+1 Audacity

I've been using Sonnox Toolbox Manager. It's very good. You can try the full version for 14 days. I bought it 2 years ago for $35.00, but I'm not sure about the price now. I have a working version of the Cakewalk one, but after exporting my wave file, i usually launch toolbox, and there you can export to every format you like. Give it a try.

dimanle@aol.com
I've been using Sonnox Toolbox Manager.

I appreciate all the good suggestions on this thread.  Sonnox definitely looks interesting, especially for my workflow.  I also like the fact that it shows all the encoding properties very clearly.  I know there are other tools that do this, but it is nice to have it right where you are doing the encoding.  The clipping protection is also a nice feature.
 
It is selling for 35 pounds or $52.  That's probably the upper limit of what I want to spend for this solution.  Seems like a fair deal.

+1 for audacity 1.3   Encoding takes a click of a button.  At least you can try it for free and see what you think, then not pay for it and keep it in a pinch... Not a bad option.
 
Take care