> That's not the question, everyone can. The question is whether you can tell the difference between a 320kb/s, or even a 192kb/s mp3 and a flac. People might s

> That's not the question, everyone can. The question is whether you can tell the difference between a 320kb/s, or even a 192kb/s mp3 and a flac. People might say they can, but they'll fail when you test them. you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who can tell a 320 apart from flac, except on some specially-crafted killer samples. a well-encoded 192 is often near transparent, but much more dependent on the genre / sample. pre-opus, 256 VBR was my go-to. > that I would usually have to replace yearly this is a foreign concept to me; i usually buy stuff that's designed to last, and dont mind paying for it.