This "feature" caused a problem because for most of the testing I was playing my empegs through my PC, with the empeg plugged into the line-in on the sound card (I was doing this because my wife got fed up with me testing on the hifi in the living room).

One would assume (at least I did) that the signal from the line-in was passed straight through to the output stage on the sound card. Because of this assumption when I heard clipping on both the empeg and WinAmp I was assuming it had to be a further problem with the ripping process. I later discovered that the "3D Stereo Enhancement" "feature" was turned on and that, to my surprise, it affected the signal coming from line-in as well. Because of this it looked for a while like I had an identical ripping problem with two different CD drives, which while it sounded unlikely, was the best explanation I had until I found the hidden "feature".