I am using Windows Media Player 8 to rip my CDs simply because it is easy and i have windows XP so it seems to want to use WMP8. I do not have a mp3 encoder for this computer so the player will only rip to windows media 8. How would a 192kb/s WMA file compare to a mp3 of the same bitrate? Also, how does playback of high bitrate WMA's compare to mp3 on the Empeg? ....if you think I would get much better quality from ripping with another program, what do you recommend? -thanks