i consider eac the best for "ripping", but as far as burning, you will get a huge number of opinions. the reason for this is because the DAE (digital audio extraction) is a much more complicated process to get right than the actual burning. burning has been nailed down pretty good and is a relatively simple process, so any of the freeware out there does a fine job.
i prefer feurio (free). it allows for overburning, user defined pauses between tracks, and has a great playback mode for running through the compilation quickly to make sure everything is ok and ready to burn. oh yeah, there is also a track editor should you want to add fade ins and outs if you desire. its also very easy to use.
as for mp3, i wouldn't go near them. they sound terrible even on a crappy car stereo. there are millions of programs out there that convert mp3 > wav, but the product will only sound as good as the original mp3 file. once mp3 drops those bits during compression, there is no getting them back.
if you need to compress some audio, use shn or flac. they are both freeware and LOSSLESS, unlike mp3.
i've tested them (with wav comparison software) and they do produce exact clones of the original file.
i prefer feurio (free). it allows for overburning, user defined pauses between tracks, and has a great playback mode for running through the compilation quickly to make sure everything is ok and ready to burn. oh yeah, there is also a track editor should you want to add fade ins and outs if you desire. its also very easy to use.
as for mp3, i wouldn't go near them. they sound terrible even on a crappy car stereo. there are millions of programs out there that convert mp3 > wav, but the product will only sound as good as the original mp3 file. once mp3 drops those bits during compression, there is no getting them back.
if you need to compress some audio, use shn or flac. they are both freeware and LOSSLESS, unlike mp3.
i've tested them (with wav comparison software) and they do produce exact clones of the original file.