Now that LAME 3.97 is the recommended version, what would a good setting for EAC be?

The old way was ...
%l--alt-preset 128%l%h--alt-preset standard%h %s %d

I'm trying this one...
-V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

Both work but what's optimal?

that means use:

--alt-preset 128 %s %d
for low quiality

--alt-preset standard %s %d
for high quality, according to the selection on EAC encoder options.

yes, but today it is recommended to use a vbr setting instead of the abr setting alt-preset 128.

better today: -V5 --vbr-new %s %d (for 128 vbr)
-V2 --vbr-new %s %d (=(alt-)preset fast standard

right, i was just describing him what did that mean, not what he needs to use

Thanks! Appreciate the great feedback & sanity check.

Will re-config EAC per below to take advantage of VBR @ 192K

-V2 --vbr-new %s %d

the "--add-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n"" part is recommended because it calls lame's internal tagging routines, which is perferred over eac's tagging routines. that is why the recommended commandline for eac is what it is.

This is something I've always wondered about. Specifically why is Lame's tagging preferred over EAC? I've always used the short commandline, letting EAC do the tags and have never seen any problems.

I have had problems with eac's tagging, specifically a particular error : tracks below 10 have their album name truncated to something like 50 characters (I didn't measure), and have the date correct, and above 10 have no date info, and full album name.

I just tested both ways and didn't see those errors. I'm using ID3v1 though, not v2. The album field cuts off at 30 characters with v1 tags regarless whether EAC or Lame does the tagging. The dates were on all the tracks. The problems must be unique to v2 tags then.