I decided to do a quick test with LAME 3.97 to see if this is a problem sample:
LAME 3.97 -V2 --vbr-new
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.9
2009/09/01 14:26:17
File A: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit].flac
File B: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit].mp3
14:26:17 : Test started.
14:26:36 : 01/01 50.0%
14:26:50 : 02/02 25.0%
14:27:03 : 03/03 12.5%
14:27:14 : 04/04 6.3%
14:27:27 : 05/05 3.1%
14:27:43 : 06/06 1.6%
14:27:58 : 07/07 0.8%
14:28:07 : 08/08 0.4%
14:28:18 : 09/09 0.2%
14:28:26 : 10/10 0.1%
14:28:28 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 10/10 (0.1%)
Precho artifacts all over. Sounds better then Nero at 0:50, but worse then 0:60.
LAME 3.97 -V0 --vbr-new
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.9
2009/09/01 14:29:39
File A: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit].flac
File B: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit] V0.mp3
14:29:39 : Test started.
14:29:52 : 01/01 50.0%
14:29:59 : 02/02 25.0%
14:30:06 : 03/03 12.5%
14:30:16 : 04/04 6.3%
14:30:23 : 05/05 3.1%
14:30:30 : 06/06 1.6%
14:30:37 : 07/07 0.8%
14:30:45 : 08/08 0.4%
14:30:53 : 09/09 0.2%
14:31:01 : 10/10 0.1%
14:31:10 : 11/11 0.0%
14:31:20 : 12/12 0.0%
14:31:21 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
The artifacts sound worse on V0 .
LAME 3.97 320kbps CBR
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.9
2009/09/01 14:36:27
File A: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit].flac
File B: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit] b320.mp3
14:36:27 : Test started.
14:36:40 : 01/01 50.0%
14:36:48 : 02/02 25.0%
14:36:53 : 03/03 12.5%
14:37:03 : 04/04 6.3%
14:37:11 : 05/05 3.1%
14:37:27 : 06/06 1.6%
14:37:35 : 07/07 0.8%
14:37:43 : 08/08 0.4%
14:37:54 : 09/09 0.2%
14:38:13 : 10/10 0.1%
14:38:25 : 11/11 0.0%
14:38:26 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 11/11 (0.0%)
Still ABXable at 320kbps, due to precho artifacts.
V2 vs V0
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.9
2009/09/01 14:32:01
File A: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit] V0.mp3
File B: C:\Temp\Closer To God [Edit] V2.mp3
14:32:01 : Test started.
14:32:25 : 01/01 50.0%
14:32:32 : 02/02 25.0%
14:32:45 : 02/03 50.0%
14:33:03 : 03/04 31.3%
14:33:13 : 04/05 18.8%
14:33:19 : 05/06 10.9%
14:33:32 : 06/07 6.3%
14:33:44 : 07/08 3.5%
14:33:58 : 08/09 2.0%
14:34:09 : 09/10 1.1%
14:34:18 : 10/11 0.6%
14:34:26 : 11/12 0.3%
14:34:34 : 12/13 0.2%
14:34:50 : 13/14 0.1%
14:34:58 : 14/15 0.0%
14:34:59 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 14/15 (0.0%)
The V2 encode artifacts sound softer, much better then V0 IMO.