I saw the comparison on r3mix.net as well. Based on the analyses there I am using their recommended VBR setting for LAME, which gets me somewhere between 150-200kbps depending on the music... I'm quite pleased with the results I'm getting... I don't have an EMPEG yet but I am going to be taking one of those PJB-100's with me on a 3-week trip. I'll have more than enough room, even at my high-rate encoder settings, to keep me amused...

The arstechnica article uses LAME 3.61 or something like that; I'm using 3.83 with a 3.84 patch. From checking out the history file it seems like there has been significant quality improvement since 3.61, so I'd definintely consider LAME again if you blew it off before.

Michael