Am currently using BeLight/BeSweet and am generally satisfied (doesn't seem to be working well with the new Nero AAC stuff, but WAV is great). I was wondering if anybody in HA uses something different and, if so, why they prefer it.

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Graphedit.
The downside is that it requires a bit of manual work, but it gives me full control over the filterchain.
Also it converts almost every AC3, where in some rare cases both NicAC3Source and foobar2000 have their problems.
Typically it would be something like this:

1) *.ac3 file
2) Nero Splitter (Mainconcept Splitter somehow doesn't give me bit-identical files)
3) ffdshow Audio Decoder (decoder, dynamic compression, DPL II downmixing, etc...)
4) WaveDest
5) Filewriter (to *.wav for further editing like setting the proper delay)
6) Converting the wave file to mp3 with lame.exe (or neroaacenc.exe for AAC)

I use BeSweet. It works nicely without intermetiate files and keeps a high resolution internally (32 bit accuracy as opposed to 16 bit intermetiate wave files.) BeSweet also lets you alter all sorts of things: sampling rate via ssrc, delay, gain, dynamics compression, ...

Cheers!

Decoding/downmixing: Headac3he just because it has a clean interface. I've been using it for a long time. BesweetGUI was too cluttered for my taste. I always dump to wave then encode with oggenc lancer or lame (via dbpoweramp usually).

Encoding: probably aften.. I don't encode to ac3 much, but I hear it's the way to go for free.

Never used BeSweetGUI; Belight's a pretty clean and intuitive interface IMHO. Once I downloaded the updated BSN.dll to handle NeroAacEnc, it's been pretty smooth sailing.

I'll probably check out GraphEdit eventually, probably a good way to get a better understanding of DirectShow. Thanks for the rec!

CAn anyone recommend a good AC3 encoder for Mac OS X?