unless you need the files for a portable player and/or have limited HD space, then I would recommend using a lossless format such as APE, FLAC, or even Shorten
on the lossy side of the fence, Musepack almost always sounds better then MP3 with bitrates around 170kbps for the standard setting.
if you want to stick with MP3, then I would rip raw WAV files with EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and encode the MP3 files with the LAME 3.90.3 and the
recommended settings. this setting:
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--alt-preset standard (~190 kbit/s, typical 180 ... 220)
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is usually good for that format