There are lots of rippers available. All media players including Windows Media Player can rip. There are also some great freebies plus a host of commercial rippers. Most will rip to WAV, MP3 and usually several other formats.
If your CDs are like mine then some will be scratched or have lots of finger-marks. These can cause pops and crackles in the ripped file. Rippers vary greatly in their ability to handle these problems. Some will simply get stuck while others will skip forward over the problem or even create a silent gap. The best programs will try repeatedly to fix the problem with no audible effects. After a lot of experimentation I ended up with three rippers that were impressive with their features, all of which are free.
Though the other products reviewed here were capable, Exact Audo Copy (EAC) was outstanding in its ability to handle CD imperfections. Given the condition of some of my CDs, that's a mighty impressive performance. EAC can rip to WAV, MP3 (using the LAME encoder), OGG, FLAC, APE and more. CD rippers interact strongly with your CD hardware so it's possible EAC may not work with your particular CD drive. If that's the case, take a look at the other products recommended here. While their performance with scratched CDs is not as good as EAC they are still outstanding freeware products.
CDex is a very capable product. It can convert to WAV, MP3 (Using the LAME Encoder) OGG, APE, and more. An especially nice feature of CDEX is the ability to transcode one compressed file format to another. The other two products do not have this option. It also has the feature of recording straight from analog input.
Another capable product is Audiograbber. Coming in at a small 1.58 MB, it is the smallest of the products reviewed here, and does a lot for its size. Like CDEX it can convert to WAV, MP3 OGG, and more, and it also has the feature of being able to record from analog input. Of the the programs reviewed here, Audiograbber's interface seemed to be the least confusing. It was very easy to get around and figure out how and where my files were going to be created and stored. The Audiograbber support forum says that it will work on Vista, but it has some major issues that are difficult to get around. Also it has not been updated for quite some time.
This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Joe Bennett. Registered site visitors can contact Joe by clicking here.
Product Specifications:
Exact Audio Copy
Website: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
Download Page: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/
Author: Andre Wiethoff
Current version: V0.99 prebeta 3
Version date: 8/17/2007
Download file size: 2.31 MB
License: Free for non-commercial use
Operating systems supported: Windows 95-Vista
Additional software required: LAME Encoder - Available here
64 Bit version available: No, but this 32 bit program will run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: Yes - Available here
Non-English languages supported: Many - Available here
Other relevant information: None
CDex
Website: http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
Download page: http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/?q=download
Author: arianepaola, codingmaster
Current version:1.70 b2
Version date: 6/23/2006
Download file size: 1.91 MB
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating systems supported: Windows 95-Vista
Additional software required: LAME Encoder - Available here
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: Program is portable
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: None
AudioGrabber
Website: http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/
Download page: http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html
Author: Jackie Franck
Current version: 1.83 build 1
Version date: 2/9/2004
Download file size: 1.63 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 95-Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: German, Spanish, French and Italian and more
Other relevant information: No