My ripping speed has suddenly dropped dramatically with none of the hardware changing. I used to get speeds of between 15 and 30x. The speed used to start low and increase steadily as it progressed through the song. Now it starts at about 12x and quickly decreases to about 4x. I'm using MusicMatch 8 as I have for a long time and ripping to .wav. I've got a Liteon 52x24x52x CD Burner. It's the primary on the 2nd IDE controller. I have a Liteon DVD ROM as the secondary on that IDE. All IDEs are using DMA. Any ideas why this would change?

Just for kicks, try disconnecting the DVD drive for a test.

Try Cdex free ware , quick n easy .or winamp & plugin, speeds vary due to the media your ripping from , some just take longer by design dosnt matter how fast your cd drive is its more a case can it read it. the conversion to wav files slows down the system if they are large files and check what bit rate you are ripping to use 128 for quality and speed and compactness of mp3 or upto 160 for better quality, anything above that its dubious wether you can tell the difference, ( purists will differ) :)

Thanks Ernie and Jr. Just an update, I did try disconnecting the DVD and it didn't help. Another thing, I'm also getting slow ripping speeds when I use the DVD. To follow up on Jr's comments, I'm ripping from commercial music CDs, and every one of the ones I've tried lately have the same symptoms. I already have Cdex, but haven't used it for ripping. I'll give it a try

Try Audiogabber a fav of mine with LAMEenc commerc....shhhh no body expects the Spanish inquisition. :)

Thanks Jr. I just grabbed Audiograbber and it looks great, and from the limited use I've had today it seems to work great. And I'm getting more "normal" ripping speeds!

neat!, glad to help.