OK, read all that ;-) So, what you're both saying is that I should probably ditch MusicMatch and get AC? If I do ... what settings would you recommend as a first cut/ no empeg yet/ want to start the ball rolling/ lots of music per Gb. Not asking too much there I feel.

Also - has anyone done any bit-for-bit comparisons between AC and MultiMatch?

I've ripped the same track with MM at various settings (will listen to them this evening for quality comparisons):

VBR 50% ... 3.4Mb
VBR 75% ... 4.5Mb
VBR 96$ ... 5.5Mb
128 ... 3.3Mb
160 ... 4.1Mb

According to the MM blurb, anything over VBR 50% won't provide noticeable improvement.