Out of curiosity, I have some general questions about CD ripping programs. Over the years I have used various programs to rip my CDs. These include Windows Media Player, Creative Labs, iTunes, Music Match Jukebox, Real Media Player, Winamp, Media Monkey, and currently dBpoweramp. Now, through some help from the kind users on this forum, I have learned that when I rip a CD to a lossless format such as FLAC, the file will be identical regardless of whether or not the PC hardware components such as the optical drive, CPU, or hard drive are the same or different.

I feel that I should better understand the software side of CD ripping as well and felt it was better to ask this as a separate topic. Now, I am aware that certain programs, at least in the past, such as Windows Media Player and iTunes, did not have secure rip settings or accurate rip verification options but other programs like Media Monkey and dBpoweramp do. My questions are as followed:

1. I know that each CD ripping program is written differently. I am also aware that some CD ripping programs use different meta data tags and settings such as Artist, Album, and Genre. Now if I used a program that had both secure rip and accurate rip or other accuracy verification settings, and ripped my CDs to FLAC, would I get FLAC audio files that are identical or different in terms of audio quality and/or audio properties if I were to rip the same CD using Winamp, Media Monkey, or dbPoweramp?

2. If I were to use the same programs previously mentioned when I ripped the CDs to FLAC and made copies of the songs in lossy formats, such as MP3 or AAC, would I get audio files that are identical or different in terms of audio quality and/or audio properties?

3. If I used one program to rip my CDs to FLAC and years later I switch to a different program and use it to create lossy copies like MP3 or AAC, would the audio quality and/or audio properties be identical or different from the files that would have been created if I had stuck with the same program that I used to rip my CDs to FLAC?

I appreciate the information.

Thanks.