merc, like Matt said these retailed for well over $1,000 and too many here it would be the first thing they'd grab if their house was burning down!

What ripper & encoding to use is almost a religous argument, there are many good choices out there, though if there is one thing that most will agree on is that LAME is on of the best encoders - of course that just opens another can of worms as LAME has more settings that you can shake a stick at.

Welcome to the board