iTunes Importing?

1. Itunes natively rips CD's.. there shouldn't be any required plug ins.
2. WAV files can not be tagged with song/artist/album information... so using WMA/FLAC/Apple lossless allows this and these are smaller since they use compression (but are bit perfect)
3. WAV are raw audio files on an Audio CD..
4. Give it a listen there are plenty of threads saying they can hear a difference. I can't even in my system comparing FLAC to WAV. (I do not use Itunes)
5. If you want perfect bit for bit rips you need a PC not a MAC (unless there is a program out now)... get a Plextor drive and use Plextools or download EAC (Exact Copy) freeware and setup your CD-ROM drive to extract CD's perfectly. Then you can convert those WAV to Applelossless in Itunes I believe.

If you use a PC you can use MediaMonkey to automatically convert your FLAC collection on the fly to a set max bit rate to your ipod. I have mine setup to downgrade it to 320kb Variable Bit rate MP3. It takes some time, so make sure you have a current (recent high horsepower machine).