Sometimes V0 can sound worse then V2 or CBR, but it rarely happens though.
A couple of examples:
LAME 3.97 -V0 --vbr-new
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.8
2009/08/07 23:33:02
File A: C:\Music\Metallica\Ride The Lightning\01. Fight Fire With Fire.mp3
File B: E:\Music\Albums\Metallica - Ride The Lightning\01. Fight Fire With Fire.flac
23:33:02 : Test started.
23:33:21 : 01/01 50.0%
23:33:27 : 02/02 25.0%
23:33:34 : 03/03 12.5%
23:33:38 : 04/04 6.3%
23:33:46 : 05/05 3.1%
23:33:51 : 06/06 1.6%
23:33:55 : 07/07 0.8%
23:34:01 : 08/08 0.4%
23:34:07 : 09/09 0.2%
23:34:18 : 10/10 0.1%
23:34:29 : 11/11 0.0%
23:34:41 : 12/12 0.0%
23:34:43 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Flanging on the harpicord at 0:23 (yes there is a harpicord on a Metallica song).
V2 vs V0 (LAME 3.97)
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.8
2009/08/07 23:35:22
File A: C:\Music\Metallica\Ride The Lightning\01. Fight Fire With Fire.mp3
File B: C:\Temp\Fight Fire With Fire (LAME 3.97 -V2 --vbr-new).mp3
23:35:22 : Test started.
23:36:06 : 01/01 50.0%
23:36:13 : 02/02 25.0%
23:36:23 : 03/03 12.5%
23:36:30 : 04/04 6.3%
23:36:35 : 05/05 3.1%
23:36:43 : 05/06 10.9%
23:36:50 : 06/07 6.3%
23:36:59 : 07/08 3.5%
23:37:04 : 08/09 2.0%
23:37:19 : 09/10 1.1%
23:37:27 : 10/11 0.6%
23:37:45 : 11/12 0.3%
23:37:52 : 12/13 0.2%
23:37:58 : 13/14 0.1%
23:38:03 : 14/15 0.0%
23:38:06 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 14/15 (0.0%)
Artifact is gone or possibly softer on V2.
LAME 3.97 -V0 --vbr-new
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.8
2009/08/07 23:23:36
File A: C:\Music\Gary Numan\The Pleasure Principle\06. Tracks.mp3
File B: E:\Music\Albums\Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle\06. Tracks.flac
23:23:36 : Test started.
23:24:38 : 01/01 50.0%
23:24:43 : 02/02 25.0%
23:24:50 : 03/03 12.5%
23:25:07 : 04/04 6.3%
23:25:24 : 05/05 3.1%
23:25:33 : 06/06 1.6%
23:25:40 : 07/07 0.8%
23:26:02 : 08/08 0.4%
23:26:06 : 09/09 0.2%
23:26:11 : 10/10 0.1%
23:26:29 : 11/11 0.0%
23:26:35 : 12/12 0.0%
23:26:39 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Drum smear at 2:07.
V2 vs V0 (LAME 3.97)
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.8
2009/08/07 23:27:01
File A: C:\Music\Gary Numan\The Pleasure Principle\06. Tracks.mp3
File B: C:\Temp\Tracks (LAME 3.97 -V2 --vbr-new).mp3
23:27:01 : Test started.
23:27:30 : 01/01 50.0%
23:27:37 : 02/02 25.0%
23:27:44 : 03/03 12.5%
23:27:48 : 04/04 6.3%
23:27:53 : 05/05 3.1%
23:28:05 : 06/06 1.6%
23:28:12 : 07/07 0.8%
23:28:19 : 08/08 0.4%
23:28:25 : 09/09 0.2%
23:28:31 : 10/10 0.1%
23:28:39 : 11/11 0.0%
23:28:44 : 12/12 0.0%
23:28:59 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
No drum smearing on the V2 encode.
It keeps me stable for days
In FLAC
-V0 is targeting ~ 224k . It could be competitive with 256k cbr?? but I've never seen it beat 320k
I find this sample to sound better at V0 then 320 CBR on LAME 3.98.2, due to it's new psy model that --vbr-new now uses.
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6.8
2009/08/07 23:18:44
File A: C:\Temp\Show Me Your Spine Sample (LAME 3.98.2 -V0).mp3
File B: C:\Temp\Show Me Your Spine Sample (LAME 3.98.2 b320).mp3
23:18:44 : Test started.
23:18:55 : 01/01 50.0%
23:19:02 : 02/02 25.0%
23:19:14 : 03/03 12.5%
23:19:20 : 04/04 6.3%
23:19:27 : 05/05 3.1%
23:19:35 : 06/06 1.6%
23:19:43 : 07/07 0.8%
23:19:58 : 08/08 0.4%
23:20:06 : 09/09 0.2%
23:20:21 : 10/10 0.1%
23:20:32 : 11/11 0.0%
23:20:40 : 12/12 0.0%
23:20:45 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
IMO V0 sounded better then the 320kbps encode. Although both encodes are far away from being transparent.