Ripping to a Mac, any software?

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.

Heymikey, so you've got some top-notch gear there all-around.
I don't know, but it's fun guessing, and my first guess might be ...
I wonder if you might be losing anything in the Mac-to-DAC
USB to SPDIF converter. Just a guess,
my experience has only been with USB all the way:
Mac to Bel Canto DAC3 USB port.

I don't think the hard drive makes a bit of difference,
as long as it's not junk, and noisy -- in the same way one USB cable
is just like another, save maybe better fitting ends.
It's all bits in both cases.

There is a less known feature of the Mac that may potentially degrade sound quality. The Mac has an internal sample rate converter. I don't know if it is implemented in hardware or software but believe me, you don't want to use it in either case. The problem is that it is automatically engaged if the sample rate of the source material is different from the setting of the audio output device. For example, if you are playing a 16/44.1k track from iTunes and the Mac's audio output device is set to 24/96k, it will up-sample your track and output 24/96k signal to your external DAC.

The only way to disengage it is to make sure the sample rate of the source material is the same as the sample rate setting of the audio output device. To check that, you need to use the Audio MIDI Setup program which is usually located in the Application/Utilities folder.

Once you open the Audio MIDI Setup, click the Audio Devices tag at the top and look into the "Properties For:" drop down box. As soon as your USB to SPDIF converter is connected, it should show up as one of the selection. Now select that and look over to the lower right corner and you should see some controls show up in the Audio Output section. Now you can change the sample rate to match.

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.