I went down this rabbit-hole a few years ago. Had some FiiOs, expensive in-ears, and lots of FLACs. I did hear a difference, but it's not obvious. It's not a

I went down this rabbit-hole a few years ago. Had some FiiOs, expensive in-ears, and lots of FLACs. I did hear a difference, but it's not obvious. It's not a "OMG WHOA" when you put on the latest crisp FLAC compared to whatever streamed from Apple Music. On some tracks, the difference is nil. But on the occasional track, the hi-fi version is just clearer end-to-end. And on a few tracks, you will hear tiny little things you'd never heard before, and this can be actually exhilarating -- like, there will be a track I've listened to 100 times, and now suddenly I hear the bit of sticky-spit sound as the singer opens his mouth right before starting to sing... and that instantly makes it like you're standing right next to the microphone. Sounds silly, but it's cool.