Probably many of you have seen this already, since it appeared on Slashdot today, but if you haven't, it's definitely worth checking out.

http://www.airwindows.com/encoders/index.html

It's a comparison of various versions of LAME, BladeEnc, and Fraunhofer encoders at different bitrates with detailed analysis of frequency response, pre-echo and over-ring characteristics.

Borislav