Avlis,
You raise a good question. The simple truth is that I was a MP3 hating individual one year ago. My brother inlaw was sent to Iraq last year and I started compressing portions of my music library which he used + shared with others.
As I experimented I found the 192K to not be offensive, and 320K to sound reasonably good (close to CD). I eventually picked up a Ipod for its convience and the sound was OK.
Due to a love in photography, I searched out the Roku which was bought because it sends a HD signal to my 65inch wide screen to view pictures. As a bonous it sends MP3, and as you just stated uncompressed (original source) wave files.
My currrent limitation is space. I have used up 90GB on the 160GB hard drive. 70GB music (compressed at 320K) and I still have about 20% left archive. The balance of the 20GB's stores photographs.
I have just today tried streaming a uncomressed wave file. . . sounds just like the CD! This is the way of the future!! I'll need a bigger hard drive before I begin the exercise . . . . thanks for the suggestion.