Audio Active has worked closely with FhG, the developers of the MPEG-1 layer-3 format, to market a variety of mp3 tools. Their stand-alone mp3 decoder is easy to use: simply browse to the location of the mp3 file, and click decode. Unfortunately, it cannot handle certain VBR files, and has a slight high-frequency error in the output of one channel at 128kbps. Though this error is probably inaudible, one would have expected better from a company so closely involved with the creators of mp3.