Okay, I realize that VBR is good and most people here are using it. My question is about the Audiocatalyst program and how it does VBR. In my version of the software, there are different settings for the VBR in terms of quality. Which setting gives you about the same size as the same track at 128? I believe there are 5 settings from Low to High quality.

On another topic, I've been getting this strange thing in Winamp. Whenever I play CD's, at the beginning of each track, no matter what CD, it'll play about the first 1/2 second, stop for another 1/2 second, then play the track like normal. Any idea what causes this and how to fix it?