I've used Switch with good success.

Quote:
I have trawled through many pages and sites looking for a way to convert WAV audio files to AAC for use on my ipod.

Why not use the built-in format converter in iTunes?

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

What about using programs that are specifically stated as being formt converters that are designed specifically around the idea of maintaining audio quality?

I used one once, with a laptop, while staying at a Holiday Inn, so I am now infused with the most dangerous form of ignorance known to mankind: An opinion tied to a small amount of experience and knowledge.

Point being, does the conversion program in iTunes take consideration, or make consideration for conversion with emphasis on maintaining quality? About 6 years ago I used a conversion program to convert higher rez files from 48k/16 to 44.1k/16..and the conversion program emphasized the point of quality loss during conversion and was supposedly committing to an extraordinary amount of number crunching in order to ensure a most lossless conversion..and the emphasis of the algorithms, etc, was predicated on the ear's abilities, and not predominantly on the neatness envisioned by any mathematician.

Those are the kinds of conversion algorithms I'd like to find again.

Benson,

I use dbpoweramp for all conversion duties (mostly FLAC -> ALAC for iPod use and 24/88.2 and 24/96 FLAC -> 16/44.1 FLAC for Sonos streaming). I have not used it specifically to convert WAV to AAC although that conversion is supported along with a host of others.

The program is straightforward to use, fast and, to KBK's point, it would seem that audio quality was one of the design goals - although I have not tested this other than by listening to the results of the above conversions.

There is a free version but I bought the 'reference' version which uses both cores of my Core 2 Duo processor and is zippity quick. It definitely gets the struts thumbs up.