I think it's BladeEnc which claims to be better at high rates than other (frauenhoffer based) encoders.

I like BladeEnc but I've not done any serious back to back comparisons so it might be really crap in some cases!

I've always felt that the ripper is pretty important, and I'm using Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de - I think), which seems to be unique in verifying the data read from the CD, plus it interfaces with BladeEnc very easily :-)

Disclaimer: I've no connection with either of the above, I just use them!

Cheers

Jim.