.ra & .rm converter opinions
 

Yes, I'm new here.

Yes, I've spent hours going through the FAQ's recommended lists and greatest hits.

Yes, I have the TARA plugin and I can play .ra files just fine with Winamp.

BUT! I want to convert those .ra files to .mp3. Doing a search reveals at least a dozen options for converters, some complex, some even more so. My question for you, the experts and gods of all things .mp3: What is the best converter available to transform REalAudio files to .mp3 format?

Follow-up question: if that one is the best, which one is the easiest to use while retaining the best quality?

Thanks for any responses and please accept my apologies if you think I should have relied on 2 or 3 year old threads for this solution.

.....and the silence was deafening...

"Follow-up question: if that one is the best, which one is the easiest to use while retaining the best quality?"

There's no such thing. Lossy compressed format to another lossy compressed format = even more lossy... ie. you'll lose quality no matter what you use, and no matter what settings/bitrate you use.

Besides all that, try dBPowerAmpMC.
You'll need to also download the extra ra/rm codec from the codec-central section.

Thank you thank you!

I know the quality will not be very good. The point is that there are a bunch of songs ripped with RealOne player by those in my household who shall remain nameless. The original CD's are no longer available - but hey, I may want to burn them sometime ;)