I'm new at "audiophile" ripping. I have a 500 CD classical (mostly piano) library and want to put the whole thing on a hard drive or two (newly built pc). Before launching into this megaproject I need to know a few things.1) It seems lossless is the way to go--I'm picky about audio quality and I don't care if I need one or two or three 200 GB hard drives to store things. Yes or no? 2) If I use something like Monkey's can I play my music wherever I want or do I need specially configured players. I intend to burn to some undetermined type of player or players down the road. 3) Will the front end of something like Monkey's let me edit track information like, say, Roxio Creator 6? Thanks for starting me on the right road!

Sounds like you want FLAC for lossless for what you are doing since you say you are picky about sound quality and space is not a major concern.

FLAC has better portable and car stereo playback support than Monkey or MPC. WinAmp and Nero plug-ins are available for FLAC also.

Thanks-I'll start learning more about FLAC!

Visit http://flac.sourceforge.net for downloads and info...

Currently, FLAC is the only lossless codec with hardware support, although it is still a little limited.
Even if you are picky about quality and space is not a problem, I'd suggest you to contemplate the possibility of using a lossy codec. Even MP3 (currently unmatched at hardware/software support) at the recommended settings (LAME alt-preset standard, xtreme or insane) is transparent to the great majority of people, unless they are well-trained in artifact detecting or have a combination of good ears and equipment. AAC and Vorbis, while they can't still match MP3's hardware support, have a respectable and growing variety of hardware supporting them (notably the iPod for AAC); and are more advanced codecs than MP3.
I would suggest you to perform an ABX test (what is that?) with these lossy formats and the samples of your collection you consider to be the most complex and difficult. If you can't tell the difference at all, then maybe using lossy and enjoying of the extra space (or saved money) and variety of support is not a bad idea.
By the way, please use a more descriptive title for any subsequent threads you might post in the future.

I would suggest that you use search function and snoop around a bit here at HA before making any final decisions... There's a lot of threads regarding these issues. Ultimately it's only you that knows whats right for you. (Welcome, by the way!)