> Which rip program (Windows xp)

Hand down; EAC in secure mode. It is the only way to guarantee perfect rips.

> Will the Empeg Play Flac, Apr, Ogg ??

Ogg and Flac yes, APE no.

> If so which one should I encode with I have about 400 Cd's

Well, they have their strengths and weaknesses. Flac is lossless (i.e. a perfect copy), so you can transcode to any other format you want easily at a later date. But the files are huge, 40% of the original wave file. Ogg is technically a little superior to mp3 and a truly free format, but still has not taken off yet. Mp3 is still the standard.

> Do I still get ID3 Tags with Flac, Ape or Ogg ?

Yes, there are tags included in all of them.

> Best settings for the Best quality ??

Depends on the format of course. For Mp3 you should use one of the "alt preset" standards. Never used Flac, but since it is loseless I would assume quality setting are meaningless. Do a search for Ogg here on the BBS, there was a thread about the best settings for it not too long ago.

>Dumb Question is the Empeg really 4 channle out (front right front left rear right rear left) or is it some division of 2 channel ?

The latter, it is only split left and right.

All IMHO of course. Your millage may vary. Void where prohibited by law.

"EDIT: The pebble remains..."
Indeed.