Yes I really like CD's. I also now have access to streaming music as well(Amazon Music). I used to like LP's too, but I finally moved on(and now there back!).
I don't understand the CD's deteriorate with time thing. I haven't run into one yet anyways..
That;s because they typically don't... so far, since they appeared on the market.
I could just do FLAC, and be done with it. Some recordings I must admit though sound literally like crap. I have remade some of them using Audacity, and they sound better than the originals. Granted there aren't a lot like this but there are some, even the streamed FLAC ones sound lousy, and why wouldn't they? There still the same badly engineered recordings.
FLAC doesn't promise anything except lossless file size shrinkage. It preserves whatever audio quality is fed into it. It won't make it better or worse. You can make a FLAC version of a low bitrate, low quality mp3 sourced audio track if you want to. So writing 'even the streamed FLAC ones sound lousy' indicates a misunderstanding.
I'm sure that paragraph alone is worth at least 20 entries into this thread, but these Audacity ones are just for me, and they do sound better to me.
Once all these different digital copies are made, whats the best way to actually find and play them ?
Your audacity versions are already audio files, what do you use to find and play them? Or do you only listen to them on CDRs you burned?
Or just not save them at all and just use streaming instead? I've seen some threads where people save the CD's to FLAC and donate there CD collection to the library. If you do that I'll take them gladly ! I couldn't give my LP collection away, and they were in just the same shape as my CD collection(not one fingerprint !)
Right now I am using dbpoweramp, Audacity, and Mp3 Gain when I need it. Just bought a new ASUS DVD Optical drive as my Samsung was giving me issues with the door getting stuck, and wouldn't work with Accuraterip anymore.
Ripping your CDs to lossless (.wav or .flac) is a fine way to make them easily available to play from your own 'streamer' ( a computer/laptop, or, depending on storage, even a phone), with audio quality limited only by the playback hardware.
Streaming services work too...but you have no control over what was 'done' to the audio before it gets streamed.