[SbOlly]

Ok, the thing people don't seem to understand here is that a WAV file is just PCM data. That is raw sample data. I.e a 48khz WAV file is 48000 samples (96000 bytes) without encoding.

This is the data that is used (albeit in a slightly more complicated way than I am explaining here) and sent directly to the DAC on your soundcard.

So now here's the hard part.....when you play a MP3 / WMA they are decoded into PCM data to be played by your DAC (soundcard). Following me on this ok?

As the MP3 and WMA file formats are NOT interchangable, the way a reencoder will work, is by decoding the original format to PCM (the base unencoded sample data, which is the same as a uncompressed WAV) and then using that data to encode to the new format.

So hopefully now you see, by converting the base compressed type to WAV to begin with, you are simply taking a step the reencoder would use and making it longer.