I am positive I am being dumb, I am just not sure how. I wanted to do some ABX testing to determine which LAME setting was good enough for me. However, all the ABX testing software I looked at such as WinABX and ABC/HR, and they all seem to only accept .wav files, not .mp3 for samples. What software will allow me to simply compare mp3 or aac files?

*lifts my hand as if about to lead a choir*

All together now...

Foobar2000 !

Or you could just use dbpowerawp to quickly decode to wav. It has shell integration so it's just a simple right click away.

Personally though, I use (and recommend) Foobar.

*choir sings*

Foobar2000!
Foobar2000 is the way
Plays our Oggs our MP3s
All gaplesslyyyyyy
Foobar2000!
Foobar2000 is the way
From Columns UI to just plain tagz
It never looks the same for a day
Foobar2000!
Foobar2000 is the way
Single column playlist, track info mod
$button and ...er.......$imageabs2

Thanks for the responses. I haven't ever used foobar but I guess now maybe the time to give it a try.

I believe abc/hr for java will let you specify your mp3 decoder path so that you don't have to convert to wav manually:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=382311

ff123

Followup question: How? I have foobar 9.4.2 and have had no luck trying to figure out how to to ABX testing with it. A lot of sites say that you have to download a plugin to abx, but the link that I keep finding to the plugin (http//www.foobar2000.org/foo_abx.zip) gives a file not found error. And there doesn't seem to be any info on the foobar site about it, or in foobar itself (I've gone through all of the preferences).

Any help would be appreciated!

check components dir if there is foo_abx.dll, if not here is a mirror:
http://somestuff.org/foo_abx.dll
md5
86951db6e650bcae7215365c161b2f5d *foo_abx.dll

Just what I needed. Thanks!

The ABX component is included in the installer, just not installed by default. Start the installer and either change to full install or choose custom and check optional components -> tools -> ABX Comparator.

If You Use winamp the newest version 5.32 have the formart converter just include the music in playlist, disable the EQ and replaygain if you have aplied to the track it right click-->send to-->format converter-->.wav output

That's not ABXing, which is what this thread is about.

Diskwriter plugin was there from the earliest v2.x I remember.

Yes, but I assume he's talking about the new transcoder, which is not the same as the diskwriter.