It is possible to modify the LAME code to get gapless playback

Yep, can be done quite easily but only seems to work perfectly with CBR (and I can only vouch for the empeg as a playback device).

Rip with EAC as normal into wav's
Use a program like WinLAme to encode at CBR and tick the gapless encoding box (EAC doesn't support the gapless arg on Lame, IIRC)
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Do all my albums like this as a matter of course I HATE THOSE GLITCHES