Best CD Ripping and Playback SW

Definitely use EAC (Exact Audio Copy).

I like Foobar because it has lots of playback options. I have never heard a sound difference between various players but then again I have never really done any really critically listening to test different players.

Make sure you have the ASIO drivers installed and enabled. Are you using your MSB for D/A duties? That is a very sweet computer you have there. It is an audiophile and gamers dream! I'm not into computer games, but I bet with your setup they would be astonishing with that huge screen and killer stereo. There are some incredible games out there and your computer is built perfectly for the most demanding of them. Those gaming consoles couldn't hold a candle to that rig!

Ketchup,

Thanks for the tip.

Yes, I will be using the MSB for decoding duties. Although the Balanced Analog outputs of the Lynx Two-B sound card does not sound shabby at all.

Yes, I do some killer games in there. Half Life is my fav.

The sound and sight make any game {like Doom) so spooky that you sometimes want to run out of the room.!

You can also rip to EAC to rip to WAV files on the computer; that is probably as pure a process as I have found. I actually use it to rip to APE fles, which compress with no loss (really!) although only about 2 : 1. I havce not been able to hear a difference between the APE and WAV files. I go USB out to an external sound card and from that SPDIF to a ML DAC.