[BenF]

I've got masses of music stored as wma files and need to convert them to mp3's.  Any suggestions as to the best way to do so? 

I understand that there are plenty of conversion programs available (having had a bit of a search on the net) but know jack shit about this kind of thing, so any advice will be greatly appreciated.  Similarly, what's the best way of ripping audio cd's into mp3 format?

Thanks.

[dontfollowme]

DB PowerAmp has always been good to me when I have to convert stuff. As for ripping CDs look at CDex as this has some encoders that come with it.

[BenF]

Cheers, I've just had a quick look at it on cnet and it appears to be pretty damn good.

[Jim]

ripping cd's, follow this

[Bubba]

Why convert from wma to mp3?

[BenF]

Why?  Only some of my masses of wma files and simply because I have a hard drive on a stereo that won't read wma files, only mp3.  Obviously I'm gonna play most of my wma straight from my laptop/mp3 player but I want to put some stuff onto the hard drive.  Mainly just 'cos its there, but partly to make things simpler for quick use. 

[Bubba]

Ah ok - the main problem as has already been said will be the reduction in quality. Because you're moving between two lossy formats you'll get the reduction in sound quality from both conversions.

[Jim]

Just make sure that however you do it, use Lame

[BenF]

Thanks for the info.  I've just had an interesting ten minutes reading about LAME (honestly it was interesting) and I think I'll have a go with it later if I get time.