Folder heirarchy is a matter of preference. I used to keep it like you suggest, by sorting the music into different folders based on their file/container type, like this:
C:\Music\Multichannel\
Subfolder: \SACD ISO
\DVDA ISO
\FLAC
C:\Music\Stereo
Subfolder: \FLAC
\DSD
etc, etc....
This is a good system for when you want to listen to your multichannel music and want to easily browse all multichannel in one folder. However, after some time, I found that instead of audio type, I'd be more interested in listening to a specific type of music, such as Jazz, Blues, etc. Doesn't matter if it's stereo, hi-rez, or 16 bit, I just want some good Blues! I later changed everything and catagorized into genre:
C:\Music\Blues
C:\Music\Jazz
C:\Music\Rock
etc....
All blues goes into one folder, whether it's ISO, FLAC, multichannel, etc. I find this much more convenient for "mood" listening.
On a side note: I always extract the FLAC files from DVD-Audio ISO while I don't extract SACD ISO (not even in to DSD such as dsf). Both Jriver and Foobar will read both DVDA and SACD ISO, so neither needs to be extracted, but I extract DVD-A ISO due to meta tags! Here is the explanation:
Metadata on both SACD and DVDA are written to a separate file. For SACD, this metadata (which is in a text file) is placed in the SAME DIRECTORY as the ISO. They reside together. However, in a DVD-A ISO, the metadata is loaded in a separate directory and given a name that's not comprehensible. And all DVDA metadata is written under the same directory that is part of the Foobar root (so it's not in your music folder). Trying to find which folder contains the metadata for a specific album is impossible. And why should this matter since you will never have to look it up manually? Because if you use two different computers and each has it's own Foobar, they won't share this DVDA directory! So you take the time to tag all of your DVD-A ISO files properly, and then find it's only that way when using one computer. And if you decided to copy/paste an album (in it's entire directory) to a USB so you can take it with you, the metadata isn't included. But if you copy/past an SACD ISO directory to a memory stick and move it to another computer, the metadata text file will go with it since it resided in the same directory!
I hope the above makes sense. I use multiple computers to access the files on my NAS, so it's really important to have the metadata within the album directory rather than the foobar root directory (so multiple computers can see and use the metadata). Of course, you could always copy/paste the DVDA metadata directory to multiple computers, but as you make changes to one, you have to copy the entire directory to the other computers as well. Or set up some kind of synch. Kind of a pain.
Therefore I have learned to just extract the FLAC from DVDA ISO and then delete the ISO.
C:\Music\Multichannel\
Subfolder: \SACD ISO
\DVDA ISO
\FLAC
C:\Music\Stereo
Subfolder: \FLAC
\DSD
etc, etc....
This is a good system for when you want to listen to your multichannel music and want to easily browse all multichannel in one folder. However, after some time, I found that instead of audio type, I'd be more interested in listening to a specific type of music, such as Jazz, Blues, etc. Doesn't matter if it's stereo, hi-rez, or 16 bit, I just want some good Blues! I later changed everything and catagorized into genre:
C:\Music\Blues
C:\Music\Jazz
C:\Music\Rock
etc....
All blues goes into one folder, whether it's ISO, FLAC, multichannel, etc. I find this much more convenient for "mood" listening.
On a side note: I always extract the FLAC files from DVD-Audio ISO while I don't extract SACD ISO (not even in to DSD such as dsf). Both Jriver and Foobar will read both DVDA and SACD ISO, so neither needs to be extracted, but I extract DVD-A ISO due to meta tags! Here is the explanation:
Metadata on both SACD and DVDA are written to a separate file. For SACD, this metadata (which is in a text file) is placed in the SAME DIRECTORY as the ISO. They reside together. However, in a DVD-A ISO, the metadata is loaded in a separate directory and given a name that's not comprehensible. And all DVDA metadata is written under the same directory that is part of the Foobar root (so it's not in your music folder). Trying to find which folder contains the metadata for a specific album is impossible. And why should this matter since you will never have to look it up manually? Because if you use two different computers and each has it's own Foobar, they won't share this DVDA directory! So you take the time to tag all of your DVD-A ISO files properly, and then find it's only that way when using one computer. And if you decided to copy/paste an album (in it's entire directory) to a USB so you can take it with you, the metadata isn't included. But if you copy/past an SACD ISO directory to a memory stick and move it to another computer, the metadata text file will go with it since it resided in the same directory!
I hope the above makes sense. I use multiple computers to access the files on my NAS, so it's really important to have the metadata within the album directory rather than the foobar root directory (so multiple computers can see and use the metadata). Of course, you could always copy/paste the DVDA metadata directory to multiple computers, but as you make changes to one, you have to copy the entire directory to the other computers as well. Or set up some kind of synch. Kind of a pain.
Therefore I have learned to just extract the FLAC from DVDA ISO and then delete the ISO.