Quick Question.

Yes. Absolutely. YOU MUST DO IT!!! Otherwise you'll be going crazy wanting to listen to your tunes, but stuck ripping instead...It doesn't matter wether you have an ipod or not when you rip.

Plus you'll get a better idea of how MC9 works in the process--it does have a little bit of a learning curve, but you'll get past that quickly if you start with it now. Otherwise it's going to be frustrating for you--new ipod, new music application (MC9), and trying to make sense of it all--we've seen people get their ipod, then get MC9, not having experience with either one, then giving up on MC9, then coming back a month later once they've figured out mmjb is awful....Please, for my and Adam's and Kurt's sanity, play with MC9 before you get your ipod; we'll be able to help you much quicker if you have any questions..

Go to the sticky at the top of this board on how to configure MC9 for ripping/encoding, and get going!! Have fun, let us know if you need some help...