using a laptop as a source

[20to20]

The payback device will be a big factor.
When converting from CDA to WAV they say the wav should be the same as the original if sampling at 44.1k 16 bit stereo.

I don't know if quality is affected at this stage but the program used will only be as good as the programmer. I have never tried to compare files converted at this stage, I have always accepted that it would be the same.
Has anyone done any comparisons of WAV rippers?

If the CD file is just ripped to .wav there is no conversion of the data. It only transforms file "header" to the WAV format for the reader to know how the data in the file is organized.

Storage devices and cards are so large nowadays it's not necessary to use compressed file formats. When I convert LP's to DVD discs I sample at 24 bit 192K and the files are as close to the original as possible. They end up being 3-3.5 GB total for a 45 min. LP. If you just copy a CD it's not necessary to go that high resolution because you can't make the quality any better than the original 44.1K file. But the reader/player and it's electronics will certainly be a factor. Never trust that a laptop computer sound circuit will provide a high quality signal. In some old Dell's they used the telephone modem (remember those) to process the audio.

[CpuZapper]

I spent some more time and found a document with a little bit of information. The CDA file (Created by Windows) is a pointer to the position of the music on the track. Audio CDs store data in a continuous spiral starting from the inside of the CD and ending at the outer edge of the CD. Kind of like a vinyl LP in reverse. The format of the data stored on CDs is also quite different; it's a continuous stream of raw digital data rather than individual files.