Dfwlistener, I feel your pain - ripping takes a lot of time but you can try to rip only CD that you want to listen to. It will take less couple of minutes to be able to start simultaneous playback while CD is being ripped. That's how I transferred most of mine.
Best CD transport?
I recently bought the new Rotel DAC for my Mac Mini based digital music system. And boy is it good. With Amarra fronting iTunes, I've never heard such good digital. But ripping my CDs to the Mini is getting tiresome. What current CD player would make a good transport for the Rotel DAC? I was thinking that I would just get the Oppo 105 and call it good but that seems to be somewhat repetitive. And of course I would be tempted to A/B the two DACs instead of enjoying music which I've been doing a lot of lately. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks