CD ripper

I use Foobar2000 to FLAC, but dBpowermap looks to be a decent alternative. Checked out EAC before that, but it has a really terrible interface that looks like an unintuitive design from the early 90's.

They all have questionable interfaces, except the WMA FLAC plug-in for Windows Media Player 12, but a new release of Media Player broke that a year or so ago, so if you see that option do not download it.

FLAC is lossless. From taking blind tests myself, and watching others, I don't think the vast majority, if anyone, can hear the difference between 320KB and FLAC, but disk space is cheap and you'll never question sound quality by going FLAC.

I use db Poweramp and rip to uncompressed FLAC. FLAC is lossless but by ripping to uncompressed files the CPU will have a lighter workload when the files are played. Maybe that will affect the sound, maybe it won't but I have about 4,000 CDs to rip and I do not want to do this twice. I also built an external drive using a Plextor CD/DVD drive (Plextor PX-891SAF 24X SATA DVD/RW) plus a nice external case. This drive rips much faster than the internal drive in my ASUS ROG laptop - like 2 or 3 times faster. I don't know how the speed would compare to a dedicated ripper.

As far as CPU processing affecting quality of a FLAC, I am writing my own iOS & Windows Players and sitting hear watching Task Manager right now. CPU usage for my FLAC player is peaking at 0.6%.

Anyone try Melco D100?