Good ripping program - no compression

Yeah, I figured out that AAC is not Flac.

Mmrog, Vader007, and Ketchup - Can you rip on EAC and playback on MM (or visa versa). In fact, will MM play anything ripped on another product?

i dont know what music match is, but i bet it would play a wav file. as for playing shn and flac, i dont know that, either.

prpixel, EAC is very widely used and is good. there is nothing wrong with it! i wouldn't let the fact that its beta stop you from using the most fantastic digital audio extraction tool available.

I'll second (third? fourth?) the votes for EAC--its a "beta" in name only and works far better than anything else I've tried, and I've tried a slew of rippers...

Well, I just did a blind test comparing EAC to Windows media Player Lossless compression (900+ bit rate). All files were played through media player. Twenty three out of twenty four times I was able to tell the difference between the two which is significant. The bad news is that I actually prefered the Windows Media version. It was a little softer, a little darker in the attack of the notes. I've always know that my computer rig is just a tad bright and I guess the Media player files take the edge off of it. There's a lot of bare drywall, laminate floors and a big desk in my office which isn't helping any. So, I ordered a 200MB external USB 2.0 hard drive. I plan on ripping about 400-500 CD's to it.

Thanks for all the info,