Max - a powerful multi format audio converter

Max for Mac OS X is now at v0.8 and Leopard compatible. A great open source project that can convert in batch mode and rip CDs. Handles a huge range of different audio file formats and meta tags.

Handles multiple processors such as the Core Duo type elegantly with good multi threading to speed up conversion.

Recommended.

http://sbooth.org/Max/

from the main site: "Once the audio is extracted, Max can generate audio in over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, WavPack, Speex, AIFF, and WAVE.

If you would like to convert your audio from one format to another, Max can read and write audio files in over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats at almost all sample rates and and in most sample sizes. For many popular formats the artist and album metadata is transferred seamlessly between the old and new files. Max can even split a single audio file into multiple tracks using a cue sheet.

Max leverages open source components and the resources of Mac OS X to provide extremely high-quality output. For example, MP3 encoding is accomplished with LAME, Ogg Vorbis encoding with aoTuV, FLAC encoding with libFLAC, and AAC and Apple Lossless encoding with Core Audio. Many PCM conversions are also possible using Core Audio and libsndfile."