EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

Hey everyone. I'm finally about ready to purchase EXS24 and was just
thinking about which converting software I should get. I plan to get a few
sample cds (mostly just for world percussion sounds), and while a lot of the
CDs I have been eyeing are available in EXS format, a few of them are AKAI
or audio only. 

A couple of quick questions I hope you experienced sample-heads can answer
for me:

1) When only AKAI or Audio formats are available for a given sample CD,
getting the AKAI CD would probably be better, right? It's my current
understanding that AKAI cds can hold data about loop points etc while a
regular audio cd can't store any of this data, it would just have the raw
sounds and no 'programming'? 

2) Right now I'm leaning towards CDXtract since it's about half the price of
Translator, and because I don't need any other obscure sample formats
converted (e.g. Ensoniq EPS/ASR etc)... Just AKAI->EXS and maybe SF2->EXS
(since I've heard a lot of times you can get SF2 sample cds at a fraction of
the cost of AKAI/Audio sample cds, at least thats what a Sound On Sound
article said). 

I was wondering if you all can let me know if there'd be any big difference
between Translator and CDXtract for these relatively simple conversions? No
special Roland filters to emulate, etc... Just regular AKAI -> EXS
conversions. I know I've heard Bernard say anytime a user has a problem with
a particular CD he'll update CDXtract, and I assume Garth has the same
policy... Basically I'm just wondering if there's any reason to spend nearly
twice as much on Translator given my (relatively simple) needs. 

P.S. I'm on a PC btw so compatibility or which person has their Mac version
out first etc doesn't matter in this case.

Thanks!! All the best,
Jeremy