My requirements are the ability to encode mp3 to play on my eMpeg (primarily) and mp3pro for burning onto CDRW and taking to work, and low bitrate wma to use on my portable player. Since getting envolved with encoding music files, I've re-encoded several times, firstly with Xing, then with lame 3.88 , and since then lame 3.91 to take advantage of improving technologies. I don't have to, but I choose to.

My beef is not the 26 hours it would take to encode to FLAC, that as you say is a one off, I just posted that as information for the forum. It's the time to take to decode that is bothersome. I have to consider that what is an already long process to produce the end-product I want, will be even longer because of this extra step converting FLAC to WAV, and that I need the space anyway to give me the convenience (heaven forbid) of encoding all my mp3's in one hit. UNLESS there is a way to directly encode from FLAC to mp3/mp3pro/wma files, then convenience and WAV files are my requirements.

Until 2 days ago I didn't even know about the existence of FLAC. As a technology, going on what's been said, it's the equivalent of WinZip, and I'm not faulting it. It's just at present the raw ingredient used by the encoders seems to be WAV. Hopefully one day either one day mp3/mp3pro/wma encoding methods will have matured so that it doesn't change as it does, or these encoders will accept FLAC as the source material. Until then spending a couple of hundred pounds on a few disk is IMHO worth it.