1 - DBPowerAmp is pretty good.... but I find it to be unwieldy. At least take a llook at EZ-CDDA at http://www.poikosoft.com. Easy, quick, and great for both ripping and transcoding.

2 - As someone else said... transcoding from one lossy format to another (WMA to MP3) will really screw your audio quality. What I and many others do, and I heartily recommend, is that you take the time to go back and rip your collection to a lossLESS format like FLAC (my preference) or APE. Then you can transcode to your hearts content to any other format (so long as you always go back to the lossless as your source) with no loss in audio quality.

3 - In my (somewhat) humble opinion, MP3 at 96kbps pretty well sucks.... your mileage may vary. Suggest you give a listen to Ogg/Vorbis encoded files. I personally find that Ogg encoded at a Q-level that's equivelent to 91-92kbps performs better than MP3 at 128.

4- For more opinions, help, and listening tests.... I suggest www.hydrogenaudio.com.

Cheers,
D.