I know there are several ways to convert Real Audio (local copy of stream) to mp3

What, in your opinions, are the best?

I presently have streambox ripper and total recorder installed.

streambox - ra direct to mp3 is crazy, mp3 is huge
streambox - ra to wav to mp3(razorlame) concerns me cause of loss.
total ripper - ra recorded as mp3, takes a long time (realtime).

any input?

does accelerated recording in total-recorder not work?

options->recording source and param. -> software -> accelerate recording (silent mode)
-> it's faster than realtime

i used that to convert some ram language lessons to mp3 for my mp3discman...

I don't think any quality loss is introduced by converting it to wav in between. I'm not aware of any advanced RA-MP3 converter tools that could take advantage of RA-specific influences. So the wav-file will only hit your free HDD-space temporarily.

Maybe someone can help you more...