Best audio ripper/converter software ?

I'm looking for the best audio ripper/converter software available. After looking into it, I have three possibilities:

1) dbPowerAmp Music Converter
2) Easy CD-DA Extractor
3) Exact Audio Copy
4) CDex

According to an article on dbPowerAmp website, it is the fastest and yet most secure software for CD ripping. It is also optimized for multi-core ripping/encoding. However, I don't always believe what I read

The last two are free and I know EAC has it's proponents, however, both (1) and (2) are reasonably priced, so I don't mind paying for the best (ie. fastest and easiest to use).

I did'nt really like (2), and am swayed slightly by the dbPowerAmp article.

Should I go for (1) or not ?

 

Does (1) support encoding MP3 with LAME as it mentions you have to pay for Fraunhofer codec ?

 

Easy CD-DA Extractor isn't a secure ripper. CDex depends on cdparanoia.
EAC and dbPowerAmp are the two most secure rippers. EAC is free, while the full version of dbPowerAmp is payware. You can use LAME with dbPowerAmp.
This thread discloses the technology behind the latest release of dbPowerAmp.

 

For CD ripping Ive used CDex and Audiograbber. Both have worked great for me.

 

I am using Noteburner which can convert all kinds of unprotected music and protected music to plain mp3, wav, wma....