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Pentium
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I'm wondering if you could throw one of these MP3 files through EncSpot (Windows only AFAIK) to confirm exactly what's being squirted out. It may just be that -V3 isn't adequate for your source material and that ammending the 'bitrate=192' switch is jacking up the average bitrate to closer approximate -V2.
Whatever it's doing, even if sound quality does improve, it's still stopping LAME from working optimally in terms of quality versus filesize. The only other possibility I can think of is that it's a very old version of LAME that behaves differently with respect to the -V parameter. The latest version (3.98) lives HERE.
If you want accurate advice on how to use LAME properly, then I'd recommend going to the home of LAME development, Hydrogenaudio. They're the only guys who genuinely understand the codec. Any advice received from elsewhere regarding non-standard tweaking will always lead to a reduction in the efficiency of the encoder and sub-optimal performance, guaranteed. 
Cheers, Slipstreem. 
System specs: "Phoenix" - Intel C2D E4500 overclocked to 3GHz with ACF7Pro HSF on Volt-modded ASRock 775Dual-VSTA mobo (modded BIOS rev 3.10A and VNB=1.65, Vagp=1.8), 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 RAM (3.0,3,3,8,1T @546MHz), Sapphire ATI HD3870 512MB GDDR4 PCIe graphics card overclocked to 850MHz GPU & 2.4GHz RAM. Powered by Hiper Type-M 580W PSU. Guess who likes overclocking on a budget. 
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Pentium
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Hi Slipstreem
Did as you requested, downloaded EncSpot Basic, re-booted into XP, installed and ran it, directing it to look at my four versions of my Jupiter test track, with JPEG image of results attached to this posting.
The one diagnosed as Xing is in fact my Nero add-in, old MP3PRO file.
The top two, produced by Sound Juicer with LAME 3.97 are the simply changed to VBR3version and the further modified 192Knominal bitrate version. That highlighted version is the one with the settings that I am now using to great effect.
The fourth file, as you can see, was produced with CDEX as per your recommendations, reported as 165K nominal rate. I hope that this helps your thoughts on the topic ! 
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Pentium
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Hi again.
The short answer is that the only encoding out of the four that is truly LAME VBR at -V3 is the one made by CDex/LAME. The others must all be wrong as they show different bitrates and filesizes in EncSpot.
If you click on the filenames inside EncSpot, a bitrate distribution chart pops up showing the relative percentage of usage of various bitrates within the file. That's the information we need to be looking at to discern what's actually going on.
The graph should show a wide distribution pattern roughly centred around the target bitrate. If any of your encodings appear to encode less blocks at the lower or higher bitrates than the CDex/LAME generated version (which is standard and unmodified -V3) then the VBR profile is being broken in some way by the additional switch(es).
Would you be able to do the same as above regarding the attachment but with the relevant bitrate distribution graphs for all four files please? Now that we have evidence that the encodings are definitely wrong in one way or another, I'd like to help you get to the bottom of this.
Cheers, Slipstreem.
System specs: "Phoenix" - Intel C2D E4500 overclocked to 3GHz with ACF7Pro HSF on Volt-modded ASRock 775Dual-VSTA mobo (modded BIOS rev 3.10A and VNB=1.65, Vagp=1.8), 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 RAM (3.0,3,3,8,1T @546MHz), Sapphire ATI HD3870 512MB GDDR4 PCIe graphics card overclocked to 850MHz GPU & 2.4GHz RAM. Powered by Hiper Type-M 580W PSU. Guess who likes overclocking on a budget.
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Pentium
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Hi Bruce.R a good sound converter with a range of sound formats is soundkonverter. Make a copy of your recording choose your end format
and try it. You can take the sound out of FLV videos and convert to mp3 easily too you should have it in your programs to download. It has a
nice and simple GUI to use and works well. dave.w
Dave.w3
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Pentium
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There you have it then, Bruce. The files being generated are 192Kbps CBR and the additional switch is overriding the -V setting. Dependent upon source material, -V3 may not be enough, although I suspect that something else is breaking it if the files generated without the 'bitrate=192' still don't sound as good as the CDex/LAME -V3 encodings.
There are plenty of situations where CBR192 may be slightly inferior in terms of quality compared to a genuine -V3 encoding, and the resultant files from a CBR192 encoding will always be wasteful in terms of bitrate used by comparison to -V3 for the same perceived quality.
If it's any consolation, the fault lies fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the people writing the front-ends, not with LAME. It's not always an easy choice when trying to find a suitable front-end in Windows either, as many of them still break convention by enforcing switches that do more harm than good out of ignorance of how the encoder actually works.
CDex was, in hindsight, not the best front-end to use in my MP3 encoding guide as it has no default settings for VBR encoding that match the -V standard. The encodings it makes with my settings are entirely standard -V encodings, but it proves necessary to manually force the settings to achieve default behaviour. Foobar2000 and LameDrop might have been better examples as they're both written and maintained by people with close ties to the Hydrogenaudio community and the LAME developers who have a better understanding of what's required than most.
If you want LAME to work properly then there's no option but to keep plugging away until you find a Linux application that generates resultant files matching CDex/LAME for average bitrate, filesize and bitrate distribution as shown in EncSpot. Anything other than plain VBR as implemented with a plain -V setting is, technically speaking, broken and not making the best possible use of the encoder.
Cheers, Slipstreem.
EDIT: It's just dawned on me that Foobar2000 will run under WINE and will make LAME VBR encodings properly. It's one of the best technical implementations of audio file playback and file format conversion currently available. I'd highly recommend it if you're happy to run free Windows software under WINE.
System specs: "Phoenix" - Intel C2D E4500 overclocked to 3GHz with ACF7Pro HSF on Volt-modded ASRock 775Dual-VSTA mobo (modded BIOS rev 3.10A and VNB=1.65, Vagp=1.8), 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 RAM (3.0,3,3,8,1T @546MHz), Sapphire ATI HD3870 512MB GDDR4 PCIe graphics card overclocked to 850MHz GPU & 2.4GHz RAM. Powered by Hiper Type-M 580W PSU. Guess who likes overclocking on a budget.
MP3 Encoding for Audiophiles
Fun MPEG-4 Encoding Race
MPEG-4 Playback Enhancement Using FFDShow
How good is the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro HSF really?
Boosting ATI Framerates with CCC (X700 on)
Optimise ATI Image Quality And Framerates With ATT (X1XXX Series under WinXP)
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