Continuing my digging for hidden prefs in iTunes 8 (other hints), I discovered another one this morning. One of the "vanished" prefs in iTunes 8 is the ability to automatically play a CD while importing. You can always click the play button, of course, but if you'd like that to happen automatically again, here's how.
Quit iTunes, open Terminal, type the following, then press Return:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes play-songs-while-importing -bool TRUE
Launch iTunes, and next time you import a CD, it should auto-play. In my testing, it started playing about the same time it finished ripping the first song. To disable this again, repeat the above command, but replace TRUE with FALSE.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080910110016238