You will have a hard time finding a better wave editor than Audition. It's been a favourite of the production world for good reason.
There is a poster over on the
AudioMasters Forum (unofficial Syntrillium/Audition site) that uses it almost exclusively (he regularly reports trying out the new "greatest thing" software, only to find that it falls short) to clean up old recordings from the vaults of the great European classical labels.
He has a stack of awards as a result of his work.
An interesting story... Andrew was contacted by Gramophone Magazine to determine the authenticity of Joyce Hatto recordings. Using Audition, he was able to reveal the great Hatto Hoax, something that had the Classical world all a buzz.
I think if you are into midi or VSTI you owe it to yourself to look around, but for most work Audition can hang with the best.