Transport rips to hard drive?

Kijanki is correct. A computer can read the data better because it's a totally different process. Some software and drives "promise" better performance, and sometimes drives can have alignment problems, but overall, digital data is better archived and retrieved by a computer.

This is why I very confidently state that a digital music file sounds better than a CD transport. Good examples of this are the Linn DS and Naim products. Even people who have used entry level digital music systems will agree that they rival CD players costing much more.

I'm not going arguing against CDs. I still buy CDs, and if someone doesn't want to mess with a computer/network music system then they should stay with using a CD player, but the fact is, a digital music file can sound extremely good.

Use EAC (exact audio copy). You don't need any special drive.

What Bigbucks said. Use EAC and rip to either FLAC or WAV (hard drive space is cheap nowadays), or AAC if on a Mac.

Go to hydrogenaudio.com and learn more.

When I decided to rip my music, I was concerned with the PC transport in my rig. I decided to go with an outbiard Lacie firewire CD burner, which is only used for ripping. I don't use the PC's drive to rip at all. My FLAC files sound very god and I never had an error or reliability problem. Definitely worth the small investment. It seems faster than the onboard, and, while I can't say I compared the sound off the two, it is very convenient having the CD transport on your desk at your fingertips when you're in for a few hours of ripping. The firewire also doesn't drain CPU cycles.

If you have a Mac, DO NOT use AAC. AAC is compressed. Use Apple Lossless for the best quality.