1) Exact Audio Copy: Exact Audio Copy is basically the “front-end” for the whole operation.  The program started off as a very high-precision tool for ripping music tracks from CD’s into WAV files.  Over time it has evolved to support WAV ripping, MP3 conversion (through external programs), image ripping and writing.  Without getting too technical, EAC gives you the ability to rip the finest and most accurate WAV files from a CD possible.  This of course is the first step in creating a MP3: 1) rip the track from the CD to a WAV file, and 2) create an MP3 file from the extracted WAV file.  While many free programs already do this for you, usually in one seamless step, the combination of EAC with an external MP3 conversion tool gives you total quality control over the entire operation that cannot be matched.  The actual MP3 conversion takes place using a second program that integrates behind the scenes with EAC.

 2) LAME: LAME is an open source encoding project that has also evolved over the years to become probably the most respected and high-quality MP3 conversion utility that there is.  Fortunately for us, EAC provides a beautiful front end for the command line LAME program, through a few simple configuration items in EAC’s menu.  Once EAC has been configured to use LAME as the MP3 encoder, ripping a track from CD to MP3 can now be done in one easy step. 

The whole process goes like this.  Download EAC and LAME; read the installation instructions, install both programs, and setup LAME as the MP3 encoder that EAC is to use (this is all very straight forward).  EAC gives you many options to configure the way that the MP3 tracks are to be named, if you want to save the WAV files after conversion or delete them (I delete them), MP3 bit rate and a slew of other things.  After you get it all setup the way you like, you simply put in a CD, EAC retrieves the CD info from freeDB online database, and you hit the “MP3″ button on the side menu.  A few minutes later you have incredible sounding MP3 tracks ready to go with complete and accurate tag info.

A note on sound quality.  Sound quality is a very subjective matter.  What sounds great to one person may sound like crap to another.  I am very picky when it comes to sound, and if I must compress my music (all compression reduces the quality of the original – except lossless), then I want it to sound the very best that it can for the size of file I am shooting for.  To me 128kbps is terrible, period.  I feel that 192kbps is the lowest I am willing to go.  With LAME I have found that 192kbps sounds significantly better than any other conversion program I have heard up to 256kbps.  Since flash is getting cheap and plentiful, I have started to re-rip my collection at 320kbps, and with the combination of EAC and LAME, I cannot tell the difference between the original and the MP3, at least with the audio gear that I have.  Yes you pay a price in file-size for 320kbps, but you have to find a trade-off between sound quality and size that is acceptable to you.        

Well I hope this helps any of you music lovers out there who love the portability of MP3′s but are unwilling to compromise too much on sound quality.  While this write-up is not intended to show you the nitty-gritty on how to use EAC and LAME, it should put you on the right path, as both programs are well documented and very easy to setup and use.