I love this thing. Everything sounds clear. I just wish I could find some better headphones than the hd650s to pair them with that are not to bright but not veiled like the hd650s. Have to try the akg 701s again.
Doesn't max already have cdparanoia. I prefer max because I find xld to be incredibly unstable and annoying. And itunes is what I use for listening. Apples for some reason have superior sound quality to my ears. Maybe that's because I'm coming from linux and it's terrible driver support.