What good CD ripper, please?

[Tania]

I'm after a CD ripper for Windows (I'd be prepared to spend a few bobs/cents on it, if necessary) to convert to .wav and possibly other formats. I'm fond of classical music so ideally it should do a reasonable job with quality. I'd like to compile my own CDs with favourite extracts from CDs borrowed from friends and family.

I have a doubt in my mind: if I were to use Windows Media Player to rip to .wma files (from what I can judge, it doesn't offer other formats) - would .wma be as good a format as .wav? If it is, perhaps I can do without a CD ripper and use an audio burning tool with these .wma files.

I'm not exactly computer-competent and feel rather out of my depth, but if I find a good soul who'd give me a few hints, I might be able to achieve something

[Ian]

Give EAC a try. You can rip to wav as well as other formats.

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

If you're looking for the best quality possible, wma probably isn't the best choice. Like mp3, its not a lossless format.

[SithTracy]

FLAC is lossless and somewhat compressed and can be used with EAC.

[Tania]

A thousand thanks, folks. I've installed EAC and traced a couple of tuts for it on the web - I just hope I'll be able to find my way around it!
I'll burn my Beethoven in FLAC files then - see how he shapes up in them