Converting AAC files to MPEG3- How to do?

Re: Converting AAC files to MPEG3- How to do?

James, for most conversions from one audio format to another, I use a wonderful little app called Max, go to sbooth.org/Max for it.

You can also convert unprotected AAC to MP3 right from within iTunes:

Edit->Preferences->Advanced->click the "Importing" tab->import using mp3 encoder, select your bitrate, then apply the change;
Then select the AAC (.m4a) files in your library that you want to convert, click Advanced-> Convert selection to .mp3

For anything you purchased from iTMS, you'll have to do the burn as MP3 to a cd then re-import workaround.

However, the larger issue for you to consider is this: you're going to lose too much quality converting from something already compressed, like AAC, to something else compressed, like MP3. That's two generations of lost information and why most advise to rip your entire cd collection once to a lossless format, then batch convert to a smaller format if need be, like for an iPod. I don't know what kind of audio equipment you have, but let's say it's pretty good: you may want to run a few tests with the Elan first, because to me, something like 192 kbps AAC converted to MP3 sounds very poor.

If the Elan server limits you to its internal hard drive, and if your collection is too large for it all to fit lossless, then you may be better off re-ripping your library. Yes, it'll be much more time consuming, but I bet the Elan would do a good job with 192 kbps or 320 kbps MP3 as long as you ripped from the cd, rather than converting from your existing AAC files.