Ripping CD's - Bypassing Computer CD Player

Thanks for the answers. I've used both Exact Audio Copy and dBpoweramp for ripping my CD's but was concerned. As Dtc noted there used to be reviews on the quality of the drives and Plextor came out on top. My current drive is a Plextor, but thought (apparently mistakenly,)that the quality of the drive might have something to do with the quality of the rip. I see the logic of "digital" ripping being independent of the CD drive in the computer, but it doesn't feel right.

I usually rip to WAVE rather than FLAC, but have done both. Perhaps for the same reason (feelings over reason).

Thanks.

You might find this thread I started in AudioAsylum interesting:

http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=digital&n=172907&highlight=rip+dull&search_url=%2Fcgi%2Fsearch.mpl%3FForumSelect%3DSelected%26searchtext%3Dcbs%2B6sn7gtb%26SelectForumtubes%3Dtubes

I've scanned it and will read it carefully soon. Is there a bottom line in that discussion? Seems like it was one opinion against another. Did you reach a conclusion?

Just ripped over 600 CD's using Dbpoweramp Batch Ripper with the Nimlie USB Plus, and an old PC. Took about 3 days. Load 100 CD's at night, in the morning they're ripped.
Let me know if interested.

NAB2 - those discussions never reach a conclusion. There are people who insist that two bit for bit identical files sound different. There are people that think that flac always sounds worse than wav. There are people that think that a wav file that has been converted to flac and back to wav will sound different. There was even a controversial 4 part article in the Absolute Sound that found sound differences in pretty much every conceivable way to produce bit for bit identical files.

Who knows what is going on, buy there is a small group of people who are absolutely convinced of these differences, but most people cannot hear the differences on their systems. Its kind of like expensive power cables, little silver cups, myrtle wood blocks, etc. You can spend your life looking for these differences or you can listen to the music. Just depends on which part of the hobby most interests you.

You might want to spend some time experimenting. Most of us have. I must say getting a new Chord Hugo DAC swamped any possible improvements in wav versus flac, etc.