"Joint Stereo" didn't increase the files size.

Selecting "Stereo" increased the total file size of two complete albums combined by only 6MB. I thought that was an acceptable trade-off to maybe gain a little quality over Joint Stereo.

I seem to remember reading in an MP3 book that Joint Stereo wasn't as good as Stereo.

The program I'm using allows me to choose VBR OLD, VBR NEW and VBR Default among many other settings.

VBR Default is a combination of VBR OLD AND VBR NEW that combines the best of both.