Which is the best MP3 encoder out there, with the emphasis on quality. Also state if it is free or not.

I use LiteOn!

LAME encoder seems the best. And it's free. Read some articles over the Burner's Corner section

Visit www.cdrinfo.com - The Recording Authority

(in reply to Spike)

Ok, thanks.

I use win32LAME and for some reason i can't change the encoding settings.

I change the setting and press ok, but when i start encoding the settings are the same as before. For example if i uncheck the "enable VBR" box it still uses VBR when encoding. What could be wrong?

I use LiteOn!

(in reply to Spike)

LAME is excellent!

I've had only one problem with it when I was encoding a huge list of large WAV files and it stopped half way through - this may be to do with my machine though!

The quality of the MP3s is ace even when I've subsequently made an audio CD from them - i.e. CDAs.

R

(in reply to Spike)

Read this

www.r3mix.net

(in reply to Spike)

Hi,

to my opinion Lame 3.89 beta (http://home.pi.be/~mk442837/)is the best encoder there is.

Regarding the problem to change your options you could try using
frontend for the lame encoder. Use the lame.exe not the win32lame.dll.
A good frontend is Razorlame(free). Although it can have slight hickups (i.e. not completing a batch of perfectly good wav's) I don't know why it does this, though it's quite irritating.

A workaround for the problem is using another frontend. I use Exact Audio Copy. It's a great ripper/encoder (the best?)and it's free. www.exactaudiocopy.de It takes a while to configure but then it's a piece of cake to work with it. Satcp wrote a good guide to get you through the proces to configure EAC. www.ping.be/satcp/tutorials.html

The great thing about EAC is it can rip your cd-tracks to wav's and it the backgroud encode these to mp3. Another great site about mp3's is www.r3mix.net. I hope you find this information usefull. Happy ripping!

Vaakkie

Plextor and Liteon: the best DAE outthere

(in reply to Spike)

Hey Vaakkie your link to the EAC setup guide doesn't work (anymore?)
I use EAC but i have not used it to encode yet... great ripper tho

(in reply to Spike)

Lame, its exellent!And the encoding mp3's have a exellent quality!!!!

(in reply to Spike)