CD ripper

Are you talking CDs or SACDs?

If just CDs get dBpoweramp and convert to FLAC on you PC.

Foobar2000 does a nice job of ripping CDs and also works on your computer.  Agree about ripping to FLAC (not DSD).

EAC is king and has been for many, many years.  No reason to use anything else.

Thanks for the responses!
Is there a reasonable SQ advantage to using a dedicated hardware ripper vs. running ripper software from a laptop?

Another newbie question:  Why rip to FLAC and not DSD?

To answer your questions:
Doubtful but possible.
And pretty sure you can’t rip to DSD and a google search supports that. The better question would be FLAC or WAV, a FLAC is compressed and a WAV is not. That answer really depends on the size of your collection and your storage capabilities.

You could rip SACDs to DSD. If you really wanted it, you could rip/convert even CDs to DSD but I am not sure what would be the benefit of that and it would cost you more. Rip CDs in one of the formats mentioned above.

Note: FLAC is supposed to be lossless. Those more knowledgeable may chime in about the differences when it comes to sound (FLAC vs. WAV, etc.)

I have over 10K CDs that I have ripped.  I just use iTunes to rip to aiff (only because the title mapping is easy).  I then transcode to flac with AudioRepair from XiVero.  Works like a charm and can correct for some CD errors.  Flac, aiff and wav are all lossless, flac files are just smaller.

Redbook files can sound amazing on a modern DAC.

EAC all the way.  FLAC is a lossless compresses format and the perfect end state ... WAV is uncompressed so just larger files for the same quality.  

If you have SACD discs you can rip an iso to DSD using iso2dsd 

I completely agree with EAC and the recommendations above. I have ripped well over 7k CDs this way. However, if you are looking for a fool proof, plug and play ripper that supports FLAC, checkout the Bluesound Vault II. It is a small footprint, about the size of a NUC, dead quiet and very easy to use. I had to get one to allow my wife to rip her copious CD collection as I did not have 4 weeks of free time to do it. It worked flawlessly.

EAC?

1+ on dBpoweramp

I ripped about 800 CDs into a Bluesound Vault2.  Most of them are fine but I do have a few that seems to have glitches.  I switched to using dbpoweramp ripping to a NAS for other reasons and now I am more careful about cleaning the CDs prior to ripping them and so far no issues.  Dbpoweramp definitely gives a fuller sounding copy compared with iTunes.

You can definitely rip SACD to DSD. Ari, at Golden Ear, did all mine for me:
http://www.goldeneardigital.com/And he's a nice guy, to boot.

EAC=Bit perfect rips

Anyone unable to have an iMac even recognize/rip older Blue Note CDs (oddly most seem to be Rudy Van Gelder versions)?  Cannot get them to be "seen" at all in disc drive; they just eject after failed reading.

DB Poweramp has many options and let’s you convert many types 
even after ,such as Apple to Flac orWav .and does a nice job 
even  rescanning for errors and degree of speed 

I use Foobar2000 to FLAC, but dBpowermap looks to be a decent alternative. Checked out EAC before that, but it has a really terrible interface that looks like an unintuitive design from the early 90's.

They all have questionable interfaces, except the WMA FLAC plug-in for Windows Media Player 12, but a new release of Media Player broke that a year or so ago, so if you see that option do not download it.

FLAC is lossless. From taking blind tests myself, and watching others, I don't think the vast majority, if anyone, can hear the difference between 320KB and FLAC, but disk space is cheap and you'll never question sound quality by going FLAC.

I use db Poweramp and rip to uncompressed FLAC. FLAC is lossless but by ripping to uncompressed files the CPU will have a lighter workload when the files are played. Maybe that will affect the sound, maybe it won't but I have about 4,000 CDs to rip and I do not want to do this twice. I also built an external drive using a Plextor CD/DVD drive (Plextor PX-891SAF 24X SATA DVD/RW) plus a nice external case. This drive rips much faster than the internal drive in my ASUS ROG laptop - like 2 or 3 times faster. I don't know how the speed would compare to a dedicated ripper.

As far as CPU processing affecting quality of a FLAC, I am writing my own iOS & Windows Players and sitting hear watching Task Manager right now. CPU usage for my FLAC player is peaking at 0.6%.

Anyone try Melco D100? 

+2 for dbpoweramp, from the guys who made the "accurate rip database possible". Better than EAC imho in everything and offer much more than simple ripping. Yes, you need to pay money and is not free as EAC.

Is it possible to convert mp3 to flac or any other cd quality files, if yes what program to use???

You can convert mp3 to flac or any other format, you just won't get any better quality and waste space. Can't recover what isn't there.

Right thanks 

Hey Guys, a question please:  I read many of the comments on this thread and did a search for : EAC CD ripper.  What I found were a no. of sites that offered downloads, but also, I found many COMPLAINTS about forced adds and some people even said that their browsers were modified. Will those of you who have used the EAC product weigh in on these issues.Thanks in advance

 EAC has no forced ads or malware. Search for Exact Audio Copy.  EAC an the abbreviation. Download it from the developers site, not the free download sites that are usually full of popups. 

 I have never heard of any complaints about malware in EAC. I have been using it for over 10 years with absolutely no problems.