Regarding your "cons" list for AudioCatalyst...

1) As long as I make sure it isn't rolling off the high frequencies (it's an option), and I use a high VBR setting, I can't tell the difference between something encoded with Audiocatalyst or with LAME. And that's with intense listening tests on my car system playing through the empeg (which is the highest quality audio system I own).

2) I haven't used XP, so I can't comment on that. But there are options in AudioCatalyst to do things such as spin up the drive before ripping, which is supposed to prevent that kind of error. As with any ripping software, you have to experiment with the drive and the software settings to prevent noise and pops. I don't think that's dependent on the operating system.

3) Regarding tagging: I never had any problems with its tagging features, but even when you can use a ripper (any ripper) to get all of that data working correctly, you still have to fix up the tags by hand because the CDDB is full of errors and omissions.