Originally posted by: Jeff7
Ok, I shall summarize that which has been said and flamed:
FLAC is lossless. Re-encode it as much as you want, it'll still be the same as what comes off of the CD. It has a worse compression ratio than MP3 for that reason, and so it will take up more disk space than MP3.
Whether or not it'll sound different is subjective, much as monitor refresh rates. Some people don't mind 60Hz. I personally prefer 85Hz or higher; 60Hz gives me a headache quickly.
So, to the OP:
Re-encode one of your CDs to FLAC, and listen to it. If there's enough of a difference to you to justify the additional hard drive space usage, the time of re-encoding all your discs, and the knowledge that your CD collection is archivd losslessly, then do it. Otherwise, don't.
Concerning the butterfly effect of minor distortions, that's probably best left to a philosophy discussion. Yes your mind may well perceive it. But it just might not matter, and so you really won't remember or notice it. The brain uses very lossy processing and compression. Data gets thrown out all the time without your conscious approval or knowledge.