The best sounding converter I have heard is Lame (yes, that's the name of it, not some smart ass remark;) ) Do a google search for it.

thanks DM!! anyway, someone else recommended dBpower, which I downloaded and used. It´s great and user-friendly.

I will keep your advice however...

thanks

I use Real Juke Box to record my mp3's and Nero BurningROM to do assemblies and basic "bullsh*t" mastering functions ...

I downloaded a generic program one day called "right click MP3". Personally, it has done wonders for me so far. It has a basic "dos" interface and is very easy to use. It will convert MP3 to WAV or WAV to MP3. And by the way...it's free. Here's the link: http://my.execpc.com/D2/39/sfritz/rc-mp3/

http://www.goldwave.com

unbelievably good program - demoware. Does it all!

Play, edit, mix, and analyze audio
Apply special effects, such as fade, equalizer, doppler, mechanize, echo, reverse, flanger, and more
Digitally remaster and restore old recordings with noise reduction and pop/click filters
Record audio from cassettes, vinyl records, radio, etc. through your computer's line-in
Record dictation through a microphone or play dictation back at a slower speed for transcription
Make perfect digital copies of audio CD tracks using the CD Reader tool and save them in wma, mp3, ogg files
View a variety of real-time visuals and VU meters
Convert files to/from different formats, such as wav, wma, mp3, ogg, aiff, au, vox and even raw binary data
More...

I usually use Sound Forge. Works like a champ. I guess SF would be overkill if you are just looking for conversion. But if have it already, use it to convert MP3's as well.

Wavelab has a fantastic MP3 encoder with Batch function.

I have been using Nero lately with the MP3Pro plug-in for 320Kbps MP3's. Adds CDDB database and ID3 tags easily, and you can rip from BOTH of your optical drives at once (if you have 2 CD capable drives in your PC). Just added 11.5Gigs over the weekend...

Later :cool:

I use Mini-stream Ripper to convert music.
I love it.
Mini-stream Rippers powerful multi-channel stream engine make it convenient to convert the music in CD, RM, RMVB, RMJ, RAM, RA, MP3, WMA, WMV, ASF, ASX and WAV formats into several different formats audio files at one time.
Its converting speed can be freely adjusted.

http://

i LOVE wavelab's mp3 encoder and converter, i have NEVER heard a better mp3 sound than that made with wavelab... 8-)

i use wavelab ...