I can hear up to 22kHz the dithering applied by their mp3 encoder.
No seriously. 16kHz. I still got the mp3 test right

 

320 or 128 kbps would probably sound same.

but 1000 kbps flacs or vinyl rips are different beasts.

also the recording process is a big factor in quality..

 

I take it your not a dj.
I'm just saying mp3's are wast of time if you play out as a dj, because most of the low end is not there.


This question should be ask to people who have hi end audio interfaces.
And try using mp3's that are lower then 320k in Ableton or timestretch them see how much it degrades them, so that sort of pro mix that you have been work on for the 10 years will just get dismissed as soon as people hear that compressed sound.

And when people say they have a full HD film on blu ray I just laugh and say really ok.

50mins of full HD footage is about 4.5TB so in comparison blu rays are the 320k of the film world.

 

I'm not a DJ. And I don't think DJs should use a multimedia setup.
My point was close to yours. Not only the lowend gets flappy, but the treble hurt.

It's still ok to listen to compressed music at home or on headphone, but as soon as you hit a sound system, WAV or analog is a must.

 

My ears are old as my soul... ( 100 years, more- less).
I am the worst.

 

Before to claim anyone can hear or not hear differences, it's probably better to run some test first (even some 320 vs. WAV, or Philips Golden Ears and others real blind ABX test and get your ears cleaned and checked by professionnels). You'll be very surprised to realise you clearly don't hear as good as you might think and a well encoded 320 kbps compressed files (AAC) might be enough for you to don't hear any difference from a 16/44,1 Wav file.

Also, it might also be good to check some instructional material about digital: http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
And for the ones out there still talking about "Analog/Vinyl" vs "Digital", here a little video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ9IXSUzuM

Here the Golden Ears Challenge: https://www.goldenears.philips.com/en/challenge.html
As long as you don't pass the Gold level, there's no real reason to comment about audio quality and differences you seem to hear.

 

I think the main difference is really in the high end of things, when you deal with higher frequencies; and the bass tends to be more muddier.

in other words, 128 vs 320; all the mids will be similar, but the highend will be more screeching, less pleasant, and the low end will be more muddy.

Also just cause your ears can't hear it, doesn't mean you body isn't processing it. IE you can't hear below 30 hz, but you can feel it, and that's as important as hearing the music to the way it can affect your body.

Same with high end, my krk g3 6's are known to go up to 35 khz (which is bs) but there is 2 reasons they claim that. 1 is you get a more flat respong, if your speaker went to 22khz, it's probably dipping or curving downward. if it was to go to 25 khz, then from 18-20 khz (what you can hear) will be a lot flatter, it won't be curving down.

Also I have read that in the same way you can't hear above 20 khz, your body still knows it's their, sounds just come off as fuller when they go that high.

But this is just rough information I been reading, and I highly advise people to do their own reading and learn about it, it's very interesting.

 

It's easy enough to spot the difference.
clarity just isn't there and the dynamics have forcefully been diminished.
if you cant tell the difference, then A) you need a better system B)you don't know what to be listening for.