I've got an telephone interview in Wav format. I'd like to convert it to an mp3 file and put it on my blog. Because it's voice and because people with slow connections will be downloading it, I'm as concerned about file size as I am about sound quality.

So my questions are these: Is CDex the best way to go about doing this? If so, what settings would people here recommend? Should I use the Lame encoder, the Windows encoder, something else. And what bit rate would people recommend? Any other settings, e.g. thread priority, VBR Method, mode, etc., that I need to worry about?

have you considered speex?

I'm adament about using mp3. Does speex encode into mp3?

speex is another different codec, it is specially tuned for specches only

if you insist on using mp3, there is a setting, in the quality section , pick "voice (for voice recording)"

or you can also try dbpoweramp, it is multi-format converter
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

THE MP3 ENCOODING IS NOT FREE, but you can encode to formats like speex,vorbis freely

dang, why don't you use LAME and try encoding to a lower quality VBR or CBR and play around w/ a few quality MP3s to see what sounds acceptable and has the small file size you seek?