With regard to your comment about compressed files. Can I assume you think CD’s in the wave format are exact reproductions of the original source music? If so would not WMA (lossless) be an exact reproduction of that same wave formatted music?
I realize MP3 is far from perfect in it’s reproduction of WAVE but at the rate of 256 kps how really noticeable would it be (the loss) without using diagnostic equip to measure output using an A/B switch?
That’s what I did and it was audible to me listening to classical music on my system in my living room. And that’s all I was concerned about. I doubt it would make any difference at all to the poster which is why I suggested he not spend a fortune on speakers that will radically outperform the source.