well if they are stored as variable bitrate files it would be understandable, since there are no high tones.. as from what i can hear when music in fl plays. it's still small. mono even?
Probably due to specialist compression software, paid developer tools tend to be better than freeware tools. Audacity doesn't have the best converter in the world I hear.
They aren't PCM WAV despite the file extension. In reality they're lossy audio (CBR 80kbps) at 22050Hz sampling rate using ancient version of Fraunhofer MPEG Layer-3 codec.
p.s. I guess Fletcher never heard that free and opensource LAME codec beats every commercial MP3 codec out there. And outside of MP3, both lossy and lossless codecs are dominated by free and opensource implementations (Vorbis OGG, FLAC, WavPack, etc).
In a nutshell, .wav files will always be huge as that is just the way they are. Mp3's are compressed & still give decent sound quality, but if you want straight, full-on CD quality rips, then you just have to deal with the gigantic file size.
Personally, I use a cool little program called "Easy CD-DA" that rips CD .wav files & then, at the time of my choosing, encodes them into bite-size Mp3's at whatever standard bit rate I desire.
.wav files are for pros w/ TB drives, so unless you play music for a living or have uber gigs to spare, I suggest you get off your duff & encode your stuff to VBR Mp3's tootsweet;)