File APE or FLAC
The file APE is a non-destructive format wave. Flac is smaller than APE but is relative.
The original WAV file does not bear any loss of information when same decompressed with the tools monkey audio or Foobar 2000
You can also use this mentioned tools to play your APE file downloadable from:
DS Monkey Audio - Filtre APE
Foobar 2000
vso media player is another application for playing the ape - the ogg - mp3 - mpc - ac3 - wma - m3u list:
VSO Media Player
To convert APE to MP3, you must choose an encoding with a higher bitrate to 196 kbps. OGG VORBIS coding is recommended as it is the destructive compression format.
To convert an APE file to MP3, you must convert to EPA WAVE with (foobar or monkey audio) and then after wave to mp3 with a very good converter downloadable on below link:
http://www.audio-converter.com/
Monkey Audio can also convert APE to MP3, but you must install the lame mp3 encoder.