I downloaded MP3-to-WAV Converter to test and I'm not impressed. I just want to convert recordings from wav to mp3 for smaller storage and loading, but it's making the converted (mp3) files BIGGER than the originals (wav)! Like 3 to 5 times larger, not 10 times smaller! In order to get them smaller, I have to crank down the settings to where it sounds like crap, like people talking thru crystals, all tinkle-y. I just want widely usable files with the pretty much the same quality/settings, but appreciably smaller sizes. I don't see why this isn't happening. Like there couldn't be a "maintain original file settings" function, and/or just open and resave the dang file formats a la JPG to GIF to TIFF, etc.??
I had that box checked at first as it certainly seemed to make sense, but it didn't help (much) that I could see or recall. The 309K file I was convering went to 77K which is good, but the sound quality was crap, like 8kbps. Without it checked and at "Tape Quality" (128kbps) it jumps up to 1.2M, four times the original file size.
I'm not sure how to tell if they're really wavs or not but they're files I made with the voice recorder feature on my MP3 player (which plays wav, mp3, & wma) and are marked that way by it. They're noted to be at just 32kbps. Setting conversion to that makes the file 77K but significantly lower quality when the "quality/size governor" checked. Without it, the file's the same size but of lesser quality. Used up my 10 tries trying to find something that worked.
"Increasing the quality settings... might make it sound worse."
Higher quality may sound worse?? Well, that makes no sense to me, and not really what I'm getting (higher quality sounds the same but file size is larger) but I can tell you that it's a IMA ADPCM format (according to mp3 player; computer says "Wave"), with a 32kbps bit rate, 4 bit sample size, and an 8 kHz sample rate. Other files that I want to convert will be the same, but different file sizes of course. However, they contain legal matters and personal information so I don't know that I can email you a copy. I'll see if there's one without anything sensitive in it and send a report regardless, but maybe someone can whip up your own with those settings and experiment with it.
The reason that converting a sound to a higher quality might make it sound worse is that you cannot add sound data that isn't there. The original recording captured all the sound data that sound will ever have. You can lower the quality setting somewhat and still have it sound good, but increasing the sound quality could add "artifacts" or noise. At any rate, it doesn't make the audio sound any better, it just takes up more hard drive space.
In order to get them smaller, I have to crank down the settings to where it sounds like crap, like people talking thru crystals, all tinkle-y. I just want widely usable files with the pretty much the same quality/settings, but appreciably smaller sizes. 
I don't see why this isn't happening. Like there couldn't be a "maintain original file settings" function, and/or just open and resave the dang file formats a la JPG to GIF to TIFF, etc.?? 
Well, that makes no sense to me, and not really what I'm getting (higher quality sounds the same but file size is larger) but I can tell you that it's a IMA ADPCM format (according to mp3 player; computer says "Wave"), with a 32kbps bit rate, 4 bit sample size, and an 8 kHz sample rate. Other files that I want to convert will be the same, but different file sizes of course. However, they contain legal matters and personal information so I don't know that I can email you a copy. I'll see if there's one without anything sensitive in it and send a report regardless, but maybe someone can whip up your own with those settings and experiment with it.