do i need to convert to FLAC in order to use squeezebox 2?
The SqueezeBox2 can do on-the-fly conversion of APE to FLAC, which it supports natively.
The SB2 is a wonderful device (I have 3) the only drawback is that there is no way to use MC to play the tracks.
SB2 uses open source software called 'SlimServer', which would be installed on your laptop, to play the music. You can use MC still to organise/tag your tracks and create playlists that can be used by 'SlimServer'.
I find 'SlimServer' copes with all my needs for playing. Having decided to switch my music playing from PC based with JMRC to the SB2 I did use dbPowerAmp to mass convert all my APE file (about 20,000) to FLAC so as to gain the advantage of the SB2' native FLAC support.
'SlimServer can be downloaded for free and includes a software SB2 emulator calleed 'SoftSqueeze' so you could give it a try and see if it suits. If you do I suggest you download the latest beta version 6.2 which is quite stable and has improved features over the current 6.1 official release.
Hope this helps.
David