sorry for my bad english. i have encoded a couple of mp3s with --freeformat setting in lame 3.97 from 360 to 640kbps. the question is: how can i play those files?

madplay, or Winamp with the MAD decoder, as far as I know.

Rarewares has some MAD downloads, including the "MAD bundle", which has a simple GUI for madplay if you are command-line phobic.

I guess as someone messing about with --freeformat this probably doesn't include you.

in_mad and the default in_mp3 for winamp can play freeformat mp3, in_mpg123 can NOT play them.

... and I would think foobar can play them too

i got in_mad.dll but in doesn't work with winamp. i think i'll rather choose flac.

Perhaps Wavpack's (or OptimFrog's) hybrid mode may be up your alley...

yes it does, you just have to enable it in the config (but doing so will basically break streaming capability)

Bottom line: --V 2 -vbr new

WTF, bitrate... Why not use lossless at that level?

or wavpack hybrid, at the very least you'd have stuff that could decode it...