Here’s a detailed write-up on , focusing on why this combination is the gold standard for secure CD ripping. Exact Audio Copy + FLAC: The Gold Standard for CD Ripping In the world of digital audio archiving, few combinations command as much respect as Exact Audio Copy (EAC) paired with FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). For audiophiles, archivists, and anyone looking to preserve a CD collection with bit-perfect accuracy, this duo is the benchmark. What is Exact Audio Copy? Exact Audio Copy is a free, Windows-based CD ripper (also runs well under Wine on Linux/macOS) first released in 1998. Unlike standard ripping tools that read an audio track once and move on, EAC was designed for one purpose: error-free extraction .