alright I think I've got a mostly more elegant solution
new folder in desktop
transcode everything to AAC 256 with foobar, targeted at that folder
go to sleep
wake up, sync with iphone through itunes
delete itunes
so with that I've got a hands off approach to making my library compatible with the iphone and still get to keep the original files in the format I want them in
downside to this is that I still can't sync new music I get without reinstalling itunes but whatever, I'll cross that bridge later.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npHDxSvwCE0