Just curious, Dean, but what format do you rip to? I converted my collection to FLAC, but it doesn't have nearly the metadata options that WMA Lossless has, unless I'm dumb. As far as metadata goes, though, I don't really care beyond artist/album/title, so it's moot for me.
The main problems that make my ripping slower than it could be are 1) sometimes the database info that gets retrieved is incorrect, and 2) I like higher-resolution album art, so I either take the time to search for a high-res version of the art or scan the CD cover myself.
