Creating An Audio CD

I've never had a reason to do this before, because all of my audio files are on my harddrives in mp3 or other audio formats. However, I just purchased a boombox that has a CD player and since the manual doesn't give any specifics, I'm wondering how to place my music on a CD in a fashion that the player will recognize?

Generally speaking, car CD players and standalone playback units would prefer to see WAV files, not mp3 files. Some car units will play mp3s and I suppose some boom boxes may play mp3s.

But normally you would have to convert your mp3s to WAV files. The CD would then hold only 20 or 30 songs, rather than hundreds of mp3s.

A lot of programs can do this conversion, such as Switch, CDex, etc.

Since the boombox that I bought is not very expensive, I doubt that it has exotic abilities, so I'm guessing that I'll have to find programs that will convert all of my audio to WAV. Too bad that the BB doesn't play audio DVD in mp3...it would be a lot easier.

No need for any 3rd party apps unless you want to as you already have something that can do just that, Windows Media Player and its burn option. Just pop in a blank CD, make your playlist and let it do its thing.

I use WMP...so simple and easy, just pop in your CD choose your songs and burn :)

I guess that my original question wasn't very clear, because it wasn't about what to use to burn an audio CD, it was about what audio formats that a typical boombox can recognize. I guess that ignatzatsonic answered this question in his post above, but if anyone can add anything to it, please do.

WAV format.

That is the standard lossless file format that will play in anything that will play a store-bought CD as far as I have ever heard. I make them regularly for playback in my car and at home.