Problem is after the conversion to a wav file there is a lot of hissing and static in the background when I play it. What is causing this noise?

Thanks, Brian

depends on how u ripped the cd...

if you took the FILES directly off disc, then you wouldnt get noise, if you hit play on something like media player then recorded it the analogue outs of your cdrom may be generating the noise...

another reason could be that the cd is copy protected...

if converted to mp3, those distortions you hear will be so loud that your music will be unusble...

IF the file sounds like its jumping, the cd was probably read to fast.. either that or the cd is defective

Most audio extracting programs read at full speed. This will
introduce read errors which result in bad quality as you have
mentioned.

I use a program called Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) which gives
me very good results. Try it out, it's free.