File format, software and settings?

For PC DB Poweramp is the easiest most complete ripper, although Exact Audio copy works very well and to my ears sounds as good and is free... Data tagging is much better with DB poweramp... Also, Steve, I recommend that you once again try Foobar 2000 with the latest stable version 1.1.13 it is a huge step forward from the version listed on your site, I have also used DB Poweramp to convert all of my Flac files to WAV. This was an audible improvement.

Hi Steve,
I have tried JRiver... a year ago, no jplay. I tried Media Monkey, didn't like it. I have tried JPlay w/foobar 2000. At first I thought Jplay was a miracle, very nice improvement... I got rid of anti virus, I increased ram, I made all my computer settings for the highest performance settings going for Foobar 2000, went into Foobar advanced settings and changed the buffer to handle larger files (I've read this causes files smaller than your buffer settings to play from ram), I deleted a bunch of programs not used and turned off everything that I could... NOW Jplay just didn't matter.... Recently I downloaded Windows 8 and there was yet more improvement. I haven't tried XXHighend. Thanks for responding, Tim

Hi Steve, used direct, Kernel Streaming and Wasapi..
KS & Wasapi were both better than direct... these things are so close, I had to listen long and hard to finally figure what the differences were in my system. KS was more absolute (maybe analytical is the right word) Wasapi had equal detail, but had more of a flowing feel to it. Depending on the music I might like one over the other, but quite frankly, it took so long to realize just what I was hearing with the differences that I'd be happy either way. I will look into XXHighend. As alway, I appreciate your advice. Tim

Coda CL, yes it is active, adjustable gain, I have it all the way down

I didn't see it responded to as such about the time it takes to rip a cd... Even though I have DBPoweramp, I have always used EAC, Just very comfortable with it, so still use it with Accurip... I didn't see it addressed, but the time that it takes to burn is in direct correlation with the condition of the cd. I have had problems with several errors and EAC/Accurip will re read a problem area several thousand times until it gets the info, I have had a few damaged cd's that I wanted to save where it took all night to burn a copy. On average, EAC/Accurip burns on my notebook at 2.5 to 4x normal play back speed. So a 40 minute cd will burn in 10 to 15 minutes. I have heard DBPoweramp is quicker, but so far, I have only used it for file conversion... Flac to Wav, etc. I hope this info helps, Tim