(LAME v3.58) -V6 is producing very similar average bitrates to Xings normal setting -- roughly 128kb/s. -V5 is averaging around 140kb/s. The default -V4 is getting up towards 160kb/s which is producing somewhat larger files. I think the default should be 6 (or at least 5) to be more consistent with the standard 128kb/s filesizes which most of the international mp3 community are using. Just my opinion. Ross. -- MP3 ENCODER mailing list ( http://geek.rcc.se/mp3encoder/ )