Flac to MP3 96 bit - noticeably poor quality

[khartley]

I am converting via the command line from flac to 96 bit MP3. When we do this with other tools that we currently use, the playback quality is fine. However, the ones that I'm creating using CoreConverter are muddy and muffled.

The options I'm using are:
-convert_to="mp3 (Lame)" -b 96 -encoding="SLOW" -priority="high" -silent -errorfile="dbPowerampErrors.txt"

Is there something that I can change here (besides 96 bits, that doesn't seem to be the problem since our other previews are fine at that bit rate) to bring the sound quality up to acceptable levels? If you'd like a link to a comparison of the good and the bad, I can provide them.

Thanks for any help that you can provide!