OK, I've read the FAQ. I've got LAME (and yes I think it's better than Xing, even if it is like 10 times slower). But there's another question:

Is there a really nice front end for Linux, ala Audiograbber? I'm still doing my ripping and encoding in Windows? Linux seems unable to do cdda extraction on my drive faster than 2x while Audiograbber easily handles 10x on the same drive -- mark this down to Windows' better handling of ATAPI since I didn't throw down for SCSI CD-RW (I know, shame on me).

Any suggestions appreciated.