Are you sure your testing in 2.0b3 didn't come by the known-bug with normalizing? (Search the BBS - it will sound like crackling, popping or hissing, etc. It can sound one way in one file and much worse in another) And you're sure you've tried b7?

Other than that, start getting more specific about your problem files. 2.0b7 is no worse "sounding" than 1.03 was for me and it supports my VBR files properly (ok, reverse seek farther than the start of a song still skips a track).

Bruno