Any recommendations for a fast and reliable encoder to encode the mp2's I save from my DAB PCI card to mp3's (to play on my Karma) I currently use Lame 3.90 with RazorLame as the front end but it's really slow and doesn't handle bitrate changes very well (at all in fact)

To transcode, I user dBpowerAMP Music Converter. It's not free, but does everything I need, plus you can automate tasks if you know about VB or C++.For mp2, you'll need to download a codec from the website.

For example, I made a program to start mplayer to get a dump of the stream of a radio show every week to a wmv file. I then launch dBpowerAMP to transcode to mp3. I can't say how fast it is though, as I have nothing to really compare. It takes 14 minutes to transcode 4 hours of wmv to a VBR 8-32kpbs mono on my AMD 3000+.

One thing annoying me with its automation feature is that you can't specify it's VBR settings when you're invoking it. Instead, it uses the last settings used in manual mode. So if you use it manually, you must set the settings back to what you want them in automatic for the next time...

I swear by audiotools from www.unrelatedinventions.com, but isn't there a version of Dabbar for your pci, which is free and does the conversion on the fly? Dabbar was about the only salvation of the Psion Wavefinder.
Yes is the answer, I've just looked, www.dabbar.co.uk: support for the modular technology PCI card. I've moved on, after giving up on the Wavefinder and do all my radio recordings on freeview using DigiTV from www.nebula-electronics.com, utterly flawless and, typically, a higher bit rate, but, obviously, not the same range of stations.