i've been collecting MP3's since I had dial-up and Napster (Napigator for life!) and well before this $.05/GB prices for mechanicals, so I started my whole home system with MP3s. As space no longer became an issue (I currently have a redundant 16TB NAS serving up movies and music) I wish I had been more choosy with my file formats. Now that I've transitioned to hi-res audio for the essentials and quite a few non-essentials I look at my voluminous collection of 128kbps and, cringe, below, and wonder what might have been. In my defense, though, those early dial-up lines were the pits and even a well seeded MP3 could take half a day! A poorly supported MP3, like the infamous Egypt Egypt Download of 1999, could take weeks.
Now I'm laying CAT6 throughout the house and installing Popcorn Hour media players all over the place to stream content to anywhere I have a fancy. Works very well, even the hi-res stuff. The Popcorn Hour A-500, for example, is damn near bullet proof for off-the-wall Asian CODECs, because sometimes I get a sweet tooth for funky anime.
@jimmyjazz I'll have to check that out. Always in the market for new sounds, and even though your ear doesn't seem that well tuned for overwrought 80s solid state hero guitar, your tastes otherwise are unimpeachable.