Is there any sort of consensus on what is currently the best CD-Rom/DVD/Blu-ray drive for ripping audio CDs? By best, I mean as measured by the following three factors:
1) Speed when ripping CDs
2) Error correction (or lack of errors in the first place)
3) Ability to rip copy-protected CDs
I know Plextor drives used to be considered the best, but I don't know if they have been overshadowed by something else now.
BTW, I really only care about performance when ripping CDs. I don't care about or need any other features.
To explain point 3) above, I do not have a traditional CD player. I buy CDs, then use EAC and React to rip them simultaneously to Apple Lossless, FLAC and MP3. Yet every once in a while I buy a CD that has some kind of stupid copy protection on it and I can't rip it with my drive at home, even though the crappy, cheap, portable, slow external CD-Rom drive that came with my laptop at work has no problem ripping the same CDs. This is flat-out infuriating. These CDs are invariably widely available on the internet for illegal downloading, but as someone buying my music the old-fashioned way and putting cash into the record companies' coffers, I wind up getting ripped off and holding CDs that are useless to me.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Best regards,
Adam
