Sebastian Mares

He captured the output of the ATRAC3 files with Total Recorder.

The recommended compile is still 3.90.3, although 3.96 is heavily tested by the Hydrogenaudio community (like 3.90.3 was). Recommended settings are --alt-preset standard, --alt-preset extreme and --alt-preset insane. You can get several builds from RareWares (http://www.rarewares.org/mp3.html). In another listening test done my Roberto, you can see that LAME is superior to FhG (what CoolEdit and MusicMatch use): . Please bear in mind that LAME isn't an experimental encoder; it's a full featured, stable MP3 encoder. Please also take in consideration that LAME is getting better and better, while the development of the actual FhG MP3 encoder is frozen. Oh, and if you are looking for programs using lame_enc.dll for example, have a look at CDex, Exact Audio Copy, Winamp 5 (Pro)... Edit: MusicMatch doesn't offer you the possibility to tweak the encoder that much, but with LAME you can set up almost everything. Of course, if you are not an experienced user, you can screw up the quality a lot.

1. The testing has been done using the ABC/HR method and is therefore very accurate. 2. Please notice that ATRAC used 132 kbps and not exactly 128 kbps. This test should also demonstrate that VBR encoders are better than CBR ones.