first, i understand that the Easy CD-DA's mp4 encoder generally doesn't do a very good job, but i still tried it because it has a pretty elegant way of ripping and encoding CDs in a few mouseclicks.

anyways, my encoded files (~192kbps) had clicks and pops every now and then, especially on strong LF beats & stuff. is this a known fact or has it something to do with my system?

is there any chance that Nero's encoder could produce these artifacts?
has it got something to do with CBR/VBR?

thanks!

-v

This has to do with the audio extraction not the compression. Your CD must have had a large amount of scratches or you drive is of low quality, to help correct these errors try extracting with a program that does jitter correction or use a program that supports error recovery like EAC, CDex or Plextools (on for Plextor drives).