I also have an Imac using Itunes for playback.
Been extremely happy after a year and 1500 cds ripped
My set-up is an Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo
into a Grace 902. Using modest cost external HD's and CD drives.
As others have stated MAX will rip and convert to Apple Lossless
http://sbooth.org/Max/
Another great Mac ripper is xACT 1.59
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952
On the 24 bit side of things.....I do a lot of my own recordings in 24 bit and keep all of these in my Itunes library (Max will convert 24 bit WAV to 24 bit Apple Lossless)
I have my output set at 24/44.1, when i play
a 16/44.1 file in Itunes it sounds perfect up-sampled to 24/44.1
Been extremely happy after a year and 1500 cds ripped
My set-up is an Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo
into a Grace 902. Using modest cost external HD's and CD drives.
As others have stated MAX will rip and convert to Apple Lossless
http://sbooth.org/Max/
Another great Mac ripper is xACT 1.59
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952
On the 24 bit side of things.....I do a lot of my own recordings in 24 bit and keep all of these in my Itunes library (Max will convert 24 bit WAV to 24 bit Apple Lossless)
I have my output set at 24/44.1, when i play
a 16/44.1 file in Itunes it sounds perfect up-sampled to 24/44.1