codec, still reaches very good sound quality standards when encoding at 192kbps or higher - most people cannot tell the difference between a 192kbps recording and a CD, especially on average sound equipment. AAC and OGG are similar. IMO, Microsoft's WMA is best at low bit-rates (64kbps or lower).
Anyway - my answer may not help you, but if you have either a lot of storage space, or a small CD collection, it might be good for you, but whereas MP3 @ 192kbps might use 70MB or so per CD, Apple Lossless is going to be more like 300MB per CD making 10 albums 3GB. For me personally, that would not be worth archiving to HDD media - especially when you consider you my still want AAC or MP3 versions to go on your iPOD.