dBpoweramp rubbish, is there an alternative?

Little to add.  I agree with others that it is definitely not the software and I doubt it's a setting either.  Almost certainly your CD drive.  I had a problem burning a CD (both with Nero and iTunes) recently which I fixed with a generous blast of compressed air (out of a can rather than flatulence before anyone suggests it!).  Might be worth a go as cheaper and less time consuming than exchanging the drive.  Homebase and the like sell it and it's handy for other things like cleaning keyboards.

A new Mac USB SuperDrive ripped all the few troublesome CDs that dbPoweramp failed to rip properly on my old iMac.  dbP just wants to make a thorough job and will return to spend time on damaged tracks if you ask it. Make sure to clean the CDs very thoroughly.  I get dbP to rip to a NAS in four formats (uncompressed FLAC, WAV, AIFF and mp3) at the same time – my NDX prefers WAVs, my Apple portables AIFF and the Skôda mp3s. Basic metadata for all files is established in dbP – it's really worth the extra time to setup the metadata properly, or at least set it up how you would prefer it to be, best matching your storage/retrieval requirements.  I then use J River MC to sort out any remaining problems.  The NAS automatically duplicates itself and then performs a daily backup, so my library is secure.

Another Mac user here who has not tried dbPoweramp but I know it is highly regarded.

 As others have said I'd be very suspicious that your optical drive is no longer working well, and an external USB device would cost no more than a couple of CDs.

I'd also give a thumbs up for XLD which supports AccurateRip and an older software called Max assuming it still works.

To rip successfully straight to your NAS Just make sure dbP can see the NAS by refreshing the destination path in db.  It will show something like '...music/volume'.  If it shows '...music/volume-1' then db will not find the correct location on the NAS. This seems to be caused by your pc/mac being already connected to the NAS via finder/explorer etc., so the db connection is secondary, hence the '-1'.  Close that connection and reset the db destination until it shows '...music/volume'.  

It took me a while to work this out, but so long as I make sure the destination path is correct, db rips straight to NAS every time – four file formats each to their own separate folders in the NAS 'music' folder.  Once you have established the correct destination path db will rip as many CDs as you want for as long as you need to.  It's rather obscure and I have never found any help topic relating to this issue, so maybe it's just me?

Mattnbarns posted:

Try XLD. I use that on my Mac. A forum search will tell you how to set it up.

+1.  I’ve been using it for years, it’s fantastic.  It’s a much better ripper than iTunes, which sometimes skips over problem areas without indicating anything is amiss.