Fwd: transcoding mp3 to wav

[JD]

I first sent it to the ffmpeg users mailing list, but unfortunately, my 
experience with that
mailing list is that most of the time, no one replies :)

So, I am forwarding to this ML .

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Hi, I tried to transcode a few mp3 files to wav using the command

for f in *.mp3; do
ffmpeg -i "$f" -ab 1600k -y ${f%mp3}wav
done

it does the conversion, but does not honour the bitrate param.
How do I force the bitrate param for the ourput?