gnome sox equivalent?

[Jude DaShiell <jdashiel shellworld net>]

does such a converter exist that runs in gnome?  On a debian system a 
friend installed sox with all dependencies and that broke his ability to 
play media files in gnome any more.  I don't know which package did this 
yet but it does happen.  Anyone wishing to test only need type aptitude 
install sox -r <enter> then try to play a media file in gnome by clicking 
on it and you'll not be able to play the file.