I've specifically encoded the songs off CD in Stereo, Joint Stereo, and Dual Stereo... and the Joint sounds like ass.

Okay, good test, but you didn't say some other important pieces of information that would help us narrow down the problem:

- What bit rates are we talking about here?

- Did you ever compare the ripped WAV file (before encoding) to the CD to make sure that it's not simply errors in the rip?

- What exactly are the problems you're hearing? Can you name a specific passage in a specific track (preferably a popular one that we all would have) that demonstrates the problem?

The different encoding methods might simply be amplifying a problem that's coming from the ripping software/hardware combination. And higher bit rates will tend to improve the quality more than Joint versus Stereo.

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Tony Fabris