I know bitrate is kinda subjective depending on your hearing capabilities, but I was wondering what audio savy people like HA.Org members are using.

Their ears?

Using for what? DAP? PC playback?

My bad. I've got a 60 GB iPod Photo and I'm gonna be transcoding my FLAC files to AAC. I've got Nero 7, Foobar 0.92 and iTunes 4.97.

I'd go with a newer version of iTunes or http://www.nero.com/nerodigital/eng/down-ndaudio.php (instros here: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....howtopic=44310), also ~128 Kbps should be transparent for most, I can do with less on DAP's.

I don't upgrade to a newer iTunes because I wouldn't be able to use Hymm.

Then try the Nero encoder, works with foobar and EAC.

Nero's AAC Encoder is the best one in AAC codecs. See the list of recommended settings in the AAC General category.

In fact, already low bitrates offer you good quality.

like DARcode wrote, around 128 kbps you get transparent quality. foobar for transcoding is recommended (newest version).

wow 60 gigs

The recommend settings are only for Nero AAC, so it would be very surprising to see a different encoder recommended in this topic
There are no evidence for Nero AAC superiority over other competitors like iTunes or Coding Technology. But if you have some, don't keep them for yourself

I switched back to Nero's old AAC encoder since the new one shortens my songs by 3-5 seconds when palyed by iPod. In a PC environment I don't have such a problem. Weird huh?