Ok, after trying several searches and looking over results from listening tests that are close to a year old, I have a couple questions regarding the AAC formats of current.

1.) With the release of the HE-AAC encoder in recent Nero versions, does anyone have any opinions/listening test results that would lead to the conclusion that this is a "better" aac encoder than Apple's encoder? It seemed from older listening tests that the Apple encoder has been the king of the hill for the time being in terms of AAC. Since a lot more players are supporting AAC encoding/playing (real player, winamp 5, etc.) I figured I'd like to try and get some more current opinions.

2.) Is Apple's encoder based on MP2 AAC or MP4 AAC?

3.) With Nero's two basic AAC encoding methods (HE and LC), I am bit confused as to the recommended use of these. I've heard that HE is mostly used for low bit rate encoding, where LC is supposedly used for 128+ bitrates. Is this basically true? Is one better than the other in terms of audio quality? From what Ive been reading HE seems to be the up and coming codec, is this in a position to become the de-facto encoding method for AAC?

Thanks, and If these answers are posted anywhere else, Im sorry, I did try and sift through as much older posts as I could.
--MK

Apple's encoder is MPEG-4.

1. Nero LC aac implemetation did not change since last Roberto test.
2. BTW, the difference is only in some bits in header. To be honest, there are several tools that are available for MPEG4 only (such as Long Term Prediction), but they are not used in LC profile.
3. Depending on bitrate seems that better results are produced:
PS - <48Kbit
HE - >48Kbit and <96Kbit
LC - >96Kbit

Apple's iTunes only encodes AAC LC. Can't encode HE And/or PS.

It seems iTunes is better choice for iPOD's. For my PC files i do prefer Nero Encoder.

Regards!

I prefer the Nero encoder too. It supports gapless encoding, i don't think the iTunes encoder does that.