best mp3 emcoder hlp req

Blade is obsolete, and from the rest only Fraunhoefer and Lame are MP3 encoders- the others use different, non-MP3 compliant algorithms.
Lame is the best MP3 encoder, and the best audio compressor regarding both quality and speed is Musepack (.mpc, or formerly mp+), an mpeg4 derivative.
 
At www.hydrogenaudio.org - it's debated to death!
LAME 3.90.3 - with Dibrom tuned presets, is just beginning to come under fire from the latest stable and betas - with opinion divided.
The later releases are heading for being faster, and better on some "trouble" samples, while worse on others.

At lower bitrates (internet audio), the Fraunhofer encoder seems to be preferred, the lack of "intensity stereo" in LAME is a disadvantage for low bitrate stereo, but I've had reasonably acceptable low bitrate mono out of LAME.

You can find a LAME-based MP3 plugin for Nero at http://neroplugins.cd-rw.org/ - you can also check out MPC and several others, including some lossless codecs (though you don't get high compression in lossless, it's a lot better than a general purpose archiver would manage on the same material).

With Nero Powerpack, there's another option
http://www.nero.com/us/632066825123663.html
Some say it's not based on a "good" version of LAME though.
 
If I remember rightly, the "FAST" presets were broken in 3.93 - and fixed in 3.93.1

3.93.1 seems to get a cautious reception at h-audio, it seems to be second choice over the heavily tweaked and tested 3.90.3 - not sure if the tuning was re-integrated into the trunk ... there seems to be a little animosity between some of the builders, with others blowing hot and cold.
 
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