Three pages later and none have at least tried to test it and kill the argument stone dead. I spent a good amount of time a year or so ago using Foobar2000's ABX plugin, using FLAC, AIFF, LAME-encoded 320kbps etc. I couldn't reliably tell the difference between FLAC and WAV/AIFF blind, but I did between lossless and 320kbps, admittedly I was using STAX electrostatic 'phones, and at the time not convinced I could have noticed through the speakers.
Mana Acoustics Racks / Bright Star IsoNodes Decoupling >> Allo DigiOne Player >> Pedja Rogic's Audial Model S DAC + Pioneer PL-71 turntable / Vista Audio phono-1 mk II / Denon PCL-5 headshell / Reson Reca >> LFD DLS >> LFD PA2M (SE) >> Royd RR3s.