> But what I really like about ripping CDs is that I get an exact copy of the material.

pupvogel: But, you only have an "exact" copy of the material until you encode it as MP3, at which point it gets crushed.

Yeah, it's a last resort to do an audio rip (ie: not a real data extraction). Hey, I had to "rip" my U2 - "The Fly" single from cassette because I really loved the B-sides on it. Then there's my classical music collection on vinyl... that'll take some patience.