I have just been doing some testing with V0 --vbr-new on LAME 3.97 and found a track that was not transparent to me at that setting and almost also on 3.98.2.
LAME 3.97 -V0 --vbr-new
foo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.5.5
2008/09/28 00:18:38
File A: C:\Temp\LAME V0\White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000\05. Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy).mp3
File B: C:\Rips\White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000\05. Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy).flac
00:18:38 : Test started.
00:19:25 : 01/01 50.0%
00:19:31 : 02/02 25.0%
00:19:38 : 03/03 12.5%
00:19:44 : 04/04 6.3%
00:19:52 : 04/05 18.8%
00:19:55 : 05/06 10.9%
00:20:01 : 06/07 6.3%
00:20:06 : 07/08 3.5%
00:20:12 : 08/09 2.0%
00:20:16 : 08/10 5.5%
00:20:20 : 09/11 3.3%
00:20:24 : 10/12 1.9%
00:20:31 : 11/13 1.1%
00:20:39 : 12/14 0.6%
00:20:58 : 13/15 0.4%
00:21:08 : 14/16 0.2%
00:21:14 : 15/17 0.1%
00:21:18 : 16/18 0.1%
00:21:28 : 16/19 0.2%
00:21:34 : 17/20 0.1%
00:21:47 : 17/21 0.4%
00:21:57 : 18/22 0.2%
00:22:03 : 19/23 0.1%
00:22:12 : 20/24 0.1%
00:22:19 : 21/25 0.0%
00:22:24 : Test finished.
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Total: 21/25 (0.0%)
Drum smearing at 0:06, or could be a stereo collapse artifact or a noise on the left channel.
LAME 3.98.2 -V0
foo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.5.5
2008/09/28 00:38:44
File A: C:\Rips\White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000\05. Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy).flac
File B: C:\Temp\Transcodes\Mp3\Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy) LAME 3.98.2.mp3
00:38:44 : Test started.
00:39:14 : 01/01 50.0%
00:39:37 : 02/02 25.0%
00:39:48 : 02/03 50.0%
00:39:54 : 03/04 31.3%
00:40:06 : 04/05 18.8%
00:40:12 : 05/06 10.9%
00:40:22 : 05/07 22.7%
00:40:29 : 06/08 14.5%
00:40:36 : 07/09 9.0%
00:40:50 : 07/10 17.2%
00:40:57 : 07/11 27.4%
00:41:08 : 08/12 19.4%
00:41:15 : 09/13 13.3%
00:41:26 : 10/14 9.0%
00:41:40 : 11/15 5.9%
00:41:47 : 12/16 3.8%
00:42:02 : 13/17 2.5%
00:42:07 : 13/18 4.8%
00:42:16 : 14/19 3.2%
00:42:27 : 15/20 2.1%
00:42:32 : 16/21 1.3%
00:42:37 : 17/22 0.8%
00:42:51 : 18/23 0.5%
00:42:59 : 19/24 0.3%
00:43:06 : 20/25 0.2%
00:43:14 : 21/26 0.1%
00:43:29 : 22/27 0.1%
00:43:40 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 22/27 (0.1%)
The artifact at 0:06 is gone, but at 0:27 something sounds odd, which could be smearing.
I have uploaded a sample of the track.