"wma(lossless)" format may be the most flexible choice. It's lossless and supported widely. It has slightly better compression than FLAC. Forget about error correction. If you have error correction problem, your hard disk is useless. Windows Media Player support ripping using "wma(lossless)" format. Wma(Lossless) can be played on Foobar2000. Most media players will support wma(lossless).

EAC (Exact Audio Copy) is widely considered to be one of the best "ripping" applications available. It does bit perfect ripping. It will reread a CD multiple times to ensure "bit-perfect" copies. It's also available as a free download. You have nothing to lose by giving it a try. IMO it's an order of magnitude better than Windows Media Player.

I use EAC to rip any and all my CDs to my music server. I also use the FLAC add on for it. It will also rip to WMA, MP3 or just about any file type you specify. Using EAC and FLAC I've ripped all my CDs (1500+) to a 1TB HDD. It's little over half full. I use another 1TB drive as a mirror/backup.

I don't like the interface in Foobar. So, for playback I use Nightingale instead. IMO it's nicer looking and slightly easier to navigate. You can also try JRiver software. It's full media software that plays audio and video files. You can download it and try It free for 30 days. If you like it, pay $50 for a full license after the trial period. It's been very favorably reviewed

When you choose Ripping S/W, the first think you should consider is that how good CD information (such as album title, song titles, artists, etc.) is provided. If not good, you could end up typing all those information manually. Windows Media Player is very good in this regard. Most CD information is automatically extracted from the Internet. You don't need to do such chores. However some CDs have wrong information. You should check each CD if they are properly provided. This problem seems comming from some CDs share CD numbers. So you could get wrong version of CDs. Except this problem, I am very happy with WMP.

Hi...into the depths I go. I have been reading about the "best" CD ripper..and EAC is mentioned allot...I also read outside of this forum that Winamp IS THE best...if someone could comment please...Next topic, and I apologize if this has been talked about already...anyone can please direct me to these answers:

I am leaning towards purchasing J river...I see IT has a CD ripping too? Should OI just use its CD ripper and forget about EAC and WInAMP?

Last migraine is: FLAC to AIFF? Many comments in favor of each. FLAC does compress,,and unfolds to the original with no apparent loss of quality...AIFF is true lossless. I am PC based no MAC... in time will get a Bluesound and access all the ripped CD's ( on the 2 TB drive USB drive ) from it. Thank you and sorry it this has been coverage before... Otto

Ottoa64 wrote:

Hi...into the depths I go. I have been reading about the "best" CD ripper..and EAC is mentioned allot...I also read outside of this forum that Winamp IS THE best...if someone could comment please...Next topic, and I apologize if this has been talked about already...anyone can please direct me to these answers:

I am leaning towards purchasing J river...I see IT has a CD ripping too? Should OI just use its CD ripper and forget about EAC and WInAMP?

Last migraine is: FLAC to AIFF? Many comments in favor of each. FLAC does compress,,and unfolds to the original with no apparent loss of quality...AIFF is true lossless. I am PC based no MAC... in time will get a Bluesound and access all the ripped CD's ( on the 2 TB drive USB drive ) from it. Thank you and sorry it this has been coverage before... Otto

I am not sure about WinAmp, but EAC has error correction and also attempts to recover bad physical discs. What I also like is that it first rips to .WAV and THEN converts to the compressed format of your choice without having to re-rip. (You also have options on how to handle the resulting .WAV file.)

My only gripe about EAC are the metadata sources and how much they lack.

If you are a Win user, rip to .WAV - which is an uncompressed, lossless format - then choose a compression format if you wish. (As previously mentioned, EAC will deliver a .WAV file and a compressed format of your choice, in one fell swoop.)

As an open-source advocate, I am personally not a fan of purchasing software licenses, and have therefore not tried JRiver myself. However, if it could actually cure my FLAC metadata ailments, THEN I could see value in actually purchasing a license.

$39.00 and a quick download. Works great.