I'm new here, and tried searching the forum for this first, but didn't quite find an answer to this. I also read the JRiver Wiki piece on lossless file formats:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Lossless_CompressionI tried goofing around with a trial version and some FLAC files ripped from my CD collection. I seemed to get inconsistent meta data display in JRiver, i.e. JRiver perhaps isn't doing anything wrong, but there are many possible was to tag FLAC files. Furthermore FLAC development has died off, the last FLAC release appears to be 1.2.1 from 2007.
If I used Wave I'd be able to allow Windows Media Center to tag my files, and at least WMC is pretty easy to get consistent metadata from. On the flip side, pure Wave doesn't have any error detection, as mentioned in JRiver wiki article.
Monkey's Audio seems to be a small company; but they did roll a new release of Monkey's Audio in 2011, and the product seems mature.
Apple's lossless data format is open source now, and has wide player support. On the other hand I hate iTunes with a vengeance...
My goals are highest possible sound quality, and good long-term development support for the format. I don't care about file sizes or conversion speed.
My question is: Is there a consensus on the what's the "best" or "most frequently recommended" lossless file format for audiophile JRiver use? If you were starting to rip CDs today and hoping to keep your ripped collection around for 20+ years, which lossless data format would you use?