IPOD CLASSIC 7th Gen, Apple or WAV?


Alright so I might get a new IPOD Classic. I have never owned one, but due to a new car having the USB port capable of controlling it right on the new radio decided it would be nice to have vs. carrying around CD's.

Anyway for the most part I have heard MP3 files in cars, and its not bad, not much different than CD directly. For Car I normally could care less.

Home is a different story, if I decide in the future to hook this up thru a Dock or not I would like to just be prepared and do the best lossless format possible, I don't care about space, the 160 gig on the new one should be fine even with un-compressed files for the amount of stuff I will ever put on it.

So where is the Audio-phile hi end at on the format wars these days? Use apples format, or go to the WAV, FLAC What?

I want it as simple as possible, I will not be using Itunes service for downloading any music, strictly copying the CD's. Which is the final question, not sure if you can do any of this without using ITUNES, but what program and setup do you guys suggest downloading to the Laptop for best CD transfer to an IPOD with best format and of course best user interface? I have plenty of hard drive backup space etc... Once I get the whole CD collection transfered.
Thanks
undertow
Undertow, yes, simply download iTunes and then go into the settings and set the import setting to AIFF, if that is what is desired; I also like to check the error corection box. From there start copying your CD's and then plug your iPod into your PC and it will Sync the music over to your Ipod.
Albert,

Let me follow up on above, as sometimes comments can't be seen in full light when reading. I fully understand what you were saying in your first post and fully agree, the point I was trying to convey was the possibilities of the iPod at home and rather than use all my own words I stole yours to make my point; I hope this clarifies my point better, my aologies for not being clearer.
Well, actually the way my iPod will be used is via the USB line, so actually my understanding is that the car stereo will be getting the raw digital signal, not an analog already D/A conversion from the iPod.

Apple provides a cable with their connector on one end and USB at the other. My car came with factory installed genuine Apple branded cable but the signal from that is analog to the car system and hard wired. There is no USB.

If your car has the ability to decode digital from iPod that's great, reading through the list of radio's that can do this, there are precious few.
One quick question (estimate) I know its not perfect, how many albums can you expect to get onto a 160 gig Ipod in general? In AIFF that is? Most standard CD's are 650 to 750 mb, so not sure where we end up via AIFF on an ipod.
I assume essentially they could even be larger in AIFF due to all the graphics and tags that come along with this format on the device.
Thanks again