Ripping to a Mac, any software?

Hey guys, thanks for your responses. I've gone over my iTunes settings and found the Equalizer was on, at the "Flat" preset.
This may account for the lack of high frequency response and dull, lifeless music I was hearing. I'll do some critical listening this evening and report back tomorrow.

Michaelct, yes I am going to an external dac, the Acccustic Arts Dac1 MK3. As others have suggested to me, I have the iTunes volume set at max, and the external dac is selected as the audio output device in "Sounds" under the "System Preferences" tab of my iMac. Volume is then controlled by my preamp. Regarding interface, I'm using an Empirical Audio Freeway 2 USB to SPDIF converter. After I turned off the Equalizer (I didn't realize it was on) and Sound Check, the sound quality became VERY good and I am now pleased with the results. To my ears it's not quite equal to the quality of sound from playing cd's in my Meridian 508.24 player, but it's close, I'd say about 95%. My next step is to replace the wall wart power supply on my Opticis optical USB cable with something better. BTW, is no one is using a better quality external drive? That's something I was considering as well.

Travelstead, I believe the Equalizer has nothing to do with any imported song data, is affects the audio playback. Turn it off for best results.

Sidssp, that's good info, some people are not aware of the Midi utility. I'm familiar with the midi settings, but due to my downstream hardware it is not possible to set it for a 16 bit rate, mine is 24 bit only. So I have mine set at 24 bit, 44.1 khz, even though the iTunes audio is imported at 16 bit, 44.1 kHz. It does not appear to be possible to set iTunes to import audio at a 24 bit rate from a cd source, please correct me if I am wrong.

Sidssp, I'm using an Empirical Audio Freeway 2 USB to SPDIF converter, then out to an Accustic Arts Dac1 MK3. With this configuration, there is no 16 bit rate option available in the iMac's Midi settings, 24 bit only. I do have sampling rate options if 44100.0, 48000.0, 88200.0 and 96000.0 hz, I leave it at 44100.0. The Midi options will change if I put in a different dac. I don't know if it would be worth the trouble of converting audio files to a 24 bit rate before importing to iTunes, I guess I could try it and see if it makes any difference. See quote below, from bigfishaudio.com:
"What is the difference between 16 and 24 bit?
16 and 24-bit refers to the sample resolution of the included samples. 16-bit is the standard resolution of audio CD's, while 24-bit is an enhanced resolution supported by many samplers. Some Big Fish Audio libraries are produced in 24-bit, while others are in 16-bit.
It is not necessary to convert from 16-bit to 24-bit. All samplers that read 24-bit files can also read 16-bit files, and while it is technically possible to convert 16-bit files to 24-bit files, there is no increase in fidelity and therefore no advantage gained by converting in this direction."

Sidssp, nope, just had a few emails with Steve at Empirical, the Freeway 2 is working as designed. This one has the newest driverless firmware.

Edtyre, thanks for all that great info! It's nice to hear from someone else with similar gear. Yes, I keep my Midi settings at 24/44.1 also. So far, all my audio files in iTunes are 16 bit. Here's what Steve at Empirical told me about 16 bit files and the 24 bit setting: "This is the best-sounding way to listen to 16-bit files, extended to 24-bit."