MPEG-4 conversions to mp3s.

I have some songs that I have recorded that I would like to post online. It is my (probably incorrect) understanding that mp3's are the preferred form of music file for the internet. What is the best way to convert iTunes MPEG-4 files to mp3's while keeping the highest quality sound? (Aside from changing the desktop file from .m4a to .mp3)
Thanks in advance for help and response.
Powerbook G4 1.67GHz 1GB; PowerMac G4 1.25GHz 512MB   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   5G/30GB iPod; Maxtor 80GB

You can't just change the extension; that won't change the format and will just cause problems with the files being recognized properly.
The best thing to do would be to convert the original recordings rather than an already-compressed version. You'll get the cleanest MP3s that way. If that's not possible for some reason, then there's not much you can do to improve sound quality; you're going to lose some in the conversion. Some people feel that the LAME encoder does a better job than the iTunes MP3 encoder, so that's about the only advice I'd have.

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