hi, i think you're going to get used to foobar2000 in no time, for the most part it's intuitive Plus the online documentation/support is great (each component has documentation). i'm familiar w/ a few players, foobar2000 offers all the functionality one can think of. the interface can be fully customized, from EQ to playlist, VU, Spectrogram, waveform seek bar, auto gain, etc.
after you have your FLACs, i'd convert them on needed basis, after all 250GB is a respectable number, lots of files. also, if interested i could write (or you can find it on their webpage, search for "foo_upnp") about how to connect your laptop to your phone w/ foobar so that it acts like a media server, playing on one and listening on both devices, grab files/albums/playlists to your phone from laptop's library or current playlist, etc. this can work over local network or over the internet (router ports setup is needed).
(there is also the option to use the phone as a wifi remote for the foobar playing on the laptop, website, component, remote)
1. load the album you want in a playlist.
2. foobar menu, edit > select all (or crtl +a)
3. right click > convert and click on the "..."
after each setting in the converter setup, hit back to the main menu. at the end you will save everything as a preset that will be accessible as a 'quick convert'.
3a. output format, select the desired settings by clicking on a format, you can edit all the presets (depending on the device you're going to play the files on, decent quality options range from 192kbps vbr to 320kbps cbr). if mp3 is not present in the list, you need to download LAME encoder and drab/drop it in foobar's components page (file>preferences>components)
3b. after selecting format, select destination folder for the converted files. i prefer to set up a separate folder but there are other options...
(i don't think there's any need to do any "processing, so skip that but you may want to take a look in there, see what's what)
3c. (still in the converter setup) in "other" select 'transfer metadata' and 'pics'
3d. click "Save"
4. click 'convert'
for the next conversion operation, you repeat steps 1,2 and then select the preset you have saved. you may save several presets, say different formats, compression rates, etc.
if your files are numbered (right click a song, properties, track number) and you were to load a playlist from you laptop to your phone that say contains an album of 2CDs, in the phone's library it will group the files by the track number as song 1 from CD1, track 1 CD2, track 2 CD1, etc. so the order is not properly maintained. the solution is to import the folders CD1/2 separately, hope it makes sense.
good luck.
ps: read the FAQ section on foobar2000's webpage under 'Support'