tfabris: You could try WinDAC32 (Digital Audio Copy) or EAC (Exact Audio Copy). Both of those have pretty decent ripping engines which, if you turn on their sector synchronization features, will eliminate the pops and clicks.

I used cdparanoia, which is about as good as it gets. Still, if your CD-ROM sucks (mine is a generic "40x" drive), the best paranoia in the world won't perfectly solve the problem. There seems to be some agreement that higher-end drives like the Plextor completely solve the problem (and run dramatically faster as well).

bootsy: hmmm... Is this a CD player hooked up to an external amp? Does the CD player have amplified outputs? Forgive me if I am stating the obvious, but my CD player has both amped and non-amped outputs... I hooked the wrong ones into my amplifier and is was overly loud.

It's a normal home stereo setup. Yamaha receiver and CD player (both about two years old), and the CD player is outputting "normal" line level. This particular model of CD player doesn't have a volume adjustment.

altman: CD players are generally around 2v output, as compared to other line-level stuff (tuners, tape decks) which are usually 1v-ish levels. Something to do with a hangover from older DACs which simply couldn't get 16 bit resolution with a lower voltage range due to noise - so they pumped up the volume above normal stereo components. Possibly some early ones were 2.56v output.

So if current CD players are outputting 2v line levels as a historical accident (backward compatibility?), maybe future EMPEG hardware should do the same thing for the same reasons. Of course, if you assume people will stop using all other stereo components once installing the EMPEG, then it doesn't really matter.