As far as I'm concerned, I can't hear a difference; Somehow, I just found out that my Lame 3.97beta is a 3.98 alpha, though.. odd..
Here's a first abx test result :
(samples here)
lame_attack -V 4 --vbr-new "Aerial.wav" "Aerial.wav"-attack4.mp3
LAME 3.98 (alpha 2, Dec 4 2005 17:29:32) 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
warning: alpha versions should be used for testing only
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), SSE (ASM used)
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 17249 Hz - 17782 Hz
Encoding as 44.1 kHz VBR(q=4) j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (ca. 10x) qval=3
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
10890/10890 (100%)| 0:22/ 0:22| 0:22/ 0:22| 12.513x| 0:00
32 [ 172] %***
40 [ 1] *
48 [ 2] *
56 [ 3] *
64 [ 9] *
80 [ 38] *
96 [ 295] ******
112 [ 1844] %********************************
128 [ 3109] %*******************************************************
160 [ 3769] %******************************************************************
192 [ 771] %*************
224 [ 561] %*********
256 [ 199] %***
320 [ 117] %**
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kbps LR MS % long switch short %
147.6 0.7 99.3 98.4 0.9 0.7
lame_attack -V 5 --vbr-new Aerial.wav Aerial.wav-attack5.mp3
LAME 3.98 (alpha 2, Dec 4 2005 17:29:32) 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
warning: alpha versions should be used for testing only
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), SSE (ASM used)
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 15826 Hz - 16360 Hz
Encoding as 44.1 kHz VBR(q=5) j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (ca. 11.9x) qval=3
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
10890/10890 (100%)| 0:22/ 0:22| 0:22/ 0:22| 12.758x| 0:00
32 [ 190] %**
40 [ 3] *
48 [ 5] *
56 [ 16] *
64 [ 16] *
80 [ 168] ***
96 [ 1866] ****************************
112 [ 4513] %******************************************************************
128 [ 2012] %*****************************
160 [ 1049] %***************
192 [ 520] %*******
224 [ 349] %*****
256 [ 111] %*
320 [ 72] %*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kbps LR MS % long switch short %
125.0 0.7 99.3 98.5 0.8 0.7
lame -V 4 --vbr-new Aerial.wav Aerial.wav-4.mp3
LAME 3.98 (alpha 2, Nov 23 2005 14:57:40) 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
warning: alpha versions should be used for testing only
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), SSE (ASM used)
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 17249 Hz - 17782 Hz
Encoding as 44.1 kHz VBR(q=4) j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (ca. 10x) qval=3
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
10890/10890 (100%)| 0:36/ 0:36| 0:36/ 0:36| 7.8575x| 0:00
32 [ 172] %**
40 [ 0]
48 [ 3] *
56 [ 1] *
64 [ 1] *
80 [ 9] *
96 [ 287] *****
112 [ 1934] %*********************************
128 [ 3269] %********************************************************
160 [ 3873] %******************************************************************
192 [ 745] %************
224 [ 476] %********
256 [ 96] **
320 [ 24] *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kbps LR MS % long switch short %
144.2 0.7 99.3 88.2 6.7 5.1
lame -V 5 --vbr-new Aerial.wav Aerial.wav-5.mp3
LAME 3.98 (alpha 2, Nov 23 2005 14:57:40) 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
warning: alpha versions should be used for testing only
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), SSE (ASM used)
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 15826 Hz - 16360 Hz
Encoding as 44.1 kHz VBR(q=5) j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (ca. 11.9x) qval=3
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
10890/10890 (100%)| 0:41/ 0:41| 0:41/ 0:41| 6.8444x| 0:00
32 [ 189] %**
40 [ 4] *
48 [ 2] *
56 [ 2] *
64 [ 4] *
80 [ 137] **
96 [ 2102] ******************************
112 [ 4786] %******************************************************************
128 [ 1988] %***************************
160 [ 1141] %***************
192 [ 420] %*****
224 [ 95] **
256 [ 16] *
320 [ 4] *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kbps LR MS % long switch short %
119.4 0.6 99.4 89.1 6.2 4.7
foo_abx 1.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9 beta 12
2005/12/04 13:52:30
File A: 01. Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries.wv
File B: Aerial.wav-attack4.mp3
13:52:30 : Test started.
13:53:47 : 01/01 50.0%
13:53:55 : 02/02 25.0%
13:54:04 : 03/03 12.5%
13:54:13 : 04/04 6.3%
13:54:25 : 05/05 3.1%
13:55:09 : 05/06 10.9%
13:55:12 : 05/07 22.7%
13:55:16 : 06/08 14.5%
13:55:26 : 06/09 25.4%
13:55:27 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 6/9 (25.4%)
foo_abx 1.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9 beta 12
2005/12/04 13:55:58
File A: 01. Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries.wv
File B: Aerial.wav-attack5.mp3
13:55:58 : Test started.
13:57:35 : 00/01 100.0%
13:57:38 : 01/02 75.0%
13:57:44 : 02/03 50.0%
13:57:49 : 02/04 68.8%
13:58:02 : 02/05 81.3%
13:58:10 : 03/06 65.6%
13:58:16 : 03/07 77.3%
13:58:21 : 04/08 63.7%
13:58:23 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 4/8 (63.7%)
foo_abx 1.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9 beta 12
2005/12/04 13:58:45
File A: 01. Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries.wv
File B: Aerial.wav-5.mp3
13:58:45 : Test started.
14:00:22 : 01/01 50.0%
14:00:28 : 02/02 25.0%
14:00:37 : 03/03 12.5%
14:00:41 : 03/04 31.3%
14:00:44 : 03/05 50.0%
14:01:00 : 03/06 65.6%
14:01:03 : 04/07 50.0%
14:01:24 : 05/08 36.3%
14:02:11 : 06/09 25.4%
14:02:11 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 6/9 (25.4%)
foo_abx 1.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9 beta 12
2005/12/04 14:02:37
File A: 01. Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries.wv
File B: Aerial.wav-4.mp3
14:02:37 : Test started.
14:04:05 : 01/01 50.0%
14:04:22 : 02/02 25.0%
14:04:28 : 02/03 50.0%
14:04:36 : 02/04 68.8%
14:04:38 : 02/05 81.3%
14:04:41 : 03/06 65.6%
14:04:48 : 03/07 77.3%
14:04:57 : 04/08 63.7%
14:05:12 : 04/09 74.6%
14:05:16 : 04/10 82.8%
14:05:20 : 04/11 88.7%
14:05:26 : 05/12 80.6%
14:05:33 : 05/13 86.7%
14:05:33 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 5/13 (86.7%)