iPod WMP to ALAC

The sound quality of 256 kbps AAC is so close to source CD, that there is no point in going lossless unless you rip from the original source CD, imo.

In other words, if you are converting a file then AAC is plenty good. If you want the ultimate in quality, you'll need to re-rip from the source CD to Apple lossless.

ALAC is just a higher bit rate AAC...it sounds really good, but encoding from WMP is not going to get you good results. If you want to encode to ALC, rip from the original CDs.

I should mention that to my ears, 256 kbps AAC sounds exactly the same as the source CD. I notice a difference at 196 kbps, and at 128 kbps the difference is night and day. But at 256 I cannot tell a difference.

So I rip everything at 256 kpbs AAC and don't use Apple lossless myself.

I do have some audiophile friends that swear by Apple lossless, but only because they are afraid of loosing some quality. I have done controlled tests with them using Grado RA-1 amp and Grado RS-1 phones, and they admittedly cannot tell a difference between 256 kbps AAC and source CD, but they use lossless anyway.