Basics: Ripping

[ericuco]

dbPoweramp is a popular program for ripping CD's. It is now available on OSX.

 

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm

 

Lots of options available including AccurateRip which automatically checks rip against a database to ensure that your rip matches what others have done. You can also review/edit meta data before ripping.

 

They also have other programs such file conversion (e.g. AIFF > FLAC).

 

As for file format, whatever works for you. I personally save everything to AIFF due to legacy of using iTunes but if I started over I would probably go with FLAC given it is a neutral format. I could "easily" convert everything to FLAC but for now AIFF works fine.