This is a continuation from another thread. It appears that the choice of resample quality in the audio properties menu does effect the quality of the final render. It consistently takes 3 times as long to render in "best" mode than in "preview" mode on a 20 track project that is downsampling from 24/96 to 16/44 and the difference in sound quality is striking even to my rookie ears. Much greater clarity and high frequency response. It is apparent from the thread "What would you like in Vegas 5" that I am not the only person who has been foiled by this. Always set resample quality to "best" for your final render and don't forget like I did and produce 500 copies at preview quality.