Hi!

I've been using LAME 3.90.3 (the recommended version from the topic) but I see that many version have been out for a while now.

My question is, should I stick to 3.90.3 or update to, say 3.96 (at rarewares).

The recommended LAME compile topic is updated or not?

In short, what LAME version should I use?

thanks

For most bitrates there is no clear winner, but 3.90.3 is still recommended because it has been tested the most.
However, it is safe to assume that LAME 3.96 will give you equal quality on most music and it has also some advantages over 3.90.3 (Faster, bit smaller files, Preset name in tags, replaygain tags, ...)

For bitrates around 128kb/s LAME 3.96 is the best when using the following parameters: -V5 --athaa-sensitivity 1
On most samples these parameters give better quality than 3.90.3 with --alt-preset 128 and quality is equal to the best AAC encoder.

I'd go with the latest official version, which today is 3.96.

I'd go with 3.90.3, if you plan to use one of the high bitrate VBR presets (--alt-preset [fast] standard/extreme). The benefit of using 3.96 is too small for me to abandon the security of using something thousands of ears deemed transparent.

For everything else (lower VBR presets, CBR) I'd go with 3.96, which has seen quite some improvments in its VBR modes especially at lower bitrates.

Thanks!

Since I use --alt-preset fast extreme to encode my music, I'll stick to 3.90.3.

Thank you for your help!