BLADE FREEWARE ENCODER 0.72 & HELPER WINDOWS INTERFACE Despite this being an older software combination, it's still a excellent high quality mp3 encoder I still using on my PC occasionally. I usually set things for 320kbps with the constant bit rate, or 160kbps mono. The entire encoding package is here for download.

REAL AUDIO ENCODER 5.0 If you are looking for an older Real Audio Encoder...here it is!

OGG VORBIS ENCODER Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source." to quote the web site, which is quite different from the fraunhofer originating mp3 format, which you would think was open source given the availability of utilities to convert wavs to mp3. Will Ogg catch on??? likely not, as it's not much of a advantage in quality over mp3 and file size (download the freeware encoder software and playback plug in for winamp and try it for yourself!!) and mp3 is still the king in compatibility, so this will likely fade into obsecurity, but hell, don't let me influence you, give it a try yourself.

WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER/MS AUDIO ENCODER MS Audio is comparable to mp3 in quality to a large degree...but MS says it's half the file size as mp3's....and I cannot really say as of yet as to the quality comparison, but if you wanna try it out for yourself, here's a link direct to the download page.

FLAC A newer codec, FLAC is the free lossless audio codec, which is another open source codec. Admittingly, on the highest quality, it doesn't really reduce the file all that much, and the quality is comparable to a high quality mp3, which can sounds as good, with smaller audio files. I'm starting to experiment with it, so the absolute verdict is out, but work playing around with, more so since the software is FREE!