>Hmm there's another subject which I don't believe you have touched.. the software used to compress the MP3/MP2 files makes a huge
>difference.. encoding with Xing(Audiocatalyst) is certanly faster than the old mp3end from Frauenhof, but the quality if also a lot worse..
>get BladeEnc/Radium Coded and compare the result to Xing, you don't even need a good hifi to hear the difference.

Actually, I found bladeenc inferior to AudioCatalyst VBR files. There were a lot more artifacts present in the bladeenc output. I believe the VBR factor makes a big difference in terms of SQ versus file size - the VBR were about the same size but much better SQ.