I haven't checked into this forum in over a year, maybe two. I am about to re-rip my entire CD collection to FLAC. I was wondering if EAC was still top dog. I've heard "DbPowerAmp Reference" is good.

Yes, some members are now preferring dbPowerAmp to EAC.

I have never tried dbPowerAmp, and don't have the full understanding of why dbPowerAmp is now thought superior by some, but I suspect some of it still comes down to cost and UI preference.

I prefer EAC- only because I spent the time to figure it out and configure my REACT scripts. I used dBpoweramp, it is nice enough, however it doesn't rip to images, which I like for long term storage. As both can give confidence to their rips with the AccurateRip database (thank you spoon!), it really shouldn't matter.

PlexTools is hard to beat, but of course you need to have a Plextor drive to use it. After doing some extensive tests (with discs I intentionally damaged myself), PlexTools had better and faster error correction than EAC. However, this was only in extreme cases. Otherwise they are virtually identical and read perfect/moderately scratched CDs exactly the same (perfectly).

If I didn't have a Plextor drive, I'd pick EAC in a second.

As far as I know, those are the only two programs that have excellent error correction + the ability to configure offsets. Otherwise, you can never get a perfect rip as far as I'm concerned.

R12 doesn't rip to images, but R13 does.

In terms of accurate ripping, whether dBpa will do a better job than EAC depends on the condition of your discs, your drive, and the version of dBpa you choose.

This question has been asked several times over the past few months. A search on the subject or simply browsing the first couple of pages of topics in this forum most certainly would have answered it without having to start yet another thread.