Creative Playcenter for encoding/ripping??

[the_padster]

Heya everyone, I am a recent 3g ipod purchaser havin just flogged of my (ahem) creative jukebox. Am lovin, however, when it comes to ripping from cd's, musicmatch is a pile of (insert expletive here).

I know everyone says that lame, eac or whatever its called (are these the same thing?) is the best for sound quality, but can i get away with using my old jukebox playcenter software? whats the quality like?

Secondly, what's better, 320 CBR or 100% VBR??

cheers for any help u can give me, Paddy.

[IlIlIlIlIl]

Creative Playcenter??? Yuck! It wouldn't even work properly with my old Nomad II

[the_padster]

(hangs head in shame), lol...

[IlIlIlIlIl]

i don't know how well this one works, but try dbPowerAmp Music Converter. It lets you rip CDs using LAME.

[loki102]

i say rip the same song using different programs and codecs and see wich sounds the best to you and just suits you best, as far as vbr 100% vs. cbr 320 i'd go for vbr, but imho they're both overkill, i use eac and lame --alt-preset standard which should averages about 190kbps and it sounds great to my ears

[the_padster]

Cheers thanks, will try it asap. Paddy.