I'm afraid some went
over my head. I'm good with audio electronics, have put
together a few PCs so I (usually) can find my way around
motherboards and cards, but I'm just getting my feet wet
with serious PC based audio.

I just started copying my LPs to the HD in .wav files, and
later I'm going to convert them to high quality MP3.


You're right - you're over your head. If you're converting anything into
"MP3's", your a complete boob. MP3's aren't "high quality", their
overcompressed junk.

I sugest you go back under the rock you crawled out from, and STFU.