I did a test on a site that played 3 samples of songs at various bit rates. I was able to select the lowest but the other two were difficult. I think I got 70% right. The difference between the top two rates were very difficult to discern. I used wired headphones in a quiet room and a good DAC.
Lossless Audio Does Not Sound Better Than MP3 To Most People
Apple, Amazon, and Tidal offer “lossless audio,” claiming users can “hear the exact same thing” an artist created in the studio. However, it’s a myth that lossless audio objectively sounds better than MP3, and most users can’t hear a difference at all.
The main difference between the lossless audio and MP3 is file size. “Lossless” means it’s the same size as the original track created in the studio, and it’s usually stored as a WAV file.
Even if you are listening to lossless audio, your music is still getting compressed if you’re using Bluetooth.
So, certainly if you are using Bluetooth headphones, you're likely wasting your time with lossless audio files. I suppose a lot of the hype around lossless audio formats is that some companies also charge more for them, and listeners think they're getting better quality audio.
Even real audiophiles would be searching very carefully to actually hear any differences, and in a very quiet environment.
See https://gizmodo.com/lossless-audio-does-not-sound-better-than-mp3-1851341155
#technology #music #myths
Discussion
I think it may be more the compression type (what is compressed vs discarded) than the bitrates that are more difficult to discern?
Yes, compression is a factor. I think most people would be able to tell the difference in a song played over satellite radio (Sirius/XM) vs a CD. My wife noticed the difference and she is not a critical listener.