I'm trying to teach my sister how to rip some CDs to FLAC. What would be the simplest way, you think, to obtain FLAC files, beginning from the CD? Even EAC might be a bit daunting, as is foobar2k. Can you guys think of something simpler? Or should I just tell her to use iTunes and rip to Apple lossless?

Many thanks for any advice!

dbpoweramp has a friendlier and easier interface than EAC, will do similar checks for reading errors, and can rip to FLAC, as well as convert easily between all formats. If you don't need the superior error checking, than instead of eac or dppoweramp you can use itunes (to apple lossless) or wmp (to windows lossless), which can auto-rip and auto-tag once you put the cd in the tray.

I can see how EAC may be daunting to set-up, but not to operate.

You could spend a little time setting it up for her, and then all she has to do is load it up, pop in a CD, and click a button...

You might want to try RipStationMicro from Ripfactory. It's free and very easy to use, especially for FLAC.
www.ripstationmicro.com

It requires a (free) subscription to "gd3"--is gd3 as complete as AMG (WMP and dbpoweramp), or gracenote (itunes)? Also, from a quick check, it doesn't appear to support aac or apple lossless or do format conversions (dbpoweramp does).

Correct, RipStationMicro doesn't support AAC, but it does support FLAC which was the original question. Also, I'm not sure about the coverage of GD3, but it had everything I ripped including pretty high resolution cover art. You have to subscribe to iTunes for cover art, which is irrelevent since it doesn't support FLAC and while I like dBPowerAmp, you have to pay for AMG to get cover art. I know there is a plug-in to play FLAC in WMP, but I don't think you can rip in FLAC.

Thanks guys for your responses.... since she already had iTunes installed, I talked her through ripping to Apple Lossless, with CD "error correction" enabled - I think that should take care of things, I doubt the CDs are scratched. Now I just need her to burn the files to a CD-R and wait for the postman!

Wait for the next version of EAC (0.99 I guess). It will come with FLAC.EXE and its wizard now sets up FLAC if let it. After that creating lossless rips is as easy as doing normal rips before.