I read the Netgear MP101 specs. It can play MP3, uncompressed wave and WMA standard (but not WMA lossless, which is technically a different file format). So transcoding is always needed if the source file is in APE format. Wave is not very practical otherwise (size & tagging).
Could you just split the disc image files to separate track files for day-to-day use? You could keep the original disc image files only in your backup archive. Then you could use a format of your choice, e.g. lossless APE or a high quality lossy format like MP3 VBR High (AKA --preset extreme).
Personally I rip in APE disc image & cue format, make APL files (Monkey's Audio Link), tag the APL files properly (they can hold complete tag info), but after that I usually convert the files to separate track files and keep the lossless disc images only in my backup archive.
MC can convert separate track files including the tags from APL files and e.g.
this program can convert separate tracks directly from a cue file.
Here is an example of my typical backup archive:
Click to enlarge.From this album I have lossy MP3 & JPG files in my MC library, but if needed I can easily access the lossless APE & PNG archive (I use the lossless PNG format for my scanned cover art images).