Ripping CD's

The drive you use is very important. I use a Pioneer blue ray burner. They are the best. They also burn DVD and CD. Next I use Ashampoo burning studio. The latest version is 24 and it's not expensive. Next, you can use any brand of CDs. I use Maxell for music, but again you can use Sony, Verbatim, or any brand you like. Are you using a Mac or a Windows pc?

I used to use Winamp a long time ago for ripping CDs and burning mix CDs. In fact I still listen to those 15yo mix-CDs in my car. I recently began using JRiver for ripping CDs to FLAC for backup and purge purposes. I found Maxell  & Verbatim CDRs to be the best for quality and longevity burns. If you have lots of CDs and want to manage playlists and such, JRiver will rip & burn so you're not having to venture into all of the problems you get w/ "free" software out there. And the cost for a standalone JRiver that updates automatically is nominal considering your time investment into this mix-CD hobby you have.

I appreciate all of the answers here. Not very familiar with some of the technology mentioned  by many but I have another question about using the EAC program, which many recommend......

Most of the CD's I want to rip are original ones. But some are stored as MP3's. Some have recommended that, when ripping with EAC, burn them as WAV files vs MP3. Will MP3's converted to WAV's play on my player?

I will have to check my player's specs to see if it can play them. My player...NAD C546BEE. Sure, there are better players out there and I appreciate the input but I want to accomplish this task with my current setup.

Thanks

In my opinion, you can burn the MP3 CD's unchanged to the disc. No advantages to change them to WAV as MP3 is a lossy format. Most probably, your CD player will not play WAV files anyway.

From the manual:The C 546BEE can play MP3/WMA formatted recordings on CD-R or CD-RW discs. You may mix any of the file types on the disc.

Cheers, eagledriver

BDW, better tagging with MP3 than with WAV files.