I use the lame 3.96.1 and I found that, when I set it to -V 3 or lower setting, it turns the -Y switch on by default.
Is it possible to avoid this without the usage of a higher-bitrate setting?

(I am aware that this may generally degrade the quality of the audio, but I found in the earlier versions that some of my music gets more transparent if I let more trebles around, especially some power metal and similar music).

Many thanks.

By all means, use -k.
Why you are wasting your extraordinary 21.5kHz hearing on MP3 is beyond me.

Thanks for the tip... It does give a little difference...
Although I would still prefer to use --lowpass 19000 or 18500 rather than -k

Why I am wasting my hearing on mp3 you ask? Well, since I have an mp3 player and I spend a lot of time in one very noisy town, I figure that there wouldn't be a very large difference between a 21.5 kHz freq range and an 18 kHz freq range with masking effects, except for putting a little more minutes of music in my player with the second option

(and yes, in most cases I don't hear the difference between 18 kHz range and 22 kHz range - which doesn't exclude hearing 21.5 kHz frequency when played "alone", which unfortunately isn't true for 16 kHz and 18 kHz range - or so do the ABX tests say)

I think you missed Never_Again's sarcasm in his reply
Actually, -k is a switch that is more damaging to quality than any other I can think of at the moment.
If you look at a MP3 encoded with -V3 in a spectrogram view (e.g. Nero Wave editor > View > Spectrogram view), you will notice that there is quite a lot of information encoded above 16000 Hz up to the 18000 Hz lowpass. So, there's no sharp cutoff at 16 khz. The same is true for -V4. I can't ABX -V3 or -V4 on normal music, but if you care so much about high frequencies, there's no other way than --preset standard or above. Have you really successfully ABX'd -V3?

Yes, sTisTi is absolutely right...
Check-out F.A.Q. - MP3...

what are you talking about? No one should use the -k switch!

I see people with malfunctioning sarcasm-detectors.

Wintershade never even said he could hear upto 21.5khz. Completely pointless reply

Sarcasm and irony works really bad in written text, since it relies quite a bit on the tone of your voice. It is especially difficult for us who don't have english as a mother tongue. Why can't we just be helpful instead of being sarcastic against people seeking knowledge.

Have a look at this thread.

While there was a bit of tongue in cheek in my reply, -k being one of the better switches to undo --presets' magic with, the original poster is happy to trade objectively better quality for something he is more comfortable with. Different strokes for different folks.

Is there really no (undocumented?) way to turn -Y off for -V 3 or -V 4?
I understand that a higher lowpass than default is not recommended, but -Y is not the same thing as a lowpass.

Here is the table with the -V n (in 3.95.1), Presets, bitrates and lowpass of V value

No

My sarcasm-detector couldn't find any smilies in this post...besides that, even though it might be funny for us it isn't for newbies...they'll actually do what you tell them, because they don't know any better

Look, I did say that I am aware of the quality loss that should come up. And yes, if I would be comfortable with this setting, I will continue to use it with my personal player.
And, believe it or not, I've read about the -k switch and I know about the quality loss it produces (I don't remember saying that I would use it, anyway).

Anyway, thanks for the information, everybody.